My Los Angeles: part three

Our downtown LA tour continues...

Steve Martin said:
“You know what your problem is, it's that you haven't seen enough movies - all of life's riddles are answered in the movies.”

Many movies are filmed in the downtown area of Los Angeles. Let me share just a few...

In Volcano, starring Tommy Lee Jones, lava flows throughout the subway system of LA. Didn't you know there's a volcano under our city? LOL. Below is a picture of the subway as I saw it a couple of weeks ago. No lava. I checked. (note: if you are a slow-moving tourist, like myself, get out of the way if there are fast-paced subway riders in the area. Step aside. Let them pass. You don't want them to miss their ride!)


Every day Daughter #2 takes the subway. Going down the escalator to catch the subway is no big deal. Notice the smile on her face? (below)



Going up the stairs after you've arrived... No fun. She climbs these stairs everyday. No smile on her face now. Lots of stairs to climb. (When you're in a hurry, the escalator is too slow. Her advice: wear comfortable shoes!)

When you go downtown, you really must drive through the 3rd Street Tunnel. It's an historic landmark. (Daughter #2 actually walked through it one day. I would never recommend that! And neither would she! Not safe!) A drive through is nice though. And you really want to bring your camera with you too.

Many, many movies have been filmed in the 3rd Street Tunnel. Movies like Transformers and City of Angels.

(yeah, yeah, I know! This isn't a picture of Nicholas Cage from City of Angels...but it's a nice picture of him, don't you think? I just added it here for a little 'eye candy.' )

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Lethal Weapon, and Independence Day...also have scenes inside this tunnel. Television shows, commercials and music videos are also filmed there.

Here is Daughter #2 driving through the tunnel. Such excitement! Yes, it really looks like this.

And who can forget the classic television show, "Dragnet"? Each week they showed scenes of the Los Angeles City Hall. I think officer Joe Friday had his office there. As we were waiting at a traffic light, I quickly snapped the picture below.

As we began our little tour that evening, the sun was just beginning to set. I snapped the picture below of the U.S. Bank building. It has a distinctive look to it. I can see this building on a clear day (rare) from Orange County. It's the tallest building in California.

In the movie, Independence Day, you saw crazy people standing on this building waiting to welcome the aliens. But then what happened? The aliens attacked it first and then all of Los Angeles was destroyed. Great special effects!

Below is a shot Daughter #2 took of the US Bank building after the sun had already gone down. Beautiful.

Across from the U.S. Bank building is the Los Angeles Central Library. A number of movies were shot there. One is Ghostbusters. They filmed some of the library scenes there. Remember when the Ghostbusters they see their first ghost?

The library is very beautiful and I hope to go back there again someday and perhaps take a tour. We were there on a Fri. evening and they were closing just as we got there. The grounds around the library are lovely. It's a park-like setting with beautiful fountains.

Here is my BabyBoy trying to get a closer look at this fountain.

And here was an interesting creature in another fountain on the grounds.

Did someone say Ghostbusters? Maybe we should call them. I took this picture below as it was getting dark. Ghost enthusiasts would say this an orb. Sceptics would call it a speck of dust. Who knows?

And now my friends, our little tour continues on another day. Next time I'll post some pictures of quilts I'm working on these days. Yes, I am still quilting away. And I'm even doing some crochet! Details to follow.

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In closing I'll leave you with one last bit of advice...

when touring Los Angeles, always, always, always be on your guard. It's not all glamour and glitz, like the movies portray. There are 3.8 million people in LA. Just because they call it the "City of Angels" they are not all angels.

Check my blog another day for "My Los Angeles: part four."