But there's a "forgotten friar," who founded nine of the 21 Spanish missions in California...
...including the "King of the Missions," Old Mission San Luis Rey (or La Misión de San Luis, Rey de Francia).
Making up for lost time and missed opportunities, one adventure at a time.
December 30, 2018
Photo Essay: A Mission for Kings, Friars, Soldiers, and Zorro
Junípero Serra gets all the credit—and blame—for creating the California Missions and all the beauty, violence, and destruction that has surrounded them. He was even canonized.
But there's a "forgotten friar," who founded nine of the 21 Spanish missions in California...
...including the "King of the Missions," Old Mission San Luis Rey (or La Misión de San Luis, Rey de Francia).
But there's a "forgotten friar," who founded nine of the 21 Spanish missions in California...
...including the "King of the Missions," Old Mission San Luis Rey (or La Misión de San Luis, Rey de Francia).
Photo Essay: Valley Relics Version 2.0, Van Nuys Edition (Updated for 2021)
[Last updated 3/23/21 7:56 PM PT—new photos added at bottom of post]
Fast forward five years, and Valley Relics has a new home—at the Van Nuys Airport!
With two huge rooms, it finally feels like a real museum instead of just a warehouse full of stuff.
In one room, the lit neon signs are front and center...
...with enough space in front of them to let you get a good look at them.
The rescued and rehabilitated neon represents many of the businesses gone by of the San Fernando Valley...
...with some backlit plastic above a mini re-creation of the defunct Family Fun Arcade (with actual arcade games you can play).
Somehow, they look even better in their new home.
Valley Relics can't bring those beloved businesses back...
...but it can kind of approximate the feeling of driving down Van Nuys or Ventura Boulevards, or turning off Vineland Avenue onto Burbank Boulevard.
And maybe grabbing a burger or a taco on the way.
Because The Valley is inextricably linked to Hollywood, Valley Relics has expanded its collection of memorabilia from movies...
...and television...
...with a particular affinity for Westerns...
...and, of course, the luminary of Western Swing and Country and Western live music, North Hollywood's long-lost The Palomino Club.
The glass cases at Valley Relics gave me a closer look at what Busch Gardens must've been like than did touring the Budweiser brewery where it was once located.
As many times as I've gone to Big Boy (and multiple locations of it), I'd never before spotted an issue of its comic book series. (The Canoga Park location, part of Valley cruising culture in the 1950s and '60s, has since been demolished.)
Perhaps the most surreal part of visiting Valley Relics, now that I've lived in LA for almost eight years, is seeing the memorabilia from places we haven't lost... yet.
But we surely will. And all of the memories we make today might one day end up in a museum just like this one.
Update 3/23/21—I returned to Valley Relics after the pandemic began to ease up to check out its display of Old Trapper's Lodge artifacts and see what else had changed in the two years since this location had opened.
They're running out of room again—even considering the fact that not everything is out all at one time. But the larger pieces, like the neon signs, are pretty much fixed in place.
Fortunately, I found enough elbow room to launch some balls on the pinball machines (set to Free Play), like Elvira's "Scared Stiff" (which was a hoot)...
...and "Earthshaker!"(which sent me into fits of giggles when I managed to trigger a quake).
I look forward to whatever brings me back for another visit in the future.
December 28, 2018
The Seussian Mysteries of Mountain Munchkins and Bridges for Trolls
I'd gone to Mount Soledad in 2008 on my first trip to San Diego, but it was more or less by chance.
I'd read that there was a mountain with a view of the ocean and a cross on top of it, so I suggested we go check it out.
I didn't know then that Theodor Seuss Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) had called this mountain home...
...or that the mountain's lore was nearly as mythical and magical as the fantastical creations in the Seuss canon.
First, there are the Munchkins (as in, The Wizard of Oz). They never lived or even stayed on Mount Soledad, despite rumors to the contrary—but the myth was perpetuated because some of the houses that were built on the steep incline looked rather miniature.
And then there's the mini version of the Cabrillo Bridge, which famously brought visitors into the west entrance of Balboa Park for the 1915-16 Panama–California Exposition. The petite doppelgänger at Al Bahr Drive (Arabic for "By the Sea") followed in 1928.
its resemblance to the landmark of the Expo grounds—10 miles southeast as the crow flies—was no coincidence. The mini one was commissioned by San Diego transplant (by way of Indianapolis) William French Ludington, who'd purchased a large plot of very steep land on the slope of Mt. Soledad—considered "worthless" by many. "W.F." Ludington had been an early merchant in the prominent subdivision of La Jolla, moved to San Diego in 1904, and later became a director of the 1915-16 Panama Exposition.
In that role, he helped create the Cabrillo Bridge (Puente Cabrillo) as a way to traverse an unforgiving landscape. Likewise on Mount Soledad, he relied once again on those classical arches so that automobiles could access his new Ludington Heights development and snap up its ocean-view lots.
But one bridge proved to be not enough, so he built a second at Castellana Road—with a deck that connects to the dead-end Puente Drive (Spanish for "Bridge Drive") and a winding road that double-backs along a hairpin turn to send you under where you originally came from.
This one is even smaller, and it's obscured by lush landscaping that darkens its tunnels—which has earned it the nickname of the "Troll Bridge" (though that moniker has come to refer to both bridges on Mount Soledad).
The dense plantings were the work of past neighborhood resident Delbert C. "Del" Colby and his wife Lois, who used to live by the bridge at 1775 Castellana Road. Colby was a landscaper who owned Rancho Santa Fe Nursery (closed December 1992), and he used many of his own specimens to plant the triangular parcel. It's now designated Colby Park in his honor.
The construction date of this continuous concrete beam bridge presents another mystery of Mount Soledad, as conflicting reports have it as circa the 1930s, 1949, and 1950. CalTrans has no date at all for it in its Statewide Historic Bridge Inventory.
But considering the fact that Ludington himself died of a heart attack in 1928, it seems pretty clear that both bridges were built that same year—before the stock market crash of 1929 rendered much of his property worthless, at least for the duration of the Great Depression.
It appears that a resurgence of development came to Ludington Heights in 1947—but at that point, I'm pretty sure the bridges were already there.
And of course La Jolla as a whole, as well as Mount Soledad and Ludington Heights, are quite posh now.
Yet despite the popularity of the area, these two bridges remain curiosities, hidden from view for most.
Related Posts:
Photo Essay: The View from Above Balboa Park's Former Expo Grounds
Rocking the Boat Without Getting Seasick
Photo Essay: How An East Coaster Helped Turn San Juan Cove Into Dana Point
I'd read that there was a mountain with a view of the ocean and a cross on top of it, so I suggested we go check it out.
I didn't know then that Theodor Seuss Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) had called this mountain home...
...or that the mountain's lore was nearly as mythical and magical as the fantastical creations in the Seuss canon.
First, there are the Munchkins (as in, The Wizard of Oz). They never lived or even stayed on Mount Soledad, despite rumors to the contrary—but the myth was perpetuated because some of the houses that were built on the steep incline looked rather miniature.
And then there's the mini version of the Cabrillo Bridge, which famously brought visitors into the west entrance of Balboa Park for the 1915-16 Panama–California Exposition. The petite doppelgänger at Al Bahr Drive (Arabic for "By the Sea") followed in 1928.
its resemblance to the landmark of the Expo grounds—10 miles southeast as the crow flies—was no coincidence. The mini one was commissioned by San Diego transplant (by way of Indianapolis) William French Ludington, who'd purchased a large plot of very steep land on the slope of Mt. Soledad—considered "worthless" by many. "W.F." Ludington had been an early merchant in the prominent subdivision of La Jolla, moved to San Diego in 1904, and later became a director of the 1915-16 Panama Exposition.
In that role, he helped create the Cabrillo Bridge (Puente Cabrillo) as a way to traverse an unforgiving landscape. Likewise on Mount Soledad, he relied once again on those classical arches so that automobiles could access his new Ludington Heights development and snap up its ocean-view lots.
But one bridge proved to be not enough, so he built a second at Castellana Road—with a deck that connects to the dead-end Puente Drive (Spanish for "Bridge Drive") and a winding road that double-backs along a hairpin turn to send you under where you originally came from.
This one is even smaller, and it's obscured by lush landscaping that darkens its tunnels—which has earned it the nickname of the "Troll Bridge" (though that moniker has come to refer to both bridges on Mount Soledad).
The dense plantings were the work of past neighborhood resident Delbert C. "Del" Colby and his wife Lois, who used to live by the bridge at 1775 Castellana Road. Colby was a landscaper who owned Rancho Santa Fe Nursery (closed December 1992), and he used many of his own specimens to plant the triangular parcel. It's now designated Colby Park in his honor.
The construction date of this continuous concrete beam bridge presents another mystery of Mount Soledad, as conflicting reports have it as circa the 1930s, 1949, and 1950. CalTrans has no date at all for it in its Statewide Historic Bridge Inventory.
But considering the fact that Ludington himself died of a heart attack in 1928, it seems pretty clear that both bridges were built that same year—before the stock market crash of 1929 rendered much of his property worthless, at least for the duration of the Great Depression.
It appears that a resurgence of development came to Ludington Heights in 1947—but at that point, I'm pretty sure the bridges were already there.
And of course La Jolla as a whole, as well as Mount Soledad and Ludington Heights, are quite posh now.
Yet despite the popularity of the area, these two bridges remain curiosities, hidden from view for most.
Related Posts:
Photo Essay: The View from Above Balboa Park's Former Expo Grounds
Rocking the Boat Without Getting Seasick
Photo Essay: How An East Coaster Helped Turn San Juan Cove Into Dana Point
December 27, 2018
Photo Essay: The Last of the San Diego Ranchos, Revived By The Cisco Kid's Pancho
Down Flying Leo Carrillo Lane in Carlsbad...
...just off of Carrillo Way...
...you'll find Rancho de los Kiotes...
...or the Ranch of the Spanish Dagger...
...so named for the barbed succulents that were bountiful on the property (and would stab you as you walked by or, at the very least, catch onto your clothes).
But it's most famous as the "Flying L" Ranch of movie and TV actor Leo Carrillo, whose brand features his initials and a pair of protrusions that would be considered horns on any other ranch, but here represent wings.
At 27 acres, the ranch—now a historic park owned and run by the City of Carlsbad—is considerably smaller than it was in Carrillo's time, but the campus still contains structures like the old caretaker's quarters (now the park office).
It acts as a primer for anyone not so familiar with the cowboy of the big and small screen, most famous for portraying the desperado sidekick on The Cisco Kid, Pancho.
Born in California of Spanish (Castillian) descent, his great-great grandfather was Captain José Raimundo Carrillo, an early Spanish settler of San Diego who'd come north from New Spain (a.k,a. Mexico) as part of the Portola Expedition.
His great grandfather was Carlos Antonio Carrillo, a Californio who served as governor of both Alta California and El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles.
After achieving some success in Hollywood, he looked to move somewhere not too close and not too far—somewhere with lots of room for his friend to come and party and stay if they wanted to.
In 1937, he ended up purchasing the Kelly Homestead, founded in 1868. With an old adobe home that needed some fixing up, and two water wells on the property, it fit the bill.
While he'd been looking, Carrillo had said, "I'd like to get an old adobe which was forgotten, but not too late to save, and rebuild it and put it back where it was one hundred years ago."
And that's exactly what he did.
What's now known as The Hacienda had been built of adobe but then covered with wood, with a second story added.
Carrillo returned it to its original splendor, roofed in red terra cotta tiles that were shaped on ladies' thighs—therefore narrower at one end, which made for easy stacking.
All the rooms had fireplaces, but most of the heat just went right up the chimneys. So, in each room, you'll find a niche in the wall where a space heater used to go.
Leo's bedroom still features fabulous Western-style furniture custom-made by Barker Brothers.
And at the entrance to the outdoor kitchen, the sidewalk is inscribed with "Que comen bien," or "Eat well."
The outdoor grill could cook up enough meat and beans for the throngs of people who'd attend Carrillo's regular rodeos and other events on the ranch...
...and the cabaña by the pool would serve up plenty of drinks to wash everything down with.
But just to be sure no one went thirsty, there was also the cantina (now closed to the public), next to the carriage house/carport (which now houses arts and crafts and groomsmen for weddings) and the original wooden chicken coop.
Behind those three structures (just a fraction of the 18 structures, many adobe, that Carrillo constructed for the ranch operation)...
...there's a trail that leads up to Deedie's House.
That's where Carrillo's wife Edith, or "Deedie," would escape the crowds of Leo's Hollywood friends and fellow horsemen...
...and indulge in artistic endeavors, like basketry and pottery.
Leo made his own mark on Deedie's house, with a series of "doodles" carved into the outer walls of the cottage (including one that looks just like a portrait of Will Rogers's head).
One of the more recent restorations on the ranch is the five-stall stable and bunkhouse...
...where Leo used to hang his ropes and saddles and work out of an office upstairs.
Alas, the horses are gone, but Leo's handprints are still on the wall on the upper level. And according to my docent, they're looking at bringing some livestock back to the ranch, like in the old days.
Right now, the rulers of the roost at Leo Carrillo Ranch are the peafowl—shimmering peacocks, the peahens they woo, and the peachicks that result when they're successful.
There's even a white one named Jack.
Alas, it wasn't mating season during my visit, and the peafowl were being shy, not even letting me catch a glimpse of one of them.
And you know what that means: I have to go back.
Related Posts:
Photo Essay: A Silent Movie Cowboy's Retirement Ranch (And His Horse's Final Resting Place)
Walking Box Ranch: Where Clara Bow and Her Hollywood Cowboy Husband Became Real Cattle Ranchers
Photo Essay: Oakridge, An Old Hollywood Celebrity Ranch
...just off of Carrillo Way...
...you'll find Rancho de los Kiotes...
...or the Ranch of the Spanish Dagger...
...so named for the barbed succulents that were bountiful on the property (and would stab you as you walked by or, at the very least, catch onto your clothes).
But it's most famous as the "Flying L" Ranch of movie and TV actor Leo Carrillo, whose brand features his initials and a pair of protrusions that would be considered horns on any other ranch, but here represent wings.
At 27 acres, the ranch—now a historic park owned and run by the City of Carlsbad—is considerably smaller than it was in Carrillo's time, but the campus still contains structures like the old caretaker's quarters (now the park office).
It acts as a primer for anyone not so familiar with the cowboy of the big and small screen, most famous for portraying the desperado sidekick on The Cisco Kid, Pancho.
Born in California of Spanish (Castillian) descent, his great-great grandfather was Captain José Raimundo Carrillo, an early Spanish settler of San Diego who'd come north from New Spain (a.k,a. Mexico) as part of the Portola Expedition.
His great grandfather was Carlos Antonio Carrillo, a Californio who served as governor of both Alta California and El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles.
After achieving some success in Hollywood, he looked to move somewhere not too close and not too far—somewhere with lots of room for his friend to come and party and stay if they wanted to.
In 1937, he ended up purchasing the Kelly Homestead, founded in 1868. With an old adobe home that needed some fixing up, and two water wells on the property, it fit the bill.
While he'd been looking, Carrillo had said, "I'd like to get an old adobe which was forgotten, but not too late to save, and rebuild it and put it back where it was one hundred years ago."
And that's exactly what he did.
What's now known as The Hacienda had been built of adobe but then covered with wood, with a second story added.
Carrillo returned it to its original splendor, roofed in red terra cotta tiles that were shaped on ladies' thighs—therefore narrower at one end, which made for easy stacking.
All the rooms had fireplaces, but most of the heat just went right up the chimneys. So, in each room, you'll find a niche in the wall where a space heater used to go.
Leo's bedroom still features fabulous Western-style furniture custom-made by Barker Brothers.
And at the entrance to the outdoor kitchen, the sidewalk is inscribed with "Que comen bien," or "Eat well."
The outdoor grill could cook up enough meat and beans for the throngs of people who'd attend Carrillo's regular rodeos and other events on the ranch...
...and the cabaña by the pool would serve up plenty of drinks to wash everything down with.
But just to be sure no one went thirsty, there was also the cantina (now closed to the public), next to the carriage house/carport (which now houses arts and crafts and groomsmen for weddings) and the original wooden chicken coop.
Behind those three structures (just a fraction of the 18 structures, many adobe, that Carrillo constructed for the ranch operation)...
...there's a trail that leads up to Deedie's House.
That's where Carrillo's wife Edith, or "Deedie," would escape the crowds of Leo's Hollywood friends and fellow horsemen...
...and indulge in artistic endeavors, like basketry and pottery.
Leo made his own mark on Deedie's house, with a series of "doodles" carved into the outer walls of the cottage (including one that looks just like a portrait of Will Rogers's head).
One of the more recent restorations on the ranch is the five-stall stable and bunkhouse...
...where Leo used to hang his ropes and saddles and work out of an office upstairs.
Alas, the horses are gone, but Leo's handprints are still on the wall on the upper level. And according to my docent, they're looking at bringing some livestock back to the ranch, like in the old days.
Right now, the rulers of the roost at Leo Carrillo Ranch are the peafowl—shimmering peacocks, the peahens they woo, and the peachicks that result when they're successful.
There's even a white one named Jack.
Alas, it wasn't mating season during my visit, and the peafowl were being shy, not even letting me catch a glimpse of one of them.
And you know what that means: I have to go back.
Related Posts:
Photo Essay: A Silent Movie Cowboy's Retirement Ranch (And His Horse's Final Resting Place)
Walking Box Ranch: Where Clara Bow and Her Hollywood Cowboy Husband Became Real Cattle Ranchers
Photo Essay: Oakridge, An Old Hollywood Celebrity Ranch
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