Aurora's Blog

My brilliant friend Melissa is visiting Los Angles. She had this wonderful idea that we would take a free tour of the Disney Concert Hall, which I had no idea existed! (The free tours part…I knew the Concert Hall was there.)

It included more than just the concert hall. We went through the Mark Taper Forum, Disney Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and the Ahmanson Theatre. We had a docent who was very knowledgable about the history of all the buildings. I didn’t realize there are special founder’s rooms in these buildings (and goodness are they nice!).

One incredible thing I learned was that you can take public stairs on the outside of Disney Concert Hall up to the top and just walk around the top of the building. There’s even a small public park up there! It’s serene, and I think a somewhat well-kept secret. It’s totally gonna be my new hang out place for whenever I want to read or write outside of my awesome apartment.

Afterward, while aimlessly walking around Los Angeles, Melissa and I stumbled upon this thing called Angel’s Flight (which a tourist in our earlier tour group had actually mentioned). It doesn’t do much besides take you up and down a big hill for a quarter, but it was old-timey and cute. (And it’s the shortest railway in the world.)

I’m also amazed at the number of fountains I saw in downtown LA. It seemed like everywhere I looked I saw the words “Water Court.” I wonder how much water is used daily in downtown LA on fountains alone.

Melissa had found this great idea for the day off a list of 100 free things to do in LA. She definitely inspired me to look for lists like that for some future adventures right here in the city in which I live.