Museums delight kids, too
If you’re visiting relatives in a strange city over the holidays, take advantage of the local museums. Most hire family education directors whose job it is to come up with ways to entertain you and your children while encouraging the kids to soak up the exhibition.
During a recent trip to Los Angeles, we mixed up a stop to the Gene Autry National Center with stops at the Spice Station in Silverlake District and Flick’s Papetrie.
Gene Autry Museum in Griffith Park
Right across from the LA Zoo sits this museum dedicated to the American West: the Autry National Center. Currently there’s a nostalgic Route 66: Road and Romance exhibit to capture your imagination.
Other exhibits include the Floral Journey: Native North American Indian Floral Bead Work, running through April, 2015, and “Kim Stringfellow’s Jackrabbit Homestead.”
If you grew up watching television and motion picture Westerns, you will be delighted to see costumes worn by John Wayne, Paul Newman and Gary Cooper in “High Noon.” I was surprised to see life-sized versions of the Lone Ranger and Tonto.
The large museum is no amateur outfit. It has 500,000 artifacts and pieces of art from the West and includes two research libraries.
Check the calendar for lectures and family fun days. Coming up next will be a class on “Planning Your Route 66 Trip,” with photographer and road historian Jerry McClanahan and Jim Ross on Sat., Dec. 6 at 2.
Families are invited to American Indian Games at the Autry on Sun. Dec. 7. Free with museum admission, which is $10 for adults, $6 for seniors 60 and over. Check out new exhibits at http://www.theautry.org.
The Spice Station, Silverlake District
The Silverlake District has a certain urban grittiness, but there are some amazing finds here like the bulk spices at the Spice Station.
It takes five minutes or so to find 3819 Sunset Blvd., because first you have to meander through a path, the lovely impressionistic courtyard covered with trellises and a fountain and then you get to the actual spices in apothecary jars.
Owned by husband and wife team Peter Bahlawanian and Bronwen Tahse, the store carries 140 spices, teas, and tissanes.
I took home jasmine tea and Himalayan salt in packets. The small cottage is lined top to bottom with jars of spices.
DTLA art galleries and museums
More than 100,000 pieces of art in Los Angeles County Museum of Art 5905 Wilshire Blvd., guarantee that you’re not going to see all of them in this lifetime! But pick and choose and take in the ones that call to you. Free admission happens the second Tuesday of every month, otherwise it’s $15 for adults $10 for seniors 62 and older.
Temporary exhibitions include one on Samurai armour, another on Pierre Huyghe, and a third on the Hudson River School. Visit lacma.org for additional information.
The streets around LACMA also contain lots of art galleries.
The Artful Lodger 