Los Angeles

We started out Wednesday with one and only one goal: Thank You cards. Why Thank You cards you ask? Every Emily Post fan knows, to tip porters and stewards on a train, you have to put the cash in a beautifully embossed, pastel colored envelope with a hand caligraphed written message thanking the recipient for a wonderful trip and how much their service enriched your life. Obviously Emily Post had stock in stationary supply companies. In reality, we would be lucky to find a packet of blank note cards and envelopes. So, out into the wide world of Los Angeles we ventures.

Being in the downtown area of Los Angeles, we were surrounded by giant skyscrapers (one of which was our hotel) each, with beautiful large succulent gardens greeting visitors. We saw sedums, agave, snake plant, and so many more that we recognized but couldn’t name. So beautiful and creative and so very different from Northwest landscaping.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Los Angeles Public Library and gardens. The library was incredible. Seven floors of books. A truely impressive building. What we found most interesting were the art nouveau sculptures inside. So creative. Even the inside of the elevators were artisticlly decorated; old card catalog index cards lined the inside walls of the elevators, giving a feeling of being imersed in the books of the library. Breath taking. What a find! 

The library’s gardens were just as creative and impressive as the library itself. The gardens were full of mature olive trees and bird of paradise. The lawns were perfectly manicured, which we found out later were artifical turf; very smart for the county to use with California’s current drought conditions. Off in a side corner of the garden, we found a giant bronze japanese style bell that was named “The Peace Bell”. It was donated to the city of Los Angeles by the United Nations; the metal of the bell from donated coins.

We ended our day having an early dinner and playing cards until catching our evening train to New Orleans.