On Tour

Last Saturday morning, while Ole Miss was giving Bama fans a scare before finally losing on a last second field goal, Amanda and I were on a guided architectural tour of downtown LA, which turned out to focus on about two square blocks, but since it was free, I would definitely say it was worth it. I even learned a few things.





Things I Learned While on a Guided Architectural Tour of Downtown LA:
1. The colorful glass pyramid on top of the downtown branch of the Los Angeles Public Library was originally designed to be a dome, but since it was built in 1922, they changed it to a pyramid to capitalize on the popularity of all things Egyptian following the King Tut discovery. Somehow, I managed to forget to take a picture of that.

2. The Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles has absolutely no association whatsoever to the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. They just named it that because they wanted people to think it was fancy. That doesn't sound too kosher to me.




3. The Subway Terminal Building, which is no longer a subway terminal and is being converted into high-end luxury condos, was once used to house something like 300,000 pounds of Saltine crackers in the late 1950's (I think), in case of a nuclear threat. They aren't there anymore. They were moved to somewhere in Utah. I'm not even making that up.




4. I learned that when you meet a couple wearing University of Michigan shirts, they probably went to Michigan. I learned that when you make small talk with them during your guided architectural tour of downtown LA, you can say things like "Big game against Penn State today," and they will probably respond "Did you go to Michigan?" I learned that when you say, "No, I went to Texas," a few seconds will pass as they remember the Rose Bowl loss to Texas before they say "Oh," and then it's best just to smile and enjoy the architecture.

If anyone wants to see more pictures, leave a comment and I will email you the ophoto album.