Route 66 bus adventure April 30, 2011

Staycation alert: Esotouric's May Day bus tour weekend reveals the retro jewels in L.A.'s backyard
WHAT: Esotouric's spring architecture and urbanism tour series, REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A., packs the May Day weekend with ROUTE 66 (4/30, 11am-3pm) and SOUTH L.A. (5/1, 11am-3pm)
WHERE/WHEN: ROUTE 66 departs 11am from Cafe Metropol, 923 E. 3rd. Street, Downtown; SOUTH L.A. departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 N. Alameda, Chinatown
COST: $58/person, or just $45 with a weekend pass (see below)
WEEKEND TOUR PACKAGES: Enjoy two days of architectural Los Angeles bus tourism, and save with a weekend pass ($90, regularly $116) , details at the link below:
http://esotouric.com/route66-soutla-weekend-may-11
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- Savvy travelers know that the most incredible adventures are often found close to home. This May Day weekend (Saturday, April 30/Sunday, May 1), join Esotouric, the offbeat bus adventure company whose tours reveal the secret heart of Los Angeles, as they host twin excursions deep into the city's most fascinating crannies: along ROUTE 66 in the San Gabriel Valley, and out into the history-drenched zones of SOUTH L.A. Both tours depart from downtown.

ABOUT THE ROUTE 66 TOUR (April 30):
It's a common misconception that ROUTE 66 only gets interesting in Arizona. But when Esotouric's Route 66 bus tour departs from downtown Los Angeles, passengers are in for a four-hour tour packed with stunning retro jewels plucked from L.A.'s own backyard. ROUTE 66 only exists today in small fragments, but many of the unique attractions that dotted its length survive and flourish today. Get on the bus to explore the real Southland, as no one but Esotouric's Richard Schave can reveal it. Richard's unique expertise on unknown Los Angeles has seen him as a featured guide on television's "Globe Trekker" (Grand Central Market) and "Cities of the Underworld" (downtown's prohibition-era tunnels) and speaking at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Hammer Museum. The ROUTE 66 tour explores California's original mass transit corridor and the building of its dream, from climate to citrus industry, Kalifornia Krazy architectural novelties to bucolic bungalows. Highlights in the April 30, 2011 edition of ROUTE 66 include a tour of E. WALDO WARD FARM (the oldest surviving commercial citrus facility in LA, where passengers can buy scrumptious preserves and almond-filled olives to take home), a stroll through Robert Stacy Judd's 1924 masterpiece THE AZTEC HOTEL (and yes, it's haunted), a swing around the homes of the feuding SLAUSON SISTERS tucked among vast cleared fields awaiting new development (hidden gems of Azusa lore and family dynamics, and a reminder of how fragile ecologies fall to the incessant crush of progress). Passengers will also tour the seldom-seen Civil War-era FAIRMOUNT CEMETERY and view the evocative BUNGALOWS of old Monrovia accompanied by host Richard Schave's lively rendition of a vintage bungalow booster tune.

ABOUT THE SOUTH L.A. TOUR (May 1):
Architecture critic Reyner Banham called them "The Plains of Id"—those vast, uncharted flatlands between the freeways of Los Angeles, home to millions of L.A. residents but rarely talked about unless something extraordinary happens--like the recent scandal over outrageous city salaries in poor, tiny Bell. But to Esotouric, The Plains of Id are among the most fascinating parts of Los Angeles, deserving more attention than a brief, scandalous blip. And with their SOUTH L.A. tour, they delve deep into the uncharted wonders of two centuries of history through the neglected neighborhoods where some of the city's most compelling and unexpected landmarks rub elbows with stucco taquerias and seemingly endless sprawl. The tour rolls through VERNON (the controversial zone of industry with a lively Prohibition-era past), SANTA FE SPRINGS (a bucolic retreat destroyed when oil was discovered -- but not before Irving Gill built one of the most beautiful and little-known houses in Southern California, THE CLARKE ESTATE), BELL GARDENS (site of GOVERNOR GAGE'S MANSION, a boggling architectural layer cake of an adobe-wrapped-in-a-Victorian-wrapped-in-a-trailer-park), EAST L.A. (site of THE EAST LOS ANGELES TRAIN STATION, important in the history of Southland rail transit) and DOWNEY (home of the Carpenters, Kustom Kar Kulture and the newly restored JOHNIE'S BROILER / BOB'S BIG BOY DRIVE-IN, as featured in Tom Wolfe's "The Pump House Gang"). The SOUTH L.A. Esotouric bus adventure begins downtown and works its way south through the past two centuries, exploring some of L.A.'s seldom-seen gems. The bus goes into areas not traditionally associated with the important, beautiful or significant, raising issues of preservation, adaptive reuse and the evolution of the city from Spanish ranchos to the 'burbs. The locations all speak to the power, mutability and reach of the Southern California Dream.

ABOUT THE REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A. TOUR SERIES:
In addition to the upcoming SOUTH L.A. and ROUTE 66 tours, Esotouric's ongoing architecture and urbanism tour series includes THE NEW CHINATOWNS, BOYLE HEIGHTS and THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN. Inspired by the British architectural critic Reyner Banham, who host Richard Schave studied under at UC Santa Cruz, the REYNER BANHAM LOVES LOS ANGELES series offers a fresh way of looking at the urban web of history, mass transit, migration and mystery that somehow holds L.A. together. The Reyner Banham Loves LA series of Esotouric bus adventures provides fresh ways of seeing the Southland and mingling with fascinating fellow travelers, and are a must for urban explorers, architecture buffs, curious locals, daring tourists, and anyone who enjoys turning over rocks to reveal the secrets beneath. Come ride and see for yourself.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat April 16 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour (sold out)
Sun April 17 - Trace: inside the world of Lynne Herold, Criminalist (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 23 - In A Lonely Place: Raymond Chandler's L.A.
Sun April 24 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 30 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend package available)
Sun May 1 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South L.A. (weekend package available)
Sat May 14 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat May 28 - Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Sun May 29 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat June 4 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat June 18 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun June 19 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun June 26 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat July 9 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat July 16 - Raymond Chandler's L.A.
Sat July 30 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release
Sun July 31 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)

Esotouric's Richard Schave, Kim Cooper and Joan Renner are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org

For more on Reyner Banham, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyner_Banham

And the BBC documentary "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles"
http://reyner.notlong.com

Official Website: http://www.esotouric.com