A different look at Downtown

Written by Wifey.

Hmm... we've been kinda slacking on the date night blogs.  So.. during the gap, imagine that we were having wild crazy adventures that cannot be shared! *cough* yesss...

Anyway, for my date night, we explored a side of Downtown LA that I had no idea existed until a coworker gave me a mini-tour.  I'm referring to - the part of Downtown where you can walk around at midnight and feel safe.  I know... that seems so unbelievable.  I mean, we've gone to Downtown LA a number of times, but we try to just stick to the main location, because otherwise it's easy to end up in an area where I feel the need to clutch my purse, and beware eye contact lest a bum attack.  I know I may sound naive, like a hick unaccustomed to the "big city", but LA is like that - there's blocks with million dollar homes & manicured lawns, and then you go a few blocks in the wrong direction and suddenly things get dirty, with scary looking people hanging out on the corners.  After living here for a few years, you get accustomed to it and start to refer to it as "culture", but there's still places I prefer to avoid walking through late at night. 

Going up!

inside the Angels Flight trolley car

Anyway, back to discovering a little gem in Downtown LA.  We started off with Angel's Flight, which is this adorable random little train in the middle of the city.  I think the main purpose is to help visitors avoid the hike up & down the hilly streets, but I just thought it was one of the quaintest things ever to find in the middle of skyscrapers.  You get in the rail car, and wait for a bit, then the car slowly crawls up the track to the station at the top.  Costs all of 50 cents for the ride, and the experience is totally worth it.  :-p 


 

Then, we just started wandering... There's a number of buildings in downtown that have put a lot of effort into fountains and architecture, so we just kinda meandered from building to building checking things out.  We explored the Water Park, threaded our way through the Walt Disney Hall courtyard, and played in a giant water fountain outside the Ahmanson theatre. Barely saw another soul, which was a bit surreal - it almost felt like we had these cool sites all to ourselves.  
At one point, we even found a little park next to an office building, and had a mini foot-race in the grass.  It definitely gave us a new appreciation of Downtown LA. :-)

Of course, as I was exclaiming to Hubby how excited I was to find a bum-free zone in Downtown, we returned to our car... and encountered a slew of bums hanging out.  One barked at Hubby, for reasons unknown, while a woman called out to me that I'd better hold on to my man, because he'd surely get snatched up otherwise due to his nice big muscles.  :-p  She got a dollar out of us, because hey, flattery works!!   Okay, so we didn't exactly have an evening free of the shadier side of Downtown, but we had a good amount of time to wander in the middle of the night, something I would have never considered otherwise.  It's good to see another side of the city!

neat fountains & lights outside an office building

fun with fountains!