my first plan was the getty villa. despite going to the getty center a handful of times we have never been to the original getty villa and have been wanting to go. however, when I went to go online to get tickets (which are free but you still have to reserve them online) i learned the villa is open every day except tuesday. ugh. so that is still on the list…
plan B… kill two birds with one stone; the walt disney concert hall and the cathedral of our lady of the angels. both of these are spots someone visiting LA for just a week would be very likely to get to, and yet, week after week (about 113 weeks, if you’re counting) we had never gone. also, both places offer free tours, are within walking distance of each other, and they are just about one and a quarter miles from the garage i park in for work, so we could park for free too! (a big plus when parking downtown can get really expensive.. to park in my work building for the day it’s about $28)
so, on my day off, i hopped in the car with michael and drove to work. but once we arrived we strolled right past my building and on up the hill (oh that darn hill) to the walt disney concert hall.
we picked up our headsets and wandered around listening to the free audio, self guided tour.
there’s also a nice garden space behind the building
i look deformed here (my bottom 1/2 is reflecting differently than my top half) but it’s the only picture of me from the day so i’m posting it anyways.
after we went through the concert hall, we walked the short 2 block jaunt to the cathedral of our lady of the angels. this is the grand poobha of catholic churches in los angeles. it was built in 2002 by the famous spanish architect rafael moneo. it’s very big and modern and striking and quite a destination. sunday mass is given in 42 different languages!
we arrived at the big open square adjacent to the church and found the visitors kiosk to find out about the 1 hour tour. the woman there told us we had about 15 minutes until the next tour would depart so we headed to the far end of the square to the gift shop… the fairly large, and very well stocked gift shop. the door boasted a 50% off sale of all rosaries, the there lots and lots of bibles with beautiful covers and bindings, there were books both serious and funny, there were dozens of crosses which made me want to shop for my grandmother, my abuela who collected crosses that hung on her fence in her backyard.
but abuela is gone. and the fence belongs to someone else and has probably been pressure washed since this is how it looked the last time I saw it.
and here are just some of the crosses, removed from the fence, and laid out on the table as the family divided them amongst ourselves.
anyways… after 10 minutes we headed back out to the tour kiosk and michael all the sudden realized what was about to happen and dug in his heels and said he really, really didn’t want to take a 1 hour tour of a church. i asked why the change of heart and he said he’d just remembered he has ADD and also that he is jewish. fair enough. we decided to tour the church ourselves. we walked up to the giant door of the giant church with the giant figure overhead…
but as soon as the doors opened, i took deep breath and was completely startled that it smelled like a church.
in fact i said, aloud, without even thinking, “oh my gosh, it smells like a church.”
and then it also sounded like a church, with an old man standing quietly singing in spanish or in latin or in some other language that I couldn’t understand except to understand that it was the sound of church.
i don’t know why i didn’t expect all this. i mean, we specifically headed out that day with the word CATHEDRAL on the agenda, but i guess with all the hoopla surrounding it (the famous architect, the 20 bibles for sale in the gift shop, the asian tour groups milling about the kiosk..) i wasn’t expecting to be so church-y. and although i know churches are supposed to mean prayer and communion and kneeling and standing and ‘our fathers’ and confessions and holy water and candles and pews and priests and alter boys and incense and mostly, more than anything, mean God… to me they mean my abuela which is the only reason I ever went to church anyways. and not just went, but willingly and by choice (because my parents never made us go, or even asked us to go, it was completely our choice) because that is where my abuela would be and going meant sitting with her, standing with her, and kneeling with her during mass. and afterward we milled around outside so abuela could talk to the priest and also to ½ the congregation because she knew everyone and everyone knew her. and after all that we went to krispy kreme and got doughnuts to share with everyone back home.
but on tuesday it was just me and michael and my camera and we were there to see a building that happened to be a church. it wasn’t supposed to be like going to a church… we weren’t there for mass, just to have a look-see. i under estimated it all.
and the church is beautiful.
you could stay all day looking at the thought and detail that went into it. the attention to a light sconce… the selection of the artwork… the light coming in through thinly cut slabs of marble…
but we didn’t stay all day.
we walked around for just 15 minutes before i quietly lowered my camera from my eye and let michael see my face that was wet, and my eyes red. he didn’t even have to ask, he looked surprised for just a half of a second and said,“oh… abuela.” he put his arm around me and walked me back out the door, back into downtown los angeles, away from the quiet, and the smell of the incense specific to the catholic church, and away from the old man singing to no one.
