LA, Baby!

After dressing for Sunday, the Daughters Courageous headed out on their first trip in LA - Forest Lawn Memorial Park - which they described as "the most beautiful and the most life inspiring park that could ever be created."  There are not any good pictures of the cemetary in my Grandma's book, but they describe seeing the Little Church of the Flowers, the Kirk of the Heather and Memorial Court, where they saw a stained glass replica of daVinci's The Last Supper.  Apparently at sunset, the disciples disappear from view in the Last Supper, and all that is left is the faint outline of the face of Christ.  The girls were unable to see that window on Sunday, but bought tickets for a return trip on Monday morning at 8:00 am to see the window in an artificial sunset produced with shutters.


Of course, all this sight seeing made the girls hungry, so the next stop was Louis' French Cafe in Hollywood, where they drank coffee from glasses and described everything as "beautiful".  Of course, no trip to Hollywood would be at all complete without a tour of the stars' homes, which they describe as mostly fences and rooftops!  The Hollywood sign then was a bit different than it is now - still saying "Hollywoodland" instead of the shorter version we see today.


Evening took the Daughters Courageous to what was then the oldest street in LA, Olvera Street, sometimes called Mexican Street, which would have looked something like this in 1939:

There they window shopped, and, of course, had their handwriting analyzed by Mr. C.E. Bower.  The journal says that "Peaches" was determined to be "precise, meticulous and domestic."  He couldn't have described my Grandma better!

Following their return trip to Forest Lawn, the girls donned their swim wear and went to Long Beach for a swim in the Pacific.  They describe being thrilled to swim in the Pacific, but not enjoying the salt water at all.  One can only assume that this was the first time any of them had been to the ocean, all being from the Western New York area.  They spent the day there basking in the sun, and then got cleaned up and ready for dinner with some of my grandmother's friends, the Greiners, which will be saved for another day!

Again, no letters home, and not many pictures, even of Hollywood.  While going through this book, I have to keep reminding myself that people really didn't take as many pictures as we do in the digital age.  You waited and found something you really had to capture, and then took the photo.  I am gathering that my Grandmother wasn't overly impressed by this part of the trip, as there are no souvenir cards or brochures or anything from this part of the trip, as there are from places like the Grand Canyon, or other particularly interesting restaurants or stops along the way.  But, there's more to come!