Have you ever had anything on your "to do" list for 15 years?

When I moved to Los Angeles in 1992, I heard about this crazy/funky/cool set of sculptures that soar above South Central LA, called the Watts Towers, and I wanted to go see them. I moved to LA from bucolic Davis, CA, right after the Rodney King riots, so the timing for me to take a day trip to Watts was something short of impeccable.

I have thought about the Watts Towers many times during the intervening years, and I just never got around to going. On our run this morning, I mentioned to my friend that I was going to see the Watts Towers today, and he said, "That's been on my to do list for 30 years!"

The Towers were all of a 20-minute drive from our house, but it's deep in the hood. It's near 108th and Central, which is not area I would typically go. But during the day, the neighborhood is not that scary. I saw a couple of gang bangers and a lot of liquor stores and a lot of churches. It was around mid-day and the liquor stores were busy.

But this is about the Towers. I don't have a lot to add beyond what's on the Wikipedia entry other than it was interesting, and different, and worth a trip, but nothing that knocked my socks off.

I got a guided tour and the only other person besides me on the tour was a tourist from Sweden with a high-end camera that was essentially glued to his face. He probably got in 100 clicks.

On the way back home, I stopped at the Flight Path Museum at LAX, which was a very cool collection of airplane/airline/airport memorabilia and LAX history. It was a slow day, so the docent offered me a tour of Union 76's corporate plane from the 1940's, which sits on the tarmac outside the museum. I think it flew from 1942 to 1982, and it was restored beautifully to its 1950's splendor by Flight Path volunteers, who are mainly flight attendants and pilots who were the heart and soul of the romantic airline industry of the 1950's and 1960's. Also worth a trip, especially for those who drive by it every day.