October 11, 2008
The Magic Castle
The Magic Castle Hotel Lobby by PDXFirefly
The Magic Castle …. that is a story in itself. An historic Los Angeles landmark, it sits up on top of a slight rise just above Hollywood Blvd with a commanding view of all who approach. The Castle was started as a place for magicians to come and practice their craft in front of other magicians and select members of the private club –if you could get in! Johnny Carson often performed there, even at the height of his Tonight Show career, as magic was an early love of his and I understand that he was quite good at it!
The Magic Castle has a hotel associated with it and that is where I stayed on my most recent trip to Hollywood. I far prefer staying at places with character rather than a large chain hotel. Don’t get me wrong, I like the large chains, too, but not this time. This hotel was a former apartment building and has a cozy elegant lobby and delightful patio surrounding the pool. The rooms are all considered “suites” since they are all former apartments. It actually resembled the first apartment I ever had and I felt very comfortable there. It was very spacious and had a balcony, so we ate breakfast outside on my balcony overlooking the pool and patio and the people who didn’t have balconies. There was a very slight mix-up on my reservation, so upon arrival I was greeted with a full-size bottle of my choice of wine! They certainly aim to please! The continental breakfast had a variety of juices, cereals, breakfast breads — I pigged out on the perfect scones –and flavored Wolfgang Puck Coffees. The trend in hotel beds these days is the big soft “feather-type” with the big white fluffy duvet covers and lots of great pillows. Yes! My suite had that, too. I was one happy camper!!! and not ready to leave the luscious California sunshine for the flight back to cold, rainy Portland.
