I just had a hop down to LA for an extended four day visit with my boyfriend Jeremy's grandma. I'd only ever driven by or been in the airport of Los Angeles. We had a wonderfully relaxing time, lots of time chatting with grandma, and got to see a few cool sites. So, this will be more of a picture blog...
Jeremy and I arrived on Thursday afternoon and just had time for a brief walk around the neighborhood before dinner. The house is just off Sunset Blvd - so a beautiful area - and a wonderful old house. This is the front yard:
And some sculptures around the house:
On Friday we went up to the old Getty on the hill. The new Getty (the Getty Villa) requires reservations a month in advance! It would have been cool to see, but the old Getty was amazing...
They had a great collection of illuminated manuscripts:
There was a really interesting piece in the main entry called the 'uberorgan.' It was made of recycled bits and pieces and looked like intestines or something, but it was actually a musical instrument and played once per hour. The 'organ' is controlled by a 250 foot long loop of mylar painted with black dots and dashes that triggers light sensitive switches.
We managed to make it to the beach for a few moments amongst some other errands, and back to grandma's house for dinner and chatting late into the night.
On Saturday we went to LACMA - the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We only looked at a few exhibits, but I really enjoyed the Japanese pavilion. The interior of the building was just fascinating. Jeremy got a few shots of it...
After LACMA we went to Canter's for lunch. Canter's is a well-known, and humongous, Jewish restaurant/deli/bakery/bar. We had an excellent pastrami on rye and some matzo ball soup. Mmm, tasty!
Then we headed for a long walk on the beach. Now, I grew up on the Oregon coast and this time of year you bundle up and expect to freeze. Not in California! Though it certainly wasn't warm, people were still out in bikinis in the surf! I walked in the surf and the water was actually warmish. I still can't get over that. I was most fascinated by the birds...
On Sunday before we left we had just enough time to visit Venice Beach. Wow, what a crazy place!
I took several videos of these street performers. Unfortunately, I filmed sideways and can't get the thing to turn around the right way! Sorry about that. Here is one for now - turn your head to the left!
7 comments:
Girl, what the- you doin in LA?! Had no idea you went down that way.
Boy you brought back a lot of memories in your post there. I remember going to the Getty- when there was only one, so it must have been that one up on the hill. Nice area. Glad you avoided MOCA and TMOCA- the museums of contemporary art. Hated those museums- it was like anyone who had some trash got to call it art. But I'm a Dali man myself- never did get into the abstract stuff.
You know I used to live Venice Beach, too. Nice area- really enjoyed it. You see those guys with the tables fortune telling on the boardwalk? I had one there inviting people to pray, but for free. Went blading up and down that road lots too.
Happy you enjoyed the beach weather down there. It's snowing tomorrow here.
I look forward to your pics here no longer being "temporarily unavailable". Oh- for videos, use You Tube. They'll provide you html that you can put into your blog. But you have to save the post in "Edit HTML" mode, or it won't work.
when can we see the pictures? why are they unavailable?
MOM
Now see, there we go.
Don't you wish you could library over the old kind of books?
Loved the video of the sandpipers- very cute.
You know, Aimee, even people who've lived in LA all their lives, have only "driven by" it.
Hey- you got a picture of Harri Karri! I talked with that guy a couple times- he's quite the character.
"Harri Karri" - which one is that??
The guy playing the electric car with the turben on his head. It might be written Harry Karry- I'm not sure.
Did you guys see the militant black supremists on the grassy noll there at the boardwalk? The ones who think they're a tribe of Israel? I had a run-in with them once, long ago...
Nope - don't remember them. We only walked half of the place though before we had to leave.
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