Blog-iversary

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Today marks one year since we started this blog. Many thanks are due to our oldest daughter, who showed Meredith the fundamentals of setting up a blog and walked her through the initial set up, step by step. You can see her website, featuring art and humor, here: Angry Wall. Thanks are due also to Greg Jordan, designer of the ZLAC Rowing Club website, who had earlier taught Meredith the fundamentals of WordPress.

Turning back to My SoCal Museums, here are some numbers:

Number of posts: 30 (not counting this one).

Most featured museum, with 3 posts: the Getty Center. Tied for second with 2 posts each: Autry National Center, Skirball Cultural Center, and LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

Total number of visits to the website: 1,097 (some of these are repeat visitors).

Most views on a single day: 20.

Very modest beginnings, we know, but we have fun putting this blog together and hope people enjoy reading it. We welcome your input.

Coming up later this summer and in the early fall, we plan to see the mummy exhibit at the Natural History Museum (opens September 2015), the Vermeer painting on loan to the Timken Museum (through September 11, 2015), and the Dead Sea Scrolls at the California Science Center (through September 7, 2015).

Autry — Civil War

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Autry National Center
Griffith Park
May 9, 2015

Autry horse

We took Margaret to see a new exhibition at the Autry Museum of the American West: Empire and Liberty, the Civil War and the West. It runs through January 3, 2016. It is not narrowly focused on the war alone. Rather it gives a broad context both before and after the war, about westward expansion and racial tensions. The exhibition includes over 200 artifacts and tells the story not only of African-Americans in the west, but also that of Chinese immigrants, and of Native Americans relocated to the Indian Territories.

Autry video

Margaret enjoyed the small video displays scattered throughout the exhibit, which narrated various individual stories. She also was very impressed with the wedding dress on display, made in the mid 19th century by a woman who immigrated from Scotland to Utah. Meredith found it particularly chilling to read old bills of sale for slaves, listing them matter-of-factly by name, age, and gender. Near those bills of sale was displayed a labor contract between a California merchant and a Chinese laborer, binding the Chinese immigrant to work for the merchant for three years, at a rate of $12 per month. The laborer had to first pay back the cost of his passage ($30) before earning any cash for himself. Bob speculated that even after that point the poor man might have been obligated to buy food and goods from the “company store.” Margaret told us that labor contract reminded her of her great-grandfather’s apprenticeship contract as a carpenter, a document Margaret’s parents had when she was a girl.

After leaving the Empire and Liberty exhibition, we strolled through the Imagination gallery, which has many artifacts from western movies and other western shows, and we lingered over the singing cowboy section. Gene Autry is prominently featured, of course. When we had coffee after our museum visit, Margaret reminisced about seeing Gene Autry perform with a rodeo, which came to the Boston Garden when she was a girl.

We also strolled through the Western art gallery. It includes artifacts as well as paintings and sculptures, and we enjoyed seeing again a piece that we have seen there before, a beautifully restored classic Indian motorcycle.

We did not tour the permanent collection of Western artifacts downstairs on this visit. We had encountered a lot of traffic coming up from San Diego and arrived a little later than we had planned. We had lingered in the three galleries on the top floor so found them sufficient for this visit.

We had lunch in the museum café, which offers sandwiches, salads, and burgers and a few other items. Service was excellent. Customers order at the counter, and then food is brought to the table. Margaret was pleased that their standard cola is Pepsi; she much prefers it to Coke, but most restaurants do not stock it. The food was excellent, and we all enjoyed our sandwiches. Over lunch Margaret shared with us a postcard she had received recently from our youngest daughter, and she reminisced about the first postcard she had ever sent, over 70 years ago, to her parents when she was away at scout camp at about age six. It was a penny postcard, and she worried that she had not addressed it properly or put the right postage on it, but she had done all that correctly, of course, and the card did reach its destination. Margaret spoke softly but was very alert, and she did not struggle with any aphasia. It was a very pleasant outing for all of us.

Adult admission is $10. Wheelchair access is excellent, and parking is free. The museum is closed on most Mondays and some holidays.

Northridge Baseball

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CSU Northridge Matadors
Northridge
April 25, 2015

Our most recent visit to see Margaret did not involve a museum outing. Instead, we took her to a baseball game, and watched the CSU Northridge Matadors play at home against UC Riverside. The trip turned into a nice family outing. We met up with Meredith’s sister Kathleen, our two younger daughters, and our son-in-law at Maria’s Italian Kitchen. We love both the food and the service at Maria’s, and this visit did not disappoint. Margaret savored her calzone. Then the group, minus Kathleen, went on to the baseball game.

Northridge_MatadorStadium

Margaret has always been a baseball fan. At the first major league baseball game she ever attended, around age 10, she saw Satchel Paige strike out Ted Williams at Fenway Park. Margaret and her late husband Eli were Dodgers season ticket holders for a number of years. She taught Meredith how to keep score. We all enjoyed today’s game, although it was cool and there was a slight drizzle. Unfortunately, the home team — our son-in-law’s alma mater — lost, but they did have an exciting rally in the bottom of the ninth inning and finished 5 to 3.

Reyes Adobe

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Reyes Adobe
Agoura Hills
April 11, 2015

We decided after our recent art excursions with Margaret that it was time to take her to another historical site for variety. Using the Passport 2 History, we picked out the Reyes Adobe. As with many historical homes, it is only open on a very limited schedule, in this case the second and fourth Saturday of each month in the afternoon. This visit fell on a second Saturday, so the outing worked well with our schedule.

Reyes_gate

The Reyes family is one of California’s oldest. Juan Francisco Reyes was a soldier on the 1769 expedition led by Portola which also included Father Junipero Serra. A descendent of his, José Jacinto Reyes, married Maria Antonia Machado. Maria bought the land from her uncle, and one of her sons built this adobe home in 1850. It stayed in the family for many years, then was purchased in 1935 by Dr. Malcolm McKenzie. The McKenzie family made various repairs and restorations.
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The next owner made some modifications in the mid 20th century which were unfortunate from an historical perspective, and which have since been removed for the most part. She ultimately sold the land to developers, and the adobe remained vacant for several decades. It was nearly torn down but eventually rescued by the local historical society. After a long fundraising campaign, the adobe was restored and opened as an historical site in 2004.

There are some artifacts on display in an outbuilding which the McKenzie family built as a barn. We started there, chatted with the docents, and looked at photos, maps, and artifacts. We also watched a video about the history of the building and its site.

We proceeded with Hank, one of the docents, over to the adobe. (No one is allowed in the building without a docent.) He was very knowledgeable and told us a great deal about the Reyes family, adobe construction, and the history of the area – you name it, he knew about it!

Reyes_doorway

The building is not wheelchair accessible, because it has a very high (original) threshold. With our assistance, Margaret stepped up on the threshold and down into the first room, then we moved the wheelchair in for her to sit down. The first room was used primarily as a children’s bedroom and occasionally as a bedroom for visitors. It is outfitted with mid-19th century furnishings, including some artifacts which had belonged to the family. There is a high threshold between the children’s room and the main room or sala also, and we did not want to tire Margaret unduly, so Meredith and Margaret stayed in the bedroom and looked through the doorway into the main room, while Hank and Bob went into the sala and Hank explained some of the items in that room.

Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for seniors, and $1 for children. The building is situated in a nice park setting, and there is sufficient parking, which is free. In addition to the twice monthly openings, there is a three day festival there in the fall.

There is no café or restaurant on site; the park is located in a residential neighborhood. The adobe does not open until 1:00 so we had our lunch first. We had scouted out local restaurants on line ahead of time, and settled on the Rabbit Hole Café on Thousand Oaks Blvd, a vegetarian eatery. The interior is decorated with Alice in Wonderland prints. There are a number of vegan items on the menu, but the fare is not restricted to vegan items. The restaurant also offers many gluten free options. Margaret had a roasted vegetable shepherd’s pie; Meredith enjoyed a frittata; and Bob had a “chick’n” and brie sandwich. The staff was very pleasant and helpful, and we were quite happy with the food.

Over lunch, we brought Margaret up-to-date on our recent doings. She shared with us correspondence she had received recently from her brother, her cousin, and Bob’s aunt. We told her about the Padres games we had been to this past week, and then talk turned to baseball generally, one of Margaret’s favorite things.

After we had finished at the Adobe, we ran a quick errand, then met up with Meredith’s sister Kathleen for coffee. We had not seen Margaret since her birthday late last month, so we gave her some presents which she unwrapped there.

Old Town State Historic Park

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Old Town State Historic Park
Old Town, San Diego
March 21, 2015

We took a long two day hike recently, from our home to downtown San Diego and back, passing through Old Town and stopping briefly for some sightseeing. Old Town is a California State Park with dozens of small museums and historic buildings. We are not going to try a full write up here, but we do want to give a shout out to a few spots within the park. Visitors to San Diego should definitely put Old Town on their “must see” lists. For more information see the state park website or the Old Town business district website.

We walked into Old Town from the north and decided to stop in at the Casa de Estudillo, an adobe near the north end, facing the green. The San Diego History Center webpage about Old Town offers this write up of the Casa de Estudillo:

Construction of the most famous Old Town adobe began in 1827 and was completed in 1829 by Captain Jose Maria de Estudillo, commander of the San Diego presidio. When he died in 1830, the house passed to his son, Jose Antonio Estudillo, who served as revenue collector, treasurer, alcalde, and judge of San Diego under Mexican rule and later treasurer and assessor of San Diego County under American rule. He married Maria Victoria Dominguez and their family lived there until 1887. The original adobe home was restored in 1910 with funds provided by the Spreckels family, under the direction of Architect Hazel Waterman; it was donated to the State by Mr. Legler Benbough; furnishings were provided with the assistance of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America. For many years, the building was mistakenly known as “Ramona’s Marriage Place” from Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel. The museum now features furnished rooms and a working kitchen and large courtyard. Hours: 10-5 daily; Admission: free.

OldTown Oven

We rested in the courtyard, and took photos by the fountain and beehive oven. The fountain is a popular photo op; after taking Bob’s photo, Meredith volunteered to take photos of other visiting groups with their cameras.

OldTown Fountain

We then walked south through the main part of Old Town, which features many restaurants and shops, both kitschy tourist stops and nice boutiques. There are a number of restaurants we like in Old Town. This time we ate at Miguel’s Cocina. We each had taco plates and enjoyed them very much.

We also walked by the Whaley House Museum The Whaley House, built in 1856 by Thomas Whaley, is the oldest brick structure in San Diego and features authentic period furnishings. It is one of the San Diego County Passport 2 History sites.

At the south end of the park, beyond Miguel’s, we walked by the Sheriff’s Museum. We admired the old cars in the courtyard and made a note to go back and visit it another day. Apparently it offers exhibits from the entire 150-year history of the Sheriff’s Department.

Star Wars in Seattle

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EMP Museum
Seattle, Washington

The Star Wars movies are one of our favorite things, so when we saw that an extensive Star Wars costume exhibit would be on display in Seattle we were eager to fit it into our visit.

The girls were happy to come with us, and we also met up with Meredith’s niece and former brother-in-law. The exhibit is in the EMP Museum, in the Seattle Center, near the Space Needle. The museum building is a funky and colorful asymmetrical building designed by architect Frank Gehry. The EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000.

EMP1

We bought tickets both to the museum and separate, timed tickets to the Star Wars exhibit, for a total cost of $32 each. (Online discounts may apply.) EMP is the first stop for this Star Wars exhibit, which is part of a 12-city national tour; it runs at EMP through October 4, 2015.

The exhibit was lots of fun. There were costumes from all six movies, and extensive background information – text, video, and audio — about the design and fabrication of the costumes. There were also interesting displays grouping costumes, such as half a dozen senators’ robes. Several displays showed how costumes evolved as a character developed, for example four separate costumes worn by Senator and later emperor Palpatine, showing his evolution toward the Dark Side.

There are some great videos, with George Lucas, costume designer Trisha Biggar, and Natalie Portman, among others. Meredith particularly enjoyed an audio clip of actor Anthony Daniels who played C-3PO, describing his doubts when his agent sent him to see someone named George Lucas who was doing a “low budget science fiction movie” and was looking for someone to play a robot, because it might lead to bigger things. Daniels was captivated by a sketch of C-3PO in Lucas’ office and agreed to play the part.

The exhibit ends with – who else? – Darth Vader, and of course we all had to take our photos with him.

EMP2

After we had cruised the Star Wars exhibit and related gift shop we saw several more exhibits at the EMP: Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic; Can’t Look Away: the Lure of Horror Film; and Indie Game Revolution. Both the fantasy and the horror exhibits had some great artifacts on display, including some original Wizard of Oz costume pieces and weapons from the Lord of the Rings movies in the fantasy exhibit. We enjoyed the “guest curator” videos that were playing in the horror exhibit, particularly Roger Corman’s perspective on the evolution of horror pictures. We skipped the music exhibits at EMP and also the temporary Seahawks exhibit.

The museum has multiple levels and is a bit confusing to navigate. Wheelchair patrons can use elevators, but stairs (lots of them!) are a more direct way to get around the museum. It would be possible to use a wheelchair or walker in the Star Wars costume exhibit, but the crowds made it somewhat claustrophobic even for those of us on two feet. If we were going to bring a wheelchair to this museum, we would aim for a less crowded time than midafternoon on a rainy weekend.

There is a café on the lowest level of EMP, but we ate an excellent lunch at Chutneys, an Indian restaurant in the Queen Anne neighborhood nearby, before coming to the museum. We parked in a parking garage near Seattle Center. The trek to the restaurant took us through the center then back again, all in steady rain that turned out to set a record for March 15. We were pleased to have brought our ancient London Fog trench coats, both of which date from our undergraduate days at Yale.

Bainbridge Island

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Bainbridge Island Museum of Art
Bloedel Reserve
March 14, 2015
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Yes, we do know Bainbridge Island is in Washington State, not in Southern California. We spent a getaway weekend with our oldest daughter and our daughter-in-law, who live in the Seattle area, and we thought it would be fun to add a couple of short posts about what we saw up there. Hope you don’t mind this detour off topic, but if you do, just scroll down to the next post, which covers our latest trip to the Getty Center.

Bainbridge Island is just west of Seattle. We took a short car ferry ride over to Winslow, on the south end of the island. Right near the ferry landing we stopped at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. The staff were very friendly. We had fun exploring Cut and Bent, a special exhibition on the ground floor, of art made by various contemporary artists from tin and other found objects.

BainbridgeMA2

Then we went upstairs, where there were some beautiful wooden furniture pieces on display and also a large collection of paintings by noted regional artist Rosalyn Gale Powell called the Garden Path, featuring (but not limited to) her floral pieces.

Admission to the Museum of Art is free. There is a donation box by the front desk, and we made a contribution. Garden Path runs through June 7, 2015, as does the Cut and Bent exhibition.

After our museum visit we ate a great lunch at Bainbridge Bakers next door. Paninis for Bob and our daughter; quiche for Meredith. Other dining options on site include a small café inside the museum, and the Alehouse next to the bakery café (patrons must be at least 21 to get in). Parking is free but somewhat limited, both in quantity and time (3 hour maximum). Handicap access to and inside the museum is good. The art museum and eateries share parking with a children’s museum.

After lunch we drove to the north end of the island and walked through the Bloedel Reserve, a public garden founded by the Bloedel family on the site where they resided from 1951 to 1986. It first opened to the public in 1988. The walk around the grounds is about a mile and a half long, mostly flat with some gentle slopes in the second half of the walk. The main trail is bark covered and not suitable for wheelchairs; there is an alternate and shorter paved route that wheelchair patrons can use.

Halfway around the circuit is the Bloedel residence, a beautiful home on the bluff overlooking Port Madison Bay. The ground floor is open to visitors and staffed by a docent whom we found quite helpful. We enjoyed the walk and the variety of plants and environments we saw – meadow, woodlands, marshy areas, moss garden, camellia walk, and Japanese garden, along with a couple other areas.

BainbridgeBR3

Admission to the Bloedel Reserve is $15. There are no eating facilities on the grounds.

From Bloedel we drove north to catch another ferry, from Kingston to Edmonds.

Getty Center — Turner

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Getty Center
Sepulveda Pass
March 8, 2015

We went to the Getty Center primarily to see the special exhibition J. M. W. Turner, Painting Set Free. We first stopped in the museum café, though, and had some sandwiches. It was a beautiful sunny and clear day, so we seated ourselves near the windows and had a good view of the gardens and the surrounding hills while we ate.

We then went to the Research Institute building on the Getty campus, to see a special exhibition of art associated with the First World War: World War I: War of Images, Images of War. There were propaganda images from all the major countries involved in the war, both Allies and Central Powers. They were also drawings by artists caught up in the war, illustrating the horrors of war and its aftermath. At the end of the exhibit short video clips were running, from silent movies made soon after the end of the war. Those videos recreate the battlefield, as imagined by filmmakers soon afterwards. That exhibition closes on April 19, 2015, and we had been planning to see it for quite a while, since we are both interested in history generally and the history of World War I in particular.

Getty_Turner_MB&RA

We then went on to the special exhibition building. The Turner exhibition focuses on the last decade and a half of his life. We both liked his nautical paintings, particularly Snow Storm—Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, which is the iconic painting used in the museum’s poster for the exhibition. Also of interest were the series of watercolors he did while traveling in Europe. He used those as studies to show potential patrons, who could then commission a larger oil painting of the subject. The watercolors themselves were well done and capture the imagination although they are smaller and simpler than his oil paintings. Several of the large oil paintings in the gallery were unfinished. Turner painted the base and general background on those but had not added detail. Bob was very interested in his painting Hero of a Hundred Fights, showing an industrial forge and reworked to add a bronze statue of the Duke of Wellington being removed from its mold. The Turner exhibition will be at the Getty through May 24, 2015. There was an extensive review of the exhibition in the Los Angeles Times about two weeks before we went.

Margaret grew tired near the end of the exhibition and wanted to leave early, so Meredith took her out while Bob finished looking at paintings in the last gallery, then we swapped off, and Meredith went back into the exhibition. Bob and Margaret strolled around on the plaza level and enjoyed the view out over the pass looking south.

Admission to the Getty is free, but parking costs $15. Despite numerous signs telling people to pay at a machine before going back to the car, we managed to get stuck in the exit lane behind someone who failed to do so. After that minor delay we headed back to the Valley and met up with Kathleen, Meredith’s sister, for coffee.

Wheelchair access at the Getty is very good. There are several levels but the buildings mainly connect just at the plaza level, so one has to go up and down in elevators as you move from one building to another, and the elevators can be a bit slow.

Gillette & Paramount Ranches

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King Gillette Ranch
Paramount Ranch
Santa Monica Mountains
February 21, 2015

We probably would not have thought of the Santa Monica Mountain nature reserve as a place with historical or cultural resources, if we had not seen the Gillette Ranch listed in the Passport 2 History. We have enjoyed exploring other historical sites we found in that booklet, and decided this time to visit the ranch. As we explored the National Park Service website in preparation for our visit, we read about the nearby Paramount Ranch as well, and decided to see both ranches.

The Gillette mansion was built by architect Wallace Neff in 1928 for King Camp Gillette, founder of the Gillette Safety Razor Company. Hollywood movie director Clarence Brown purchased the property in 1935 and added to it. It had a series of later owners including the Claretian religious order, which ran a seminary there and build a dormitory and some classroom buildings. The property has been part of the public park since 2005. The visitor center is located in what used to be the stables. It features an informative video about the entire Santa Monica Mountain park area and exhibits about the local environment. We went on Oscar weekend, so there was a photo exhibit set up showing still photos from various movies filmed in the surrounding area.

Gillette_Ranch

After we explored the visitor center we walked out and around the Gillette mansion and Claretian dormitory building, then went back to our car. From there we drove several miles over to the Paramount Ranch.

Several film studios once owned extensive acreage in the Santa Monica Mountains, including Paramount Studios. Numerous films and television shows have been filmed in the area from the 1920’s on, either on the Paramount Ranch property that we visited, or in nearby areas owned by other studios. The long list of films we perused on the park website, that were filmed at least in part on the Paramount Ranch, included (to name just a few films), Morocco (1930), several W. C. Fields movies, numerous Westerns in the 1920’s and 30’s, Beau Geste (1939), The Love Bug (1968) and its sequels, and most recently American Sniper (2014). The area we explored was the Western Town. Featuring about 20 wooden structures built as a movie set in the 1950’s, it looks like the stereotypical old western town. That set was used for various productions for several decades, including the television show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman in the 1990’s. It is apparently still used from time to time for film shoots or other professional photography, requiring special permits from the National Park Service. A ranger said that visitors may take photos for personal use, however. (We are not entirely sure if we are allowed to post the photos we took at the Western Town, so will not do so here.)

The Santa Monica Mountains are a beautiful area with many hiking trails. We did not explore them with Margaret, of course, but we saw many other visitors out for walks and several equestrians. At the Gillette Ranch we stayed on paved paths. At the Paramount Ranch we were able to push her wheelchair over the hard packed ground in the Western Town.

There were no dining facilities at either of those stops, but there are a number of communities in and around the Santa Monica Mountain area. We decided to stop in Calabasas on our way, and we ate at the Sagebrush Cantina, a restaurant we know and like. Margaret was not in a decisive mood when it came to ordering lunch, but eventually she settled on the chicken mole enchilada, which she enjoyed very much. We each had carnitas tacos, which were excellent. Margaret was quiet at first, but then opened up to reminisce fondly about her grandmother, after Meredith mentioned a letter she had received recently from Margaret’s cousin Jocelyn. Margaret also remembered an archaeological dig she had been on many years ago in the Wood Ranch area of Simi Valley.

Admission to the two National Park sites we visited was free. However, the surrounding area also includes state and local parks. The ranger staffing the Gillette visitor center explained to another guest that there is a day use/parking charge at the nearby Malibu Creek State Park. The park staff at both sites were very friendly and helpful.

After our visit the Los Angeles Times wrote up the Paramount Ranch site — both the Western Town and surrounding trails — in its recurring “LA Walks” column.

Timken Museum

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Timken Museum of Art
Balboa Park, San Diego
February 15, 2015

First, let us say this is one of our most favorite museums! Located in the heart of Balboa Park in San Diego, the Timken is a small museum with an excellent art collection which offers free admission.

We have been here many times over the years; we often stop by when doing something else in Balboa Park. On this most recent visit, we hiked 4 miles round trip, from the northwest corner of the park around the Aerospace Museum and back to where we started. We stopped at the Timken partway through the walk.

Timken_Raphael

We made this visit to see a special exhibition: Raphael’s painting The Madonna of the Pinks, on loan from the National Gallery in London. It will be here through April 26, 2015. Later this year the Timken will be exhibiting another piece on loan, Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, from May 11 through September 11, 2015, on loan from Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. In exchange the Timken is lending its prize possession, Rembrandt’s painting Saint Bartholomew, to the National Gallery and the Rijksmuseum.

The permanent collection spans nearly six centuries, from early Renaissance to late nineteenth century paintings, and includes pieces from Italy, the United States, France, and the Lowlands. The museum also houses an extensive collection of Russian icons. The guards are very pleasant, and they are also knowledgeable about the collection, more so than we have found at most museums.

Bob was particularly taken by an 1880 Eastman Johnson painting in the American gallery, The Cranberry Harvest, Nantucket Island. Meredith enjoyed seeing an old favorite, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1557 painting Parable of the Sower. Many years ago our youngest daughter, then in grade school, realized as soon as she saw the painting what parable it illustrated, displaying her Scripture knowledge without prompting from us.

As noted above, admission to the Timken is free. Please do make whatever donation you can afford, though; fine art needs conserving, and like all museums the Timken needs funds to operate. Parking is free in Balboa Park. We did not have Margaret with us this time, but handicapped access seems adequate here. There is no café in the museum; there is a café nearby in the park and several other grab and go snack options.