Halloween and L.A. at Great Heights

Our latest date was a mix of splurges and freebies. And it was quintessentially L.A.

The view from the 34th floor of the Bonaventure

Kim and I had planned to spend Halloween night at the Cicada Club from the moment we heard they were throwing a party. We decided to build a long weekend around the event.

For our base, we chose the Biltmore, just up Olive Street from Cicada and the hotel where we spent our honeymoon. We love the Biltmore, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary. If you're looking for a spectacular room, this is not the hotel for you. If you looking for history, for beauty, and, for the lack of a better term, "L.A.-ness," the place to go is the Biltmore.

The Biltmore has hosted prohibition bashes, the Academy Awards,  presidents, and the Beatles. Its been featured in scores of movies and TV shows. In fact, of the three times we've stayed their, there was filming on two visits, the first was for the TV show 24 and this time Pierce Brosnan and Selma Hayek were there filming a movie called How to Make Love Like an Englishman.

We were able to use hotels.com to get a room for $160 a night. Had I acted sooner, I could have gotten the room for $120, but I waited to pull the trigger. Lesson One: be ready to act when you see a deal.

One other quick word on the Biltmore and rates. The second time we went there, we took advantage of their "Now, Then, and Again" package which included an afternoon tea and a walking tour of the hotel offered by the L.A. Conservancy. I mention this because the package is being offered now starting at $200. The Victorian Tea alone is $45 a person. The package is only good for Saturday night stays. Definitely worth considering.

A great place to see the lights is the 34th floor lounge

After Kim finished teaching her last class of the week, we headed to downtown L.A. and checked in. After a quick nap, it was off to the party. Cicada, once again, was awesome. The idea was this was a Halloween party in the 1930s. Most people got the idea and ran with it. Costumes included Charlie Chaplin, an aviator whose date came as the airplane, Cleopatra, a newsie (who held onto his newspapers all night long), Gomez and Morticia (the comic debut in '38 so it was in keeping with the theme), Bonnie and Clyde, and a 30s movie director.

We opted to go Venetian Carnival this year.

A few people didn't quite get the idea, like the greaser, the Star Trek guy (we can let him slide because the band's bass player was dressed in Spock ears and had a Star Fleet emblem on his shirt), and a couple that looked like they came off the set of Mad Men (they got a pass too because they had the look down and were freakin' beautiful). You can see some of the costumes on this video on Vimeo.

I won't go into detail on the party. You can check my earlier post on Cicada to get a feel for the night.

 After sleeping in Friday morning, we headed out to Grand Park to see the altars set up for Dia de los Muertos. There is almost always something going on in Grand Park and that something is always free. During the week, the park offers yoga classes, lunchtime concerts, and, on Tuesdays, a farmers market. Their next major event there is a New Year's Day celebration, but they do keeping adding to the calendar.

After viewing the altars, we made our way to City Hall. The public entrance is on the Main Street. After going through security and getting visitor stickers, we took an express elevator to the 22nd floor and then caught another to the 26th floor, which has portraits of the city's mayors going back decades.

Up one more floor is the main attraction - an observation deck. On this particular day, the air quality was fairly good, allowing us to see almost to the ocean. If you're downtown on a weekday, this is something you need to check out.

After lunch, we headed back to the Biltmore for a swim. The Biltmore's pool was modeled after the luxury ocean liners of the day. There is beautiful tile work depicting mermaids and Neptune.

Our dinner was a bit of splurge, but the setting is one of the most romantic in all of Los Angeles - the revolving cocktail lounge on the 34th floor of the Bonaventure. We arrived about a half hour before sunset and then enjoyed a leisurely meal while watching the sunset and then the lights of the city coming on as night arrived.

My little mermaid

As I said, it was a bit of splurge. A small pizza, fries, and a couple of beers apiece set us back (with tip) nearly $80. But remember, you are paying for the setting and the sights.

So there's two great ways to see the city from great heights - the City Hall observation deck for free and the revolving 34th floor cocktail lounge, which could set you back quite bit depending on what you eat and drink.

Love the tiles and colors of the Biltmore pool

Our long weekend ended on Saturday with a visit to Olvera Street, which was packed for Dia de los Muertos festivities. We came, however, to see the America Tropical mural.

The mural was painted by David Alfaro Siqueiros, described by the people at the mural's interpretive center as being an artist who believed wanted his work to be reflective of the environment where it was created.

He had been commissioned to paint a tropical scene, which everyone thought would a tranquil scene. What Siqueiros painted was a crucified Indian peasant surmounted by an American eagle. It generated outrage and within a couple of years it was given a whitewashing. A few years later another coating of whitewash was applied.

The view from the observation platform.

In 1988, the Getty Conservation Institute and the City of Los Angeles began an effort to revive the mural. It was only just last fall that the mural was seen by the public for the first time since the 1930s. The whitewash has slowly been removed. Lacking color photographs of what the mural looked like, it was not repainted. What you see is Siqueiros' original work.

What it looked like in the 30s

Admission to the mural is free, but the interpretive center hours are limited to 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. The interpretive center is in the Sepulveda House, 125 Paseo de La Plaza.