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Archive for the ‘Photos’ Category
There’s a Lake in Hollywood
First filled (with more than 2.5 billion gallons of water) in 1925, the Lake Hollywood Reservoir is part of the Owens Valley water system that was designed by William Mulholland to provide a new and growing city of Los Angeles with the water it needed for survival and development. This beautiful body of water is a surprisingly scenic landscape feature in Hollywood that many have not discovered. Our private luxury tour groups always get a chance to see the lake as we take them up to a vista point below the Hollywood sign to enjoy the view. This particular photograph comes from our private helicopter tour (in a French designed AStar jet helicopter) that flies over much of Los Angeles and its beaches and is followed by a 3-hour ground tour of special Los Angeles locales we like out guests to visit. There is also a fun hiking path around the lake used by local joggers and coyotes. The coyotes help us and our guests to jog faster.
Beware of the Sculls
Peaceful, quiet and cool, the rowing team has its sculls out on the placid waters around Marina del Rey. Our guests relaxed to the calls of the coxswains with glasses of wine while on a private yacht tour of Marina del Rey.
It’s Easy to Get Stuck at the Tar Pits
We often end our luxury private tours with a dramatic stopover at the La Brea Tar Pits and the George Page Museum, especially if we have young people on board. The open pit excavations in the summer are fascinating and the park atmosphere is restful amidst the other museums of Museum Row in Los Angeles' Miracle Mile district.
Dance through the Window to City Hall
As seen through Robert Graham's DANCE DOOR, the Los Angeles City Hall is perfectly framed as you look east down what will someday be the new Los Angeles Mall. Our guests love the Music Center fountain (perfect on a hot day) and this particular piece of public art never fails to fascinate. We love bringing our private luxury tour guests visiting Los Angeles and Hollywood to this area to visit the Music Center, the Disney Concert Hall and Our Lady of the Angels cathedral. Click the photo to learn more about custom private tours of Los Angeles city, neighborhoods and beach communities and many other exciting adventures with Elite Adventure Tours.
Hello Hollywoodland!
Taking a private luxury tour group up to the Hollywood sign takes us past the old entrance pillars to Hollywoodland. Also at this location is Hollywoodland Realty where, back in the days when vacant plots of land were being sold to the new population of Hollywood, a bus would be waiting to take potential buyers up into the hills to appraise home sites. Before the bus there was a mule cart. Thank goodness for roads and the internal combustion engine. Even better, we drive a luxury conversion van with snacks, drinks, a widescreen video monitor and hot aromatherapy towels to keep everyone refreshed.
What’s the Porpoise of It All?
You can’t go anywhere without someone tagging along if you look like you are having a good time. And we were. This was a private luxury yacht tour out of Marina del Rey and up the Los Angeles coast to Malibu. We enjoyed a fully catered gourmet lunch. These cetaceans obviously wanted something to eat besides their regular fare (we were having sushi, go figure). As we never travel without a professional digital camera we had no trouble capturing the flight alongside us of these sleek wet mammals. Plan on joining us some day.
Pencil drawing of the Chinese Theater?
As you would expect of a private luxury tour company of Los Angeles that offers professional photography with all its tours, we have many photographs of Grauman's Chinese Theater. All angles, all times of the day and night throughout the year, special events and even rainy days. Since we are masters of digital photography we can go further and augment our photos with artistic flair which never fails to delight our tour guests.
Our Lady of the Angels
Just across the street from the Music Center (and looming over the Hollywood Freeway) in downtown Los Angeles is this exquisite modern cathedral constructed after the Northridge earthquake significantly damaged St. Vibiana's. This new home of the Catholic archdiocese is a structure we love to point out when we are touring downtown and we always suggest stopping to visit and see the interior architecture and artwork. The beauty of a private luxury tour is that we can do that. This photo is not one of our own but was provided by Christina Hahni, a good friend of Elite Adventure Tours.
The Price is Right
The Price is Right is just one of the shows regularly filmed at CBS Television City in Hollywood. Also, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Bold and the Beautiful, Young and the Restless and Craig Ferguson’s late night show.
Built in 1952 on the site of the former Gilmore Stadium, a professional football stadium and then a motor racing track, before that a messy and smelly oil field (same oil that shows up at the La Brea Tar Pits), the 8-soundstage facility has hosted some of television greatest shows.
The audience shows draw regular crowds. We, from time to time, will bring our private luxury tour guests enjoying Hollywood and Los Angeles to see specials and pilots filmed before a live television audience.
The Nose Knows
- Jimmy Durante not only memorialized his signature and handprint, but also took a nosedive into the wet cement in the forecourt of Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. That was some Halloween back in 1945. We really appreciate the occasional guest on one of our Elite Adventure Tours (EliteAdventureTours.com) private luxury tours of Hollywood who actually remembers Jimmy Durante.
