Tips, California peeps?

[d_aulnoy]

My parents are coming to town!  Yay!

Now, despite having lived here for ... good lord, over a year, I am still a Calignoramous in a lot of ways: I know about beaches and public gardens, the closet things LA has to walking areas, etc., but I am damned if I can think of more than a handful of good indoor activities.  My parents are even less receptive to extreme heat than I am, so I'd appreciate any suggestions y'all might have on (literally) cool things to do in SoCal in a week of 95+ heat.  Thoughts?

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Probably not Huntington Gardens, then?

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

I would love to take them there, and to the Arboretum in Arcadia, too (peacocks!), I'm just worried about what kind of a toll it will take on them, what with their being pale skinned Slavic types who are a lot more used to snow than sun. I've laid in the sunscreen and purchased a parasol, but I'm hoping I'll have some additional options ....

[morganlf.livejournal.com]

Go to the Huntington Museum and then if it's not too hot you can wander the gardens. They also have a great tea room as well.

Also, the LaBrea Tarpits has a great museum. Lacma is fun too.

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

Ooo, great suggestions - thank you! I have no idea what Lacma is, but I'm off to Google now.

[morganlf.livejournal.com]

Ooops, LA County Museum of Art. It has some great collections. If you're around Pasadena though, I highly recommend the Norton Simon museum. They have great paintings and Asian art.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Japantown? Interesting shopping.

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

Ooo, good one - I'm filing that away in the back of my pointy little head (though, again, worried about the heat). In case I sounds like I'm over-reacting about the heat, my inherited reaction to it has caused my husband to compare me to a piggy once or twice. I don't sweat: I just turn red, and then white, and then faint. Too bad I'm above rolling in the mud ... but methinks it's a qualm the folks will share. Maybe I should buy them those little safari hats with the built-in fans from Sharper Image? 'Cause, yeah, almost every nifty thing I can think of it outdoors ... and I doubt they're flying cross-country for a tour of LA's finest shopping malls. :)

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

Museums. We have some really nice museums - Norton Simon in Pasadena. The Huntington Gardens in Pasadena (the main house is set up as a museum - also the tea room there does a really nice tea). The Getty Center. LACMA. The Natural History Museum. The Museum of Tollerance. The Japanese-American Museum. The La Brea Tar Pits. Barnsdall. The Gamble House (not really a museum per se, but a really lovely example of arts and crafts california bungalo architechture with a lot of the original furniture.) I know there are more... there are huge numbers of museums in the area, really.

There's ice skating at the Pasadena Civic Center, if you /really/ want to get away from the heat.

There's a lot of theater, though that's mostly an evening thing. And there are pretty much always good concerts in the evening. Movies are less local color, but always good for getting out of the heat.

Outdoors, but good for beating the heat, at least when I was a kid: Raging Waters.

There's a nice acquarium down in Long Beach, I think. Ummm... I don't know, what do your parents like to do? What subjects are they interested in?

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

These are fantastic suggestions, thank you! Dad's a jewelry buff and mom's a musician, so I'm poking around to see what I can find in those categories. More generally, museums, wandering areas, etc. are great - not so much with the nature hikes or the other "great outdoors" aspects of California.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

The Folk Music Center (http://www.folkmusiccenter.com/) in Claremont is a lot of fun. They have regular concerts and a large-ish store with a lot of interesting things. I generally have to be pried out of there.

Wednesdays at a little after noon at Pasadena Presbyterian Church there are free half-hour concerts (usually classical).

The Coffee Gallery in Altadena often has interesting folk music concerts and free Blue Grass jams the second sunday of every month.

If you can get tickets to Disney Hall, I really don't think that there's a bad seat in the house, though some do let you see better, but I don't think I've ever been to a bad concert there.

I'm not sure when the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is playing next, but they're also really worth hearing.

LACMA has some interesting concerts in a couple of styles going on (http://www.lacma.org/programs/MusicPrograms.aspx). I seem to recall they also have some interesting jewelry in their collection, though I don't know if it's currently on display. Oooh, The Getty, I believe, also has some interesting jewelry in its collection.

I'm sure there's something interesting down in the Jewelry district downtown, but I honestly don't spent a lot of time down there. I know that there's a nice jewelry store in Monrovia, because I've wandered by it and looked in the windows sometimes, but I'm forgetting the name. Arnold's in Pasadena is also a nice store and they usually have some interesting estate and consignment pieces.

Oh and more museums with concert series and similar things: The Skirball Center and The Hammer Museum at UCLA both often have concerts (or at least there are often concerts on the UCLA campus.) Oh, and I know they have a really interesting collection of musical instruments, but I'm not sure if it's open to the public. Still, that might be worth enquiring about.

Oh, and if you /do/ go to The Gamble House (http://www.gamblehouse.org/), be sure to stop into the bookstore. They always have a really, really lovely display of art neuveau/craftsman jewelry.