6 Indoor L.A. Adventures
If you're hearing warnings about bomb cyclones, atmospheric rivers, a Godzilla El Niño or an angry El Niña, you might be wondering how you're going to pass the time with an activity that's not directly in the path of washed-out trails, mudslides or intermittent downpours.
Sometimes it feels like everything is an outdoor activity here — shopping, having brunch or admiring public art. So what are we supposed to do indoors to avoid getting soaked or swept away while we try to recover from the drought? There must be something to do besides staying home in front of the TV.
You could always go to the movies — an obvious choice — but you do have other options.
Here are six ways to experience the art, culture and history of L.A. in ways you might not normally (at least, not when it's 72 degrees and sunny out). And you can spend more than just an hour or two at each of them.
Take a Factory Tour
L.A. has been and still is very much the center of many different industries — from aerospace to fashion. And many of our factories will open their doors (sometimes for free) to show curious visitors how everything works (and tastes). You can visit Huy Fong Foods any time of year to get your Sriracha fix — not just during their annual summertime open house. [Ed: Note that tours were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and have not yet resumed as of this update.]
You can also taste fresh-out-of-the-fryer ramen noodles at Nongshim in Rancho Cucamonga or swing by Fender guitars [temporarily closed], Deering banjos [temporarily closed] or Robinson Helicopters for truly eye-opening experiences. (Generally it's best to make arrangements for your visit in advance.)
Get Your Library Card
Well, not just any library, but our city treasure, the LAPL Central Library, where you can get lost in the stacks, sit in on a lecture and take an architecture tour to learn about how the landmark survived devastating fire twice.
There are tons of murals to peruse, including many that depict the history of California, as well as rotating art and photography exhibits; but if you feel like doing some reading, take a ride in the elevator, whose walls are lined with vintage salvaged card catalogue entries. Because although Central Library has a modern annex that features contemporary art, it's inscribed in the walls of the main building: "In books we live in all ages."
Work On Your High Score
It used to be that if you wanted to recapture your youth and play something besides darts, you'd have to go to one of the big chains and fight the crowds of tourists and families. Now, with Button Mash in Echo Park, Neon Retro Arcade in Pasadena, The One Up in Sherman Oaks, and EightyTwo in the Arts District, you can find a cool video arcade pretty much wherever you are.
If you're looking for something more athletic, there's a new outpost of Brewskee-Ball, the national Skee-Ball league, starting up at Arts District Brewing. [Operations suspended indefinitely since March 2020.] There's even a board game-themed coffee joint in Glendale called the GameHaus Café [now permanently closed], where you can eat sandwiches, salads and pastries while you choose from their hundreds (if not thousands) of games stacked to the ceiling, which you'll be charged by the hour to play.
Serious gamers will figure out how to get access to one of the several private collections of antique pinball machines around the city, but fortunately there's one that's open occasionally to the public: Pins and Needles in Echo Park [now permanently closed]. Check their website for times and dates.
Spend the Day at a Hotel
Hotels aren't just for overnight stays, especially in L.A. Many of them welcome — in fact, encourage — local visitors who aren't spending the night to take advantage of their amenities. The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, for instance, is rich with history, Hollywood lore, and ghost stories — and it can keep you entertained for hours.
Start by people-watching in the lobby, and then head upstairs to roll some boozy bowling balls at The Spare Room (where bands and DJs often play), catch a movie or show at the Cinegrill Theater and grab a gourmet burger and some onion rings at any time of night at 25 Degrees, which is open all night.
Or get traditional afternoon high tea at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, have dinner and a show at the Ace Hotel and its adjacent theater, or find a member to get you into the Los Angeles Athletic Club, where you can swim in a gorgeous vintage pool (like Don Draper did on "Mad Men"), and then sneak up a hidden staircase to a tiny and very exclusive speakeasy.
Go For a Scrub
Going to one of the city's Asian- or European-style spas could be one of the best deals in town, if it's one of the places where you pay a flat fee to spend all day there. Your admission charge will go toward the cost of your service, if you decide to get a massage or a mud scrub.
Usually there are steam rooms, saunas, hot tubs and cold pools for you to rotate through and lounge about it, so you can definitely kill a couple of hours and not think about how the weather outside is frightful. At Olympic Spa in Koreatown, you can get a traditional scrub or a milk bath (which is exactly what it sounds like). If you do want something a bit fancier, Wi Spa near MacArthur Park is open 24 hours and has an on-site restaurant.
Go Underground
OK, so you may not want to take the Metro to actually get anywhere, but the Metro stations themselves — including, of course, our crown jewel Union Station — are quite fascinating and worth a visit. Union Station often hosts musical performances, lectures and slide shows and even movies in the afternoon and evening. Afterwards you can have a nice sit-down dinner at Traxx and a nightcap at Traxx Bar.
Metro conducts regular tours of Union Station in both English and Spanish (as does the Los Angeles Conservancy) as well as of the art that's been installed in the various stations along their lines. Each has its own theme, which is expressed with sculpture, light, video and wall and ceiling motifs both on the train platforms and in the entryways before you go through the turnstiles. Your best bet is probably the Red Line, so you can stay underground and not fight the elements on a light rail like the Expo Line or the Gold Line. But that's not a bad thing, since Ghost Hunters of Urban Los Angeles say it's haunted.
This article was updated with currently available information on January 4, 2023.
