| Los Angeles Off Ramp Los Angeles to Culver City, California You've taken a stroll on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and compared your hand- and footprints with those of movie stars past and present in the courtyard of Mann's Chinese Theater. You've toured Universal Studios, dodged skaters on the boardwalk of Venice Beach, and braved impossibly long lines to thrill to the latest rides at Disneyland. When you've exhausted all the guidebooks' suggestions, when you tire of cruising down Rodeo Drive hoping for a glimpse of a celebrity or two, when you've already been there and done that - What then? Remember, this is Tinseltown, the place where dreamers dwell. Some dreams are just a little more imaginative (or, shall we say, bizarre) than others. Here are just a few local attractions that will renew your faith in the depth of human ingenuity or insanity. Take this off-ramp to some of the wackiest attractions in the greater Los Angeles area. Use our route planner to find hotels for your next trip. | BEST OF THE ROAD:
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| Watts Towers 1765 E 107th St Los Angeles, CA 90002 Call (213) 847-4646  |  | Many people remember the Watts district of South Los Angeles as the center of violent 1960s race riots, but this neighborhood also boasts one of the most lyrically and bizarrely beautiful assemblages of folk art in the whole U.S. Built single-handedly by Simon Rodia, an Italian immigrant and tile-layer who devoted every bit of his free time between 1921 and 1954 to the project, the eight Gaudiesque towers are made of concrete over a slender framework of steel. Embedded in the concrete are seashells, shards of dishware and tiles, and other objets trouves. City officials tried to prove the structures unsafe in a 1959 stress-test; the towers, the tallest of which rises nearly 100 feet into the sunny California sky, stood their ground. Today, they are preserved as Watts Towers of Simon Rodia State Historic Park. Be sure to stop by the adjacent Watts Towers Art Center. The towers hum with the sounds of jazz each September during the Watts Towers Simon Rodia Jazz Festival. | | |||||||
| Randy's Donuts 805 West Manchester Ave. Inglewood, CA 90301 Call (310) 645-4707 |  | Any time of the day or night, you can get your donut fix at Randy's Donuts in Inglewood. You can't miss it, either. Perched atop the rather modest stand is a giant donut with the words "Randy's Donuts" written around the hole. It's not far from the freeway and it's open 24 hours every day except Christmas, so why not stop in for a dozen sinkers when you're in the neighborhood? | | |||||||
| Museum of Jurassic Technology 9341 Venice Blvd Culver City, CA 90232 Call (310) 836-6131 | | A self-proclaimed "educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic," the Museum of Jurassic Technology is a captivating, albeit rather mind-boggling, assemblage of dioramas and displays that seeks to mirror for modern eyes the eclectic collections exhibited in the Wonder Cabinets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Permanent exhibits housed behind this Culver City storefront include "Megoloaponera Foetens: The Stink Ant of Cameroon," "The Deprong Mori of the Tripiscum Plateau" (a solid block of lead supposedly encasing the body of a bat that flew straight into it), intricate fruit-stone carvings, and a horn that grew from the head of Mary Davis of Saughall. You're sure to come away puzzled: Do they really believe this stuff, or is it just a grand but lovingly executed hoax? Is this place for real? Open Thursday from 2-8pm and Friday to Sunday from 12 (noon)-6pm. Closed Monday through Wednesday, and on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the first Thursday in May. | | |||||||
| La Brea Tar Pits 5801 Wilshire Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90036 Call (323) 934-7243 | | Between 40,000 and 10,000 years before city planners sought to bury Los Angeles under ribbons of asphalt, the gooey, tar-like substance was already wreaking havoc on the local population, which at that time consisted of at least 200 species of Ice Age birds, reptiles, insects, and mammals. As rain fell, the water would cover the asphalt seeps, disguising them as harmless freshwater ponds. When animals came to drink, they were mired in the sticky stuff, caught for posterity. Paleontologists are still freeing their bones from the tarry muck. Today, you can wander the area of the tar pits, preserved as a park and adorned with sculptures of the most gigantic mammal species unearthed there. Be sure to take in the Page Museum, where you can watch researchers in their ongoing study of the fossils, test your strength against the power of the tar, and see numerous skeletal remains of saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, mastodons, one human female, and an entire wall of dire wolf skulls. Open Monday through Friday 9:30am-5pm; Saturday, Sunday and holidays 10am-5pm. Closed on major holidays. | ||||||||
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Los Angeles Off Ramp