Sam Maloof House and San Diego Zoo

Our two longest day trips had travel time of a little under two hours. One was north and one was south of Dana Point.

My husband mentioned awhile back, that if we ever visited Southern California again he would like to see the Maloof House in the Alta Loma section of Rancho Cucamonga. Sam Maloof perfected the art of furniture making through many years. He is best known for his rocking chairs and baby cradles that have sculptural artistry. The Smithsonian as well as several other museums have some of his furniture; several United States Presidents also purchased his rocking chairs.

Perfection comes at a cost. At the end of the house tour, there was a Maloof rocking chair to sit in. The price tag said $12,000. Sam apprenticed several men who continue to make furniture as Sam did and using his templates; some of those prices run around $5,000. Sam died in 2009.

We were not allowed to take photos in the interior of the house. When Sam and his wife Alfreda married, they had little money. They decided to build their own home on a piece of property surrounded by avocado and lemon trees. The first building included a great room of living room, dining area, and kitchen, and then a separate bedroom and bath  on a single floor. Also, a woodshop for Sam was attached. When people visited and admired Sam's furniture, Alfreda would often sell it to them on the spot. Or she would promise that Sam would build them something similar or even more customized. She was the one who promoted his furniture.

As the couple prospered, they added on rooms here and there and another level to meet the needs of their growing family (2 children), a mother-in-law who lived with them for several years, and a studio for Alfreda who painted. The result is a bit of a hodge-podge.

 Notice the tower in the right of the photo. Sam sparred with the zoning board for years to get permission to add a tower to his house. Finally, he just went ahead and did it. When rebuked, he said it wasn't a tower, just a very tall room to display some artwork.

When the 210 Freeway was being planned, its path would go through the Maloof property and house. A foundation managed to get historical recognition for the buildings, but they had to be taken apart and moved to a piece of land at the bottom of the foothills. 

The historical significance wasn't limited to Sam and Alfreda's works; they taught at some of the Pomona colleges and socialized with other artists of the area. The house contains paintings, drawings, sculpture, pottery from these artists. The couple also traveled extensively once they were successful and bought art in Africa and Asia and native American pieces which also are displayed throughout the house. Alfreda also worked on an Indian reservation prior to marrying Sam and had artifacts given to her.

Since Sam did the work on the house, he taught himself different needed skills. Every door in the house is different, a work of art. In some of them he inserted colored glass or stained glass which he learned to do for that purpose. Eventually, the Maloofs added a display gallery to feature the wares for sale rather than just offer their own furniture. 

An interesting story revolves around one of their grandsons. We were shown a child's rocking chair with the boy's name carved on the back. The little boy was excited and told his teacher he would bring it to show-and-tell at school. When the day arrived, he had no chair. When asked what happened, he said it was at some place called Smithsonian. 

The tours of the house take place every Thursday and Saturday afternoon and require paid reservations. Each group is limited to 10 people. There are lots of stair steps, some rather narrow and steep. The gift shop and the gardens (planted by Sam's second wife after a new house was built for them on the museum property and featuring arid landscape plants) are open free to the public on those days. The gift shop has many Oriental works of art as the Maloofs came to love that style of work, and the foundation features and promotes it. They also sell books by and about Sam. 

It may have been the $54 entry fee and lingering childhood memories, but I had high expectations for the San Diego Zoo. I was disappointed. It was a hot day and something in the air (pollen?) made my nose run constantly. My discomfort combined with the vastness and hilliness of the zoo layout meant we didn't see every exhibit.

My mantra became "no visible animal in the enclosure" as we peered at the bears and big cats exhibits. I know big cats like jaguars, tigers, lions, ocelots are nocturnal. I expected to see them sleeping however. That held true for the lions but not the others. Absolutely no sign of them.

What I remember from visiting as a child is a large flock of coral flamingos at the entrance. They are still there!

We did use the hop-on bus and the aerial Skyway car to get around without so much walking. Later we took the double-decker bus tour but only folks on the right hand side could see any animals; we were on the left. We couldn't even see the giraffe.

Near the upper aerial loading dock is the polar bear exhibit  of three animals. At first I enjoyed seeing a bear from the underwater view, but then it circled round and round placing one of its huge paws on the same rock to push partway out of the water over and over again. I began to feel sorry for it because of this repetitive neurotic behavior. 

The deer/antelope type of animals were plentiful not far from the polar bears.

Doesn't look like it would take much effort to snap this animal's neck, does it?

I guess there are tar pits in the San Diego area. I was unaware of that. Quite a bit of space was dedicated to fossils or reproductions of tar-pit era creatures, but the quality paled to that of La Brea Tar Pits and museum in Los Angeles. Immediately after the fossil display came the elephant which they had compared to the mammoth and mastodons.

We saw a variety of monkeys, walked thru an aviary, then stopped at the hippopotamus "river" to see Otis. Where was Otis? Couldn't see him from the river view, couldn't see him at the underwater viewing window. How do you hide a hippo?

We did see the pandas though not clearly and mostly their backs, not the cute faces.

There were lots of easily-identified volunteers who gave directions to the wandering tourists and told us where the nearest bathroom was located. Many benches for sitting, too.  I would have been happier if I had seen more animals throughout the day though.