The information presented on
this page does not fall into any of the other categories within this
article. As items on
this page grow in length they may be moved to their own page within the
entire Los Angeles article. Click on the links below for each section.
Casinos
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There are no Indian Reservations within the city of
Los Angeles so any casinos you may find do not have slot machines,
rather their focus is on card games, blackjack, poker and bingo.
We have visited the following two casinos.
 Crystal Casino & Hotel is located off of the 91 freeway in
Compton about 10 minutes from LAX and or downtown Long Beach. Address:
123 East Artesia Blvd. This casino can be very crowded on weekends
especially for bingo where you may see several hundred people parked
out on long tables playing this game. Visit:
www.thecrystalcasino.com
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Commerce Casino is located right off of the 5 freeway near the
Citadel Shopping Outlets. This is a huge casino, hotel and spa with a
number of restaurants contained inside. Commerce Casino has many card
tables, offers poker, bingo and a number of ongoing tournaments
including Poker and Hold em'. Our friends owned some oil wells in the
city of Commerce and our first visit to this casino came during a visit
to these wells. Visit:
www.commercecasino.com
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The
Crystal Cathedral
is located off of the 22 freeway in the heart of Orange County at
12141 Lewis St. You can also easily see it driving by on the 5
freeway and it can also be accessed via the 5 freeway. This is not your usual "cathedral" as you can guess
from its name. A tall shining spire greets you as you enter the parking
lot (free parking). In the same grain as a drive in fast food restaurant
the Crystal Cathedral offers drive in prayer, or as it is titled on a
sign, the "In Car Worship Center". How many cathedrals have a box
office. You can find one here, available to sell tickets to a wide
variety of events including ministries, annual celebrations, seminars
and conferences. The cathedral is also famous for its nationally
televised "Hour of Power".
You can either take a self guided tour of the cathedral and grounds or
reserve a free guided tour ahead of time. If you decide to explore on
your own, allow at least 30-45 minutes to walk the grounds. Unique
religious statues of significance are scattered around the property.
Click our thumbnail photos below and visit:
www.crystalcathedral.org
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| The tall spire |
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Incredible carving |
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Marble statue outside |
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The Crystal Cathedral |
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Hand in statue |
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| The inside of the Crystal Cathedral. |
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The center of the Crystal Cathedral. |
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Yes, they have a box office! |
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The "in car" worship center - parking lot.
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A wonderful statue outside. |
Graffiti
- There is a never ending battle between law
enforcement and those who "tag" various urban locations within Los
Angeles including freeway overpasses, parks, bridges, along the LA River
and any number of buildings. It is always interesting to see Graffiti
tags high up on overpasses in locations that are extremely difficult to
reach. Graffiti is a major problem within certain communities in the Los
Angeles area.
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Los Angeles
River -
When you stand solitary on North Main Street next
to the railroad tracks above the Los Angeles River all you feel
is a deep sadness as you look down on a river that has
been dramatically altered in a relatively short amount of time.
You look down on a dirty river that now flows dark, a concrete
river juxtaposed with brightly colored graffiti where those
entrapped by the city, drugs, gangs and poverty territorially
cry out with their markings. Electrical lines, bridges, rubble
and old fences all decorate the banks of
what was originally the lifeblood of Los Angeles. If
you do not happen to be on North Main Street, any of a number of bridges
in this area will afford one the same views. Close your eyes and think
back 100 years to a time when this actually was a natural river, with
trees and grass growing along its banks. Or, if your imagination has
been corrupted
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beyond hope by the scene that lies in front of you,
simply
Click Here to see a picture of the LA River taken in 1900.
For more information visit the Friends of the Los Angeles River:
www.folar.org or view
this very informative film here:
www.plasmatic-concepts.com/lariver/movie.html
Looking to take a tour of the LA River? Visit:
www.deliriousla.net/lariver/tours.htm
Miracle
Mile is a fancy very urban section along Wilshire Blvd.
The main reason it received its name is because of its meteoric rise to
fame from an area that used to be farming fields. Today there are many
tall fancy buildings that line this part of Wilshire. Several museums
are located here including the
LA County Museum of Art, the famed
La Brea Tarpits
and the Petersen
Automotive Museum. In
addition the Screen Actor's Guild has its headquarters here as well as
other business connected to the entertainment and film industry. As you
drive Wilshire towards downtown next to and just past Miracle Mile, you
can drive through a very nice old neighborhood and sometimes avoid some of the Wilshire traffic. This parallel road (West 8th Street) runs next to
Wilshire for a few miles.
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Skeletons in the
Closet
is located at the Los Angeles County Coroner's office at
1104 N. Mission Road east of downtown right next to the 5
freeway. Visitor parking is to the side of the main building -
be sure to get a free visitors permit pass from the secretary
located in the main building to put on your dash.
Skeletons in the Closet is a fairly hidden gift shop located
behind room 208 in the main building. Only the small words "gift
shop" are written on the smoky non see through small
window. The small shop carries a variety of morbid type
souvenirs ranging from the very popular floor mats that contain
an outline of a body (these are crazily popular around
Halloween), to clothing, mugs and much more! As they say at this
shop, "we're dying for your business".
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This is certainly not a gift shop your going to find in
the tourist brochures - its well hidden away and you have to know about
it to find it. Can't make it to the Coroner's office? They sell their
products online as well and you can request their mail order catalogue.
For more information visit:
http://lacstores.co.la.ca.us Proceeds from sales benefit the
Youthful
Drunk Driver Visitation Program
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Wine Tasting
- San Antonio Winery is located fairly close to the 5
freeway east of downtown at
737 Lamar Street. This is a historical winery founded in
1917 at a time when there were many wineries in and around Los
Angeles. Today they are the only bonded winery within the city
of Los Angeles. They have a healthy advertising budget and you
may see their signs around parts of town including nearby
Chinatown.
They make a wide variety of wines, all affordably priced. They
own vineyards on California's central coast including around
Paso Robles, Monterey and then also in Rutherford, Napa Valley.
All of their wines are priced very affordably from just a few
dollars to $50. As of our latest update, most of their wines are
in the $7 to $20 range with a |
production of wines to satisfy many different
palates. They make a wide variety of sweet wines also.
San Antonio Winery has been family (Riboli Family)
owned since day 1. When we were there the original owners nephew, 87
year old Stefano who came to America from Italy in 1937, was helping
with the tastings. He comes to work every day is known as "the boss" and
is a great source of information about the local history of the area,
anything related to wine - and he loves to meet and talk to people.
Besides their complimentary tastings, San Antonio winery also offers
tours, food and wine classes, holds special wine festivals and runs the
Maddalena Restaurant on site, featuring cuisine from
northern Italy.
For more information visit:
www.sanantoniowinery.com or
www.riboliwines.com
| Heading up to No Cal to do some
wine tasting in Napa? |
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| Dave has personally visited and
tasted with over 600 commercial wine producers (wineries) in
the Napa Valley. Click on the graphic above or visit:
www.napawineproject.com |
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About
Dave's Pick