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Archive for December 16th, 2009
LA Helicopter Tours
Growing up in Southern California, I feel that I have a pretty solid understanding of the Los Angeles area. When I decided to take my girlfriend back to meet my family, she was excited to do some sightseeing, as she had never been to the West Coast before. I was less than enthused to spend a whole day reviewing the terrain that I was already quite familiar with.
Instead of hiring a run-of-the-mill tour company, I decided to try something a bit more exciting and looked into LA helicopter tours. I have to admit; I was blown away by everything that we saw. Not only did the helicopter take us to areas that I was unfamiliar with, but it also allowed us to circumvent the notorious LA traffic. The guide was also quite knowledgeable, and gave us some intriguing tidbits of LA history that I had never heard before.
Christmas Tree Lane
Every Christmas season for more than 80 years, the majestic deodars on the “Mile of Christmas Trees” are strung with 10,000 lights. Christmas Tree Lane in Altadena is the oldest large-scale Christmas lighting spectacle in the United States. These Deodars were introduced in 1883 to Southern California by Altadena founder John P. Woodbury who first saw a stand of the deodars in Italy.
Proclaiming them the most beautiful trees he had ever seen, he returned with seeds, and getting assurance from a friend of his at the Department of Agriculture that the trees would do well in California, had his brother Frederick nurse them at the Altadena ranch.
In 1920 Altadena resident and Pasadena businessman Frederick C. Nash came up with an idea of lighting the trees for the holidays. He sought assistance from his organization The Pasadena Kiwanis Club and from the City of Pasadena to initially light a 1/4 mile section of the roadway. Over the next few years the lighting expanded until the entire row of trees, 150 in all, were lighted. The boulevard at that time was referred to as the Avenue of the Deodars. Though many pedestrians would walk along the lighted street, it was really a spectacle to behold from the seats of slowly passing automobiles and “tours vans Los Angeles” frequent as well. Visit Christmas Tree Lane @ E Calaveras St & Santa Rosa Ave Altadena, CA 91001