Tarzan's tour guide to the San Fernando Valley
(Click on imags to gigantisize)
In the most recent issue of Everywhere (a wonderful community-made travel magazine) I contributed a list of must-visit but oft-overlooked places in and near Tarzana, CA in the San Fernando Valley.
My list included a ramshackle petting zoo called The Farm, the high school stoner den called Vanalden Cave, a retired Nike missile launch site, an old-school health food market and cafe called Follow Your Heart, and the Red Barn Feed & Saddlery.
I rode my bike to the Red Barn Feed & Saddlery yesterday to load up on (ultra-low carb) cat food and (high carb) guinea pig food. My kids usually come with me, because we can visit the baby chicks for sale, fill up bags of popcorn from the popcorn wagon, and sit in plastic chairs in the parking lot under a shade tree and drink soda pop.
The owners broadcast patriotic marching band victory music over the sound system, and the walls of the barn are covered with framed front pages of newspapers with World War II major event stories. The row of signed celebrity photos includes Lt. Uhura wearing her red uniform and several cowboy actors.
The last time I was there with my kids, an older man with a lapdog sat with us. When it came time to leave, I looked for the trash can for the bottles and popcorn bags, but he told us to leave them on the ground. "They'll pick 'em up!" He was insistent on that point, so I shrugged and set them on the ground. I don't know if he worked there.
Link to Tarzan's tour guide to the San Fernando Valley | Link to Red Barn Feed & Saddlery
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I guess Ed would be proud, it's just many years too late to dub oneself Tarzan at this late date I suspect. Korak may be more appropriate. And as someone who grew up in the "valley of death" - the good stuff is gone. We just lost "the Weiner Factory" to a Pinkberry who stole their lease.
I lived in Tarzana from 4th grade onwards. (When non-Los Angelenos laughed at the funny name, I used to tell them Edgar Rice Burroughs could have called it "Cheetahville.")
Just wanted to say that there was always a big difference between the Tarzana north of Ventura Boulevard and that south of the boulevard: different school catchment areas, different topography, different feel and layout. The orchards and farms north of the boulevard are now more and more carved up into subdivisions with houses far too grandiose for the tiny lots they stand upon; the area south--the wealthier part of "Tarzana Ranch," where celebrities still live, has encroached higher and higher into the hills (far above and beyond the now-old subdivision of "Deauville").
A lot of good stuff was on its way out when I got married and moved away... some 25+ years ago.
I've hiked the Nike Missile site. Great views up there.