Walking L.A. #14, Miracle Mile: 40,000 Years in the Making, 3.5 miles.

This was our second hike from Erin Mahoney Harris's Walking L.A., a collection of 38 walking tours. Once more, Barbara and I got to play sidewalk tourist, beginning with my first visit to the La Brea Park's Tar Pits, a Natural National Landmark dating back, oh, about 10,000–55,000 years. Plant and animal fossils from dire wolves to short-faced bears, ground sloths and mastodons were, and still are, being excavated from pits with gaseous methane gas bubbles (ugh, the smell) in the heart of L.A.'s museum row on Wilshire. Check the colorful face of the Craft and Folk Art Museum behind the mastodon sculptures in the gurgling pit. :) Through the park past the Page Museum, the Pavilion for Japanese Art, and the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, we headed up Fairfax to the Farmer's Market at 3rd Street—a foodie haven since 1934. Another historic landmark with the vintage DuPar's Restaurant at the corner and permanent stalls for produce vendors, bakeries (Bob's Donuts!), butchers, and more vintage restaurants inside. Seriously difficult to get through it without stopping to eat EVERYTHING, but we braved it. Next stop, Barbara's first trek through The Grove shopping center, a mere baby in this neighborhood—it opened in 2002. Speakers piped Sinatra singing Cole Porter as we walked past shops and the animated fountain then out to Grove Drive. Last stop, Pan Pacific Park. Once the parking lot for the iconic, moderne Pan Pacific Auditorium (destroyed in 1989), the park is a lovely recreational area with paths for jogging and dog-walking, lawns for picnics and yoga classes, plus basketball courts. A fun hike in another patch in the quilt of communities in metro Los Angeles!