Photo Essay: Getting My Horse On In Preparation for the Rose Parade, 2025

It had been 10 years since I'd attended Equestfest, the Tournament of Roses equine exhibition, in the days before the Rose Parade. And this year I found myself revisiting a few things that I hadn't done for a decade. 

 

So I decided to go back. After all, I enjoy a day out with the horses.

Year In Review: 2024 Updates to Past Posts

As time goes on, my maintenance of this blog shifts more to updating information surrounding places I've already been rather than documenting places that are new (or new to me). 

And that gets a little depressing—because there are more businesses and buildings that close than those that are rescued. 

But we have to take our victories wherever we can get them. 

So this year, I feel lucky that I was able to report on the now-publicly accessible abandoned church at Heritage Square Museum and the newly-added TCM tour at Warner Brothers Studios.

Unfortunately, I also had to break the news of the passing of Heritage Square's beloved museum cat Belle Boy (who died in 2023). And the closure of the Mirage on the Vegas Strip. And the shut-down of the Los Angeles Times Olympic printing plant.

Those were all written about in new blog posts—but there are plenty of other updates I made that you may have missed. (I don't always share these to social media or in my email blast.)

So here are some updates I made in 2024—although not all of these necessarily actually happened this year.

Hilbert Museum of California Art

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2024

It's true, 2024 was a rough year. 

Between health issues and a job loss, I've worried about what was going to happen to me. 

But somehow, I've managed to keep plugging away, as I always seem to do. 

And there are some good things on the horizon—namely, the history book I'm writing for the centennial of The Los Angeles Breakfast Club, which will be published in 2025. That's taking up a lot of my time now—time I could be spending "out there" exploring, and on here sharing my experiences. 

I'm certain the sacrifices I'm making now—including not doing any freelance writing for other publications—will pay off in the end. But that just means it may look as though I haven't been as productive this year. 

At least, for now. 

But I still had plenty of good stuff to share—so, as is my tradition at the end of each year, here follows my Top 10 posts of 2024. 

That's based on clicks/page views alone and not by some subjective judgment on their quality. So, if you'd like to know what other people were reading in 2024, take a gander here:

1. 

Photo Essay: Piru's Newhall Mansion is a 130-Year-Old Queen Anne Design in a 40-Year-Old Body

Photo Essay: Toluca Lake's Magical Holiday Parade, on Christmas Eve

Last year, in search of festive plans for Christmas Eve, I volunteered as a caroler for the Toluca Lake Magical Holiday Parade—formerly known as the "Christmas Caroling Truck" or the "Christmas Truck Parade." 

This year, to the sacrifice of invites for dinners at friends' homes, I decided to experience this long-standing neighborhood tradition from the ground as a spectator. 

Photo: The Hollywood Palladium—A Palace for Big Bands, Roller Disco, and More

Many theaters over the last 100 years (or more?) have been named the "Palace" to evoke grandeur and cultural sophistication. 

Photo: 2023

But there's another moniker that brings that idea of glamour to new heights: Palladium, which comes from the Greek goddess of the arts, Pallas Athena.

Photo Essay: Delving Into the Underground History of The Mission Inn's Cloistered Catacombs

I'd already taken the tour of The Mission Inn in Riverside, California once, in 2015. And normally that would mean I was done with it. 

But at Halloweentime this year, the hotel unveiled a series of "Spooktacular" tours that took guests into its underground tunnels—a.k.a. its "catacombs."

Photo Essay: Some Choo-Choo Cheer for the Holidays at South Coast Railroad Museum

I hadn't been to the Central Coast town of Goleta in years, probably over a decade—mostly because when I'm heading north past Santa Barbara, I take the inland rather than the coastal route. 

But when I finally got back there earlier this month, I knew there was once place I had to go: the South Coast Railroad Museum. 

 

Photo Essay: A Night of 4.5 Million Lights at the Mission Inn

It's been hanging over my head for 10 years now that I hadn't really done the Mission Inn's Festival of Lights "right" yet.

 

Photo Essay: Looping Through Nevada's Scenic Valley of Fire

I seem to visit Valley of Fire every 11 or 12 years—my first time in February 2001, my second in October 2013, and my most recent in November 2024. But since it spans a whopping 40,000 acres, there was plenty more I could see.

 

This time I was at the eastern end of it, staying at a hotel in Moapa Valley and entering the park from the Northshore Road Toll Gate off Highway 169.

This Giant Concrete Arrow Pointed the Way for Pilots Delivering Mail By Air Between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City

I was in Southern Nevada for Thanksgiving to visit dear friends—practically family. So I wanted to spend plenty of time with them, but I also wanted to carve out an opportunity to go on a couple little adventures. 

That sent me in search of one of the many gigantic, concrete arrows that dot the desert in the Battle Born state—well, actually two of them. I had to abort the mission in search of the first one, the one in Mesquite, since I was coming back from The Donkey Museum a little too late to have enough sunlight to navigate the rough dirt road to get to it. 

So, two days later, I made a second try—this time to get to a second arrow, this one in the Moapa Valley community of Logandale, not far off the 15 Freeway. 

 

Photo Essay: Cruising Lake Mead on the Desert Princess to the Hoover Dam

Nevada's Lake Mead has been a source of much fascination for me—from the construction of the Hoover Dam (which formed the lake out of the waters of the Colorado River) to the flooding of nearby towns (like St. Thomas).

But while I'd spent some time around the lake—peering at it from a zipline at Bootleg Canyon, hiking around it through decommissioned railroad tunnels, even looking down at it from the dam itself—I hadn't yet had the chance to explore the lake from the lake itself.

Photo Essay: Christmas Spirit Has Taken Over the Bellagio Conservatory in Vegas

I was feeling pretty grumpy this past week and doing my best to embrace Thanksgiving. I wasn't ready for Christmas yet. 

 

And then I arrived in Vegas, legs stiff from a four-hour drive, already weary from the holiday festivities that had not yet come, and swung by the Bellagio to see what they'd done at the Conservatory this season. 

Photo Essay: Heritage Square Museum Has Thrown the Abandoned Church Doors Open

For the entire time I've lived in the Los Angeles area (nearly 14 years now), there's been one building at Heritage Square Museum I haven't been able to get into. 

All the mansions and the former train depot have posed no problem—but the former Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church, on the other hand, was a longtime holdout. 

Photo Essay: Celebrating Day of the Dead at the Birthplace of Los Angeles

I've liked cemeteries for all of my adult life, at least ever since I used to climb up behind Chapel House and spend some quiet time at the Colgate University Cemetery. 

 

But living in Southern California has taught me a little bit about how Mexican cultures honor the dead in a very living sort of way—namely, building altars (or ofrendas) where they honor the lives of those who've passed by making offerings (like sugar skulls) and setting up photos, dioramas, and more.

Photo Essay: The Pageantry and Personas of the WeHo Halloween Carnaval, 2024 Edition

The Halloween Carnaval has been drawing crowds to the streets of West Hollywood since 1987 (with a couple years taken off during the COVID-19 pandemic). 

Is it a parade? Well, not exactly—because there's no determined order of the participants and people walk in both directions. 

But is it really a carnival? Well, there's definitely some masquerading and "riotous excess."

I like to describe it as kind of a walkabout.

 

Photo Essay: 101 Years of the Anaheim Fall Festival (Upon the Centennial of the Halloween Parade)

The last Saturday in October is always a busy one—and try as I might, I never seem to make it to the Anaheim Fall Festival, which always lands on that day. 

 

This year, on the 100th year of the parade (but the 101st year of the festival), I finally made it—casting all other plans aside, because you just can't do everything you want to do all the time. 

Photo Essay: Bowlium, A 1950s Bowling Emporium That's Fit for the 21st Century

In the first year of the pandemic, I hauled my cookies a couple of times out to Montclair, California—about 45 miles east of where I live—to catch a movie at Mission Tiki Drive-In (which unfortunately closed in 2023). 

That's how I first became interested in the Bowlium bowling alley—which was fortunately nearby but unfortunately closed for COVID-19.

 *photo taken 2020

"The prominence of the building, which makes it clearly visible from the street on the parking lot's far side," writes Alan Hess in his book Googie Redux, "shows the importance of bowling alleys as community centers in the new suburban areas of the 1950s."

Photo Essay: The Neon Studio Working to Save the Bay Area's History, One Sign at a Time

As I mentioned before, I actually had a hard time booking my trip to the Bay Area a couple of weekends ago—whether out of a sense of responsibility, or guilt, or fear, I don't know. 

I couldn't really justify just taking a weekend away—God forbid I take a vacation—and the Doors Open California events I was interested in just didn't seem like enough. 

 

And then I stumbled across an event sponsored by the Neon Speaks Festival & Symposium, which was occurring that same weekend, and I thought, "OK, that clinches it."

Photo Essay: Riding a Steam Train Through the Redwoods at an Abandoned Army Camp

I struggled with whether or not I should travel up to the Bay Area last weekend, given my uncertain employment and my certain commitment to be writing a book. 

But I hadn't taken a trip since Memorial Day weekend, and my feet were getting itchy. 

Turns out, it was the perfect time to get away from Los Angeles—which was in the throes of a 110-degree heatwave—and embrace the cooler environs up north. 

One of the draws for my trip was the annual Doors Open California weekend, hosted by California Preservation Foundation. And one of the places the program was giving special access to was the Redwood Valley Railway in Tilden Regional Park, just east of Berkeley. 

Photo Essay: The Dutch Windmills That Helped Establish San Francisco's Golden Gate Park

In Southern California, the only windmills you'll usually see are the wind power-generating ones, like on the windmill farms of Palm Springs or Tehachapi. 

At least, that's been true since the last of the Van de Kamps coffee shops closed in the 1990s. (The last remaining windmill is now a Denny's in Arcadia.)

But in Northern California—specifically, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park—two windmills are alive and well, including the Northern Dutch Windmill built in 1902. 

Photo Essay: A Los Angeles Carousel Has Made San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Its Home for Over 80 Years

This is just so typically me. 

I go years (or decades) without visiting a place—and then as soon as I go back once, I end up going back a bunch of times. 

Because it's so easy for me to shift my attention elsewhere. But once something gets back into the front of my mind, I realize how much I've missed out on. 

Such is the case with San Francisco. 

I was just there in January, after having not really been there since 2006—save for a couple of hours two years ago—and ever since, I've been itching to go back. 

This time, California Preservation Foundation's Doors Open California program gave me the perfect excuse to return. 

But first, I had a lot of places to cross off my list. 

 

Take Golden Gate Park, for instance. It feels very much like San Francisco's version of Central Park in New York, with meandering paths and sprawling lawns and a few historic points of interest—including its own vintage carousel. 

R.I.P. Belle Boy, Heritage Square's Museum Cat

One of the great joys of visiting Heritage Square Museum in Montecito Heights, Los Angeles over the last few years has been its floofy orange museum cat.

His name was Belle Boy. And I just found out he passed away last September 28, 2023.

 

When I heard the news, I cried with heartbreak. But I was also grateful—glad that I'd gotten to spend a little time with him in May 2023 while producing a video for PBS SoCal's "SoCal Wanderer."

Photo Essay: The Ups and Downs (And Ins and Outs) of San Francisco's Historic Cable Car System

I remember riding at least one cable car during my San Francisco visit in 2006. 

It seemed like a novelty to me at the time—something I'd only seen in Rice-A-Roni TV commercials as a kid. 

 

 

I was less into trains back then than I am now—so I wanted to re-experience this mode of public transport upon my return visit to SF earlier this year. 

 

Trying to get around in the rain with a bum foot made the cable car a necessity this time around.

This time around, there was something else at the top of my list, too: the city's cable car museum, which I had no clue about until after I'd returned home to NYC from my SF trip, nearly 20 years ago.

 

Sure, I wanted to learn about the history of cable cars—but this is no ordinary historical museum. 

Photo Essay: Glimpses of Grace Cathedral's Art and Architectural Treasures

We had some time to kill while we were exploring San Francisco back in January. 

 

So, I asked my friend—who's not religious, but neither am I—if we could go to Grace Cathedral to take one of the tours they offered.

Photo Essay: Taking the CBS Out of Television City

CBS Television was a big part of my childhood—whether it was summer mornings spent playing along with The Price is Right or every afternoon joining my mother to watch the soaps. 

circa 2024

So, it always kind of astounds me that CBS Television City is just down the road from me, now that I live in Los Angeles. 

Photo Essay: The Camarillo White Horses and the Ranch They Once Called Home

The "ranch house" of Adolph Camarillo is really a Victorian mansion—built in the Queen Anne style by the architecture duo Herman Anlauf and Franklin ("F. P.") Ward in 1892.

 

I'd seen it once, at night, at Christmastime, back in 2018—but I knew I had to go back and see it in the broad daylight.

Photo Essay: Piru's Newhall Mansion is a 130-Year-Old Queen Anne Design in a 40-Year-Old Body

I first became intrigued with the Ventura County town of Piru because of its position in the path of the St. Francis Dam flood. (It's also home to a filming location from the music video to "Hot Legs" by Rod Stewart.) 

 

But then my interest was piqued even further when I found out there was a sprawling Queen Anne mansion in Piru—known simply as the "Piru Mansion," but also "Cook Mansion" and "Newhall Mansion."

Photo Essay: The Center of Enterprise in San Bernardino's Once Thriving Downtown

When I visited the (now-demolished) Carousel Mall in San Bernardino, I was intrigued by the two historic buildings that it butted up against—and I hoped one day I'd get inside to see what they were all about. 

That hope came true in March 2024 with one of them—the former Andreson Building, recently rebranded as The Enterprise Building. 

 

Photo Essay: The Mirage Disappears from the Las Vegas Strip, Where a Giant Guitar Will Replace the Erupting Volcano

There's only one Vegas hotel I've liked enough to stay at more than once—or, unlike the Riviera, that stuck around long enough for me to stay at more than once.

 

circa 2022

That's The Mirage—which just closed in July 2024 to begin its conversion into the Hard Rock Las Vegas. 

A Last Look at the Historic Charlie Chaplin Studios Lot (Before The Jim Henson Company Sells It)

Let's just get this out of the way: The Henson Studios lot on La Brea in Hollywood is for sale. The Wrap broke the news in late June.

circa 2020

And although I'd been able to walk around on my own once before, as a ticketholder for the puppet improv show Puppet Up!—Uncensored that's performed on the lot, word of the sale was enough to light a fire under me to go back and finally take an official tour.  

Photo Essay: A Long-Awaited Celebration for Long Beach Airport's Historic Streamline Moderne Terminal

It had been the year 2010 since I'd flown in or out of Long Beach Airport—LA's oldest municipal airport, originally known as Daugherty Field, established in 1923. 

It's just not convenient to where I currently live. 

But I love it so much, I arranged to tour its Streamline Moderne-style terminal building (by architects William Horace Austin and Kenneth Smith Wing, circa 1941) back in 2016. 

And then in February 2023, it ceased operations as LGB's main passenger terminal and closed for a renovation that would last over a year. At the time, I thought, "Aw, too bad"—because it had been such a delight to travel through there, I was sad for the passengers who'd never get to experience it.

 

A Foodie's Farewell Tour

I have this little ritual of going for a "last supper" before having some kind of medical procedure done that might restrict my eating in some way. 

I think it goes back to when I used to go on a "detox" back in my NYC days, which was basically my way of trying to lose weight by quitting alcohol and fast food for short spurts of time. I'd always binge right before it, like an addict on one last bender before being hauled off to rehab.

Before my oral surgery last November, which would put me on a diet of soft foods for weeks on end, I ordered all the crunchy things during my final meal—chips and guac, Caesar salad with croutons, taquitos, and the like. 

I had similar "last hurrahs" the nights before my colonoscopy in February, another oral surgery in March, and my upper endoscopy in June (both the one that didn't happen, and the one that did). 

But now, it's the results of that endoscopy that's got me on my latest eating spree. 

Because they found what they were looking for: signs of celiac disease. It's not definite, but I already scored practically off the charts on the blood test. Both of these test results strongly indicate the presence of the disease, but they don't prove it.

To do that, I'll need to eliminate gluten.

If I feel different—or, hopefully, better—after that, it'll confirm the diagnosis. And it'll change the course of how I eat for the rest of my life.

Smoked salmon sandwich at Gjusta in Venice, CA

Photo Essay: Touring Halter Ranch Vineyard Estate on a Railroad of Replica Swiss Rolling Stock

Since I was already heading up to California's Central Coast on Memorial Day weekend to ride the original Disneyland passenger cars at Santa Margarita Ranch..

     

...I decided to make it a full-blown traincation by booking a train tour of the vineyard at Halter Ranch in Paso Robles. 

Photo Essay: The Huntington, Where Billiards and Bowling Gave Way to the Rose Garden Tea Room

The Huntington is one of those places where I just keep discovering new things, every time I visit. 

 

Towards the end of last year, I'd wanted to go back because I knew I'd missed some historic faux bois (fake wood made of steel-reinforced concrete)...

 

 

...so my quest to see that in person led us to the rose garden on Black Friday. 

Photo Essay: The California Mission Ruins Hiding Inside a Humble Hay Barn

If you know where to look, you can find remnants of California's Mission Period throughout the state—whether it's old dams and aqueducts, or even a former winery for communion wine.

 

And sometimes, you find an actual mission in the most unexpected of places—like the former Santa Margarita de Cortona Asistencia (founded 1787-90), which is hiding in plain sight in the now-privately-owned Santa Margarita Ranch in California's Central Coast. 

Photo Essay: Immanuel Presbyterian, the French Gothic Cathedral in L.A.'s Koreatown

On a busy stretch of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, right in the middle of the diverse community of Koreatown...

 

...stands a church whose design was inspired by 15th-century gothic cathedrals in France. 

Photo Essay: Celebrating a Diamond Jubilee Year Backstage at Bob Baker Marionette Theater (Updated—The Neon Is Lit!)

[Last updated 10/13/24 5:33 PM PT—Photos of new neon sign added to bottom of post.]

The renowned Bob Baker Marionette Theater is celebrating its 60th anniversary...

 

...and upon this momentous occasion, it's currently putting together its first brand-new show in 40 years, Choo Choo Revue.

A Dream Job... Deferred?

My professional life has experienced a lot of upheaval since I was forced to quit my job back in 2009. And I still haven't gotten back on my feet again.

It really feels like the guy that made it impossible for me to stay in that job back then didn't just destroy my career. He also ruined my life. 

But that's another story for another day. 

Photo by matthiasboeckel on Pixabay

I'd been so proud of myself when I got a full-time editorial job back in 2015 after being destitute in the wake of two layoffs and some poor career choices that led me astray. I was even more thrilled in 2018 to be able to say I was finally a full-time writer.

Then I got laid off from that job in July 2022—that's a whole 'nother story, too—and, lucky for me, the freelance writing I'd been doing for our local public TV station KCET for over seven years turned into an inhouse gig just two weeks later. 

Photo Essay: A Triple Train Tour Through Santa Margarita Ranch, via Pacific Coast Railroad

Last Christmas, I finally got the chance to ride in one of the original Disneyland Railroad cars that are now running on a private railway, the Pacific Coast Railroad, in Santa Margarita, California. 

But because it was a nighttime holiday lights ride, I felt like I hadn't gotten the full experience. 

So I immediately committed myself to coming back and riding the rails on Santa Margarita Ranch during the day. 

Only problem? There's once a year the public can do that: Memorial Day weekend, during the Best of the West Antique Equipment Show. (Otherwise some lucky few get to ride the trains during private events like weddings and such.) 

 

 

So, this year I finally hauled my cookies up to the Central Coast to ride the trains—all the trains they offered that weekend, which was three. 

Photo Essay: The Museum Preserving Showgirl History in Post-Jubilee Las Vegas

What is Las Vegas without its showgirls?

 

Well, that's Vegas right now—because since the "Jubilee!" show at Bally's closed in 2016, there's no longer a showgirl show.

Just the girls wearing feathered headpieces standing outside the Flamingo or the Venetian, or on Fremont Street, trying to get cash for photos. 

Well, except the 50-foot ones that were installed on the North Strip section of Las Vegas Boulevard. 

   

Since October 2023, the closest thing the city has had to a good old fashioned showgirl spectacular is Dita Von Teese's DITA LAS VEGAS: A Jubilant Revue in the Jubilee Theater at Bally's (which was rebranded as Horseshoe Las Vegas in December 2022). Unfortunately, that closed this weekend—but the good news is, I made it back to Vegas in time to see a performance of it on its second-to-last weekend.  

 

But this post isn't about Dita—and, as I learned at the Las Vegas Showgirl Museum, neither Dita nor her production qualifies as a showgirl show, even though it used some of the Jubilee sets and original costumes designed by Bob Mackie.

Photo Essay: Finding Out How a Luffa Becomes a Loofah

File under: I was already in the area, so why not?

 

I'm endlessly curious about the world around me, the way things work, and the odd origins of familiar things—so naturally, I made a trip to The Luffa Farm while visiting California's Central Coast last weekend. 

Photo Essay: A Last Look at the L.A. Times Olympic Printing Plant Before Its 2024 Closure

Well, I've known for years it was coming—but it's hard to believe it actually happened.

 

The Los Angeles Times Olympic printing plant has closed for good. 

Photo Essay: An Unnatural Superbloom at a Wildlife Crossing to Come (And Breaking News of a Possible Successful Crossing Into Griffith Park)

The news came out today that there have been some unconfirmed reports of another mountain lion making an appearance in Griffith Park. 

The timing was perfect, as I'd just happened to have taken a tour of the site of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing under construction over the 101 Freeway at Liberty Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains in Agoura Hills, California.