Goodbye to Los Angeles 2007. It has been a wonderful stay - we are both sad to be leaving our little home overlooking the sea. We did go to look at another, more luxurious apartment in a bigger block near Santa Monica Pier, but, in the end the roof terrace here won hands down!
So - we'll be back!

Time has come to revisit our list of favourite restaurants, now that we have reached the end of our trip. It has changed a bit, because we have found some new places. Maybe next time it will change again, but for now, this is it.


1 Joes. Consistently excellent French food.
2 Luna Park. Great, low key, but special. And with a name like that!
3 Campanile. Very classy Italian restaurant with immaculate food.
4 Via Veneto. New Italian addition, very local, very good.
5 Chaya Venice.Very good fusian local with a buzzing bar
6 Getty restaurant. Surprisingly good, but not always open for dinner
7 Il Forno. The Italian version of Singapore Gardens, before it went upmarket. Still a favourite, partly for sentimental reasons.
8 Axe. This could well have been higher on the list. Very high quality.
9 Piccolo. Not quite as impressed as two years ago-but still very good.

For our last night in LA we went to a new place, Campanile (no 3) in La Brea, which was a bit posher than most places we have been to, but brilliant food. We had a good view of the kitchen, which was quiet, serious and very impressive. Apart from very few exceptions we have eaten really well - and have made some effort not to overdo it! Not too sure that we have succeeded - only time will tell!

Labor day today, very busy on Ocean Front Walk. We had a lazy, home day, reading and going for a walk up to the canals. Made it to the Cows Bum (otherwise known as Cows End) and had a delicious smoothie, siting in the sunshine, watching the cars trying to get into the beach car lot! Lots of police presence today, of two different kinds. Tough, unfriendly police in cars, with guns at the ready, and police on horseback, chatting up girls and eating ice creams. You can imagine which ones like their jobs best!

We went to an Art Deco fair on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. The inside of the ship is still in pretty good nick for such an old and well trodden interior, but the whole event was very badly organised and rather disappointing. Lots of lovely vintage clothes, but not much else.

This afternoon we went to the Hammer museum - Hammer as in Armand Hammer, who's toothpaste we use every day. His collection is not as fine as Norton Simon's, but there is some really good stuff, Rembrandts, Van Goghs and, notably, a gorgeous Toulouse Lautrec painting in red.

There were other exhibitions on there too, one a collection of posters and advertising for 19th century magicians and freak shows. Amazing collection. The other large exhibition was of 14 Californian modern artists - all disappointing, except for this lovely neon sculpture/installation.

There was also a very good book shop where we bought Maurice Sendak's new popup book. Not usually too keen on popups, but these are great. Lots of other good children's books, unlike most museum bookshops, where kids stuff is usually 'token'.

Salvation Mountain. How to choose just a handful of images from such a wonderful place? We drove four hours to Niland, right in the Californian desert, close to Saltan Sea. We had seen pictures, but the real thing was so much more exciting.

Leonard Knight has spent 18 years painting the side of a mountain. He coats the surface with adobe clay and then paints over it with whatever paint he has at hand or is given. And then paints it again. And again. He is a religious fanatic, but his approach is joyous and fun. We met him there, twenty feet up the side of a pile of hay boulders, preparing his next extension to this extraordinary place. He was welcoming and charming, wanting to show us what he was about. His new found fame is obviously a great joy to him, as he is convinced that it is helping him promote the 'Lords work'. He has no electricity and, more amazingly, no running water, so I can't imagine how he mixes his adobe clay. He showed us that it comes straight off the mountain surface and just needs water to turn it into the basis for all his artwork.

In one of the pictures of him, you will see the flowers which are so important to him. Each one is made of a lump of adobe - which he then punches in the centre. You can see his fist in every one!

We stayed at a not wonderful hotel, recommended on the Salvation Mountain web site, but it was probably the best you would find in the area. The next day we went to look at the sand dunes, fifty miles away. Most American desert is rather disappointingly scrubby. This was a bit better. It has become a resort activity to take your special vehicles there and race them on the dunes. We saw two, but they were being protected, under sunshades, by shaven headed 'good old boys". Didn't dare take a picture in case they shot us!

As you can probably tell, the mountain was a real high spot of our trip, and I hope that we might have encouraged some of you to make the big trek someday. By the way, it was 110 degrees in the desert!

Another piece of Los Angeles ephemera. In the UK we call ATMs Cash Machines, in India they are called Any Time Money, in the US they are fondly known as Automatic Theft Machines.

Some frustration, in that the first two places we visited today were closed! So we diverted and visited the La Brea Tar Pits, which was next door and open. Not a high spot, but the garden was nice. There was even a bit of a sculpture garden, but I won't dwell on that! It was interesting, though, to see the amazing density of fossilised bones they discovered, buried in the asphalt. In the garden they had models of the poor mammoths succumbing to the tar (see pic below).

We had dinner at Luna Park - well we had to really, didn't we? Fate took us there, and the food was excellent. I had the 'best burger yet' and Moop had 'the best fillet steak yet', so we will return! It is a huge, dark, rather industrial space with a high ceiling, dark furniture and, rather endearingly, chandeliers mixing with exposed air conditioning pipes. We were early, but I bet it gets very noisy!

Things improved today! We got phoned back by the Ark people - and, as we had hoped, we had booked tickets after all. Also, it hasn't arrived yet, but Ian's present is logged at his local post office depot, so I think it might be there tomorrow.

Noah's Ark was worth going to. It is very much for young kids - so we look forward to revisiting with grandchildren. The whole thing is very well made, with lovely animals, often made with found objects like brushes and bicycle saddles. We couldn't help thinking that Mechanical Cabaret would have made it all more imaginatively - but then it probably would not have been as robust. This is only two months old, but it really looks as if it will last for ages.

Old and favourite joke; the lion goes up to Noah and says "You need two more gazelles".

The Ark is a new feature at the Skirball Center, which is a Jewish museum. The rest of the museum is not badly done, but a bit too conventional. It is set in absolutely beautiful gardens.

Followed up with an Indian dinner at Bombay Cafe.

Good and bad this time! We had a rather frustrating end to yesterday for two reasons. Firstly, we sent a belated wedding present to Ian and Deborah ten days ago, without knowing they had moved a few months ago. It hasn't turned up yet - although I have faith that we will track it down!

Secondly, we are pretty sure that we booked on line a couple of weeks ago, before we went to Calistoga, for a new and very popular exhibition of wooden animals, called Noah's Ark, but suddenly realise we have nothing to show for it - and can't get hold of a human being at the venue! Also it is now booked up until September 18, which is of no interest to us! This may or may not resolve itself! We might just turn up - but I'm not hopeful.

To compensate, we booked to go to Joe's for dinner tonight and went to the Franklin Murphy sculpture garden at UCLA this afternoon.

You might well ask 'how many sculpture gardens can there be in LA?' I would say 'Never enough'. It was a good one, although it did try to rain a tiny bit. 70 sculptures, including Hepworth, Moore and Gill. No Frink, though. Only a handful of women out of the whole lot. Maybe my old sculpture tutor at Chelsea was right. He told me that 'women just aren't strong enough to be sculptors'! Horrible man! Barbara Hepworth certainly proved him wrong and made up for it.

I mustn't leave out last night. We went to a concert of Cello and Bagpipes at the Schindler House. It was experimental music and my resident expert described it as 'interesting noise with no rhythm.' I describe it as 'pretty awful' - but we are both glad we went, because that is what you need to do in LA. Also, it was nice to go to a concert at Schindler's house - and use his loo!

Another excellent link to terrytrick pix, this time UCLA sculpture
http://web.mac.com/terrytrick/iweb/California/FranklinMurphy.html

Yesterday was a good day. Got my new glasses - see picture at the end of blog! Then went to the Hollywood Farmers Market, which is an indoor, permanent market where you can eat as well as buy (food didn't look too inviting, but it is a nice visit).

Then we continued our quest for culture in LA! We went to the Getty Center, having booked there for dinner later on. Amazing on line booking system. Apart from two reminder emails and a phone reminder the day before, I was also able to send an invitation to dine to my 'friend'. I had a choice of invitations to send him.

When you get there, you leave your car at the bottom of the hill and get a Disney like train to the top. I had forgotten this from the last time we visited. The gardens are gorgeous, with extraordinary views over Los Angeles. Lots of sculptures - including one of the identical Aristides Maillol we saw at Norton Simon.

Like us, many people seem to visit for the gardens and the views, but we did see two very good photography exhibitions (Edward Weston and Luc Delahaye) and an exhibition of French 17th century paintings of wild animals by Outry. The lion looked very similar to the lion in the Wizard of Oz - without the bow in his hair.

Dinner was superb. Could almost be best yet!

For more pix of the Getty Center click here, courtesy of terrytrick.
http://web.mac.com/terrytrick/iweb/California/GettyCenter.html

Some more useless information.

I wanted to find interesting price comparisons between here and home - so I've been looking for what you can get for $20 (still £10 - just). Not too impressive, so far, but I'm still looking!

1 Half a tank of gas for PT
2 Eighteen huge uncooked jumbo shrimps
3 Guacamole and chips and a Margarita at Sidewalk cafe
4 A memory card for a camera (1 gb)

Yesterday we went to Pasadena. It was a very good trip. We just got to the Gamble House in time for the tour. Unfortunately they won't let you wander round on your own and there was no way we were going to get away with taking pictures. It is a beautiful arts and crafts inspired home, with amazing detailing. It would be a bit like living inside a vast cigar box, as every inch of it is exquisite, warm red wood.

Next we went to the Norton Simon museum, which, for some reason, we have never visited before. It has a gorgeous sculpture garden, with loads of really good figurative sculptures, including a large collection of Henry Moores.

Inside is wonderful too. We only looked at the twentieth and nineteenth century galleries, but he had an amazing eye for painting and, especially sculpture. His collection of Degas painting and sculpture is huge and very fine. Apparently he bought 70 exquisite ballet bronze maquettes as a job lot! Only some of them were on view! He also has a huge Picasso collection as well as Matisse, Klee and Van Gogh. These rich Americans certainly knew how to spend their money! We will definitely return.

We had an early supper (Thai) and then went to see The Bourne Ultimatum - which I wouldn't recommend, but Moop would. All action, no quiet bits.

I've been saving this lovely 'eighteen' to celebrate all the numbers you see in Los Angeles. They are particularly fine in Venice. You just have to walk down the little roads running back from the sea to Pacific Avenue to know that residents really think about how they number their property! The ones who just use standard plastic self adhesive labels seem to be using it as an anti design statement, in the context of the overkill of some of their neighbours.

Numbers are usually huge, completely visible and can be very long. Gladstones, a fish restaurant we used to go to with the family, is 17300 Pacific Coast Highway (they don't bother with commas). Materials can be anything from rusty metal to glowing neon. I saw one yesterday made of buttons.

Sunday - and we visited the Long Beach flea market. It is an enormous 'collectables' market, just by the Veterans Stadium. Couldn't find anything I remotely wanted. We deliberated about a portfolio of 'original' Matisse nude etchings for sixty dollars - but decided we just didn't want them enough to spend that much money!! Flea markets are fun, but do seem even more rubbishy now that ebay is here!

Hollyhock House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for millionaire Aline Barnsdall in the early 20s. She bought a thirty six acre plot in West Hollywood, with a hill on it, for $300,000 dollars during the first world war, and decided, as one does, to turn it into an arts complex, with cinema, theatre, artists' studios., as well as a home for her and her daughter, Sugartop. Nearly 100 years later it has a thriving community arts centre, an outdoor theatre, an art museum (with very dubious art in it) and, of course, the amazing Hollyhock House.

Ironically, the millionairess hated the house when it was completed and did everything she could to get rid of it. The flat roofs leaked, she found the house too big and her bedroom impossible to put a bed in. In 1927 she gave it to the City of Los Angeles who used it as a theatrical centre, then a veterans club, toyed with pulling it down and finally put loads of money into restoring it to its former glory.

Frank LLoyd Wright and his son were both asked to work on its evolution over the years. Apparantly Frank and Aline Barnsdall both retained a healthy respect for each other, working together on other projects - and also suing each other fairly regularly.

It is a wonderful house. I would hate to live in it. Interestingly, it's construction was overseen by Schindler, who's house I could definitely imagine happily living in!

Yesterday we visited Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach, which are both holiday resorts just south of the airport. Not too exciting, but with lovely big sandy beaches and piers. Two years ago there was an installation on the beach with a cross for every lost American soldier. This year there was nothing - but I think the number has virtually doubled to 3,750.

Today we went to the art galleries at Bergamot Station and then to the new Eames Office store which has moved to a much bigger space filled with Eames furniture and bits. Also an exhibition. Much nicer than the old place. We asked if we could go to see their old house, which we did. It overlooks the sea on a sloping site and is just as Ray Eames left it in the 1980's when she died, exactly 10 years to the day after Charles. Gorgeous house - but we weren't allowed in and had to look through the windows! We did sneak in, though! It looked to us as if we could just move in, without changing a thing. It was still full of their collections and bits - just like Hamilton T! Bit more space, though - and a separate building for their studio.

We made an interesting discovery about wineries. The ones in the Napa Valley are MUCH more expensive than the ones in Sonoma. They seem to think that people visit for the experience rather than to stock up with wine. We were surprised by the cost, which was often quite similar to what we expected to pay in restaurants - but we thought that it must be right as it was consistent wherever we visited. Then we visited a vineyard near Sonoma and discovered that the prices were less than half ! It is obviously a Napa Valley cartel, designed to keep their bottle price high. As far as we are concerned, the wine in Sonoma was just as excellent (I can hear Tiggy and Sergio groaning when they think of the wine we used to be happy with, before they both got us in hand). As we will not be bringing any back to London, you will have to take our word for it.

On Monday we said goodbye to Keith and Amanda, who needed to get back to Utah. It is always good to see them - if not frequent enough. Keith is getting more and more into his singing now, and is planning a recital for next February.

We spent the morning by the pool and then made our way to Sonoma, which is in an adjacent valley, about an hour south of Calistoga towards San Francisco.

Our hotel looked out onto a large square, which forms the centre of the town. The hotel is much more modern than the last one, with nice, simply furnished bedrooms that are quite hard to find in small American towns. The restaurant is excellent.

On our second night there was an excellent farmers market in the square and an open air Jazz concert, featuring a very large, rather manic, Cuban pianist. He proceeded to beat the living daylights out of the piano - but it all sounded rather good!

Apart from visiting wineries - of which there are a few - we drove down many country roads, while we were selling the idea of Gloria, the SatNav to Keith and Amanda.

One of the places she took us to was The Petrified Forest. These 'trees' were submerged by lava from a nearby volcano, three thousand years ago. The giant Redwood trees all fell in the same direction, and over time, each cell of the wood was replaced with crystalized silica, until the tree was no longer wood but stone. It was also submerged by sea for many years. The whole site was rediscovered in 1871 by 'Petrified Charley', who eventually made a living out of showing it to others, including Robert Louis Stevenson, who seems to be quite important in this area!

Calistoga! It took over eight hours to drive there - and it felt like it! We had the roof down, which we think was a mistake. Nice when we arrived, though. Keith and Amanda arrived just as we got back from buying breakfast goodies at the excellent supermarket at the end of the road. It was lovely to see them and to catch up on events - including seeing pictures of Bruce's wedding in Australia. Looked like a good Trickett bash.

Calistoga hasn't changed much in two years. We ate a lot, drank a lot and generally enjoyed it. More about the wine later. We are staying at Hideaway Cottages, where we stayed two years ago. It is comfortable, old fashioned and must be one of the last US hotels not to be on the internet!

We revisited the Sharpsteen Museum. Sharpsteen was one of Disney's right hand men before he upped to Calistoga and built the local museum, using many of the techniques he had perfected as a Disney Imagineer. The story of Calistoga is a good one. It was founded in the 1840s as a spa and resort town. The name came from the founder, Sam Brannan, who wanted it to be 'the Saratoga of California' - but, since he was fond of a drop or two, it came out as Calistoga!

Signing off for at least five days. We are off to meet Keith and Amanda in Calistoga, in the Napa Valley. We're not taking our 'puters - but we've got lots of room for a crate of wine. We'll miss Ocean Front Walk - but not on Friday, Saturday or Sunday!

Interesting observation.

There are far more skateboards around than two years ago - and fewer rollerblades. Skateboards come in many shapes and sizes - but usually the scruffier the better. You can tell a really cool skateboarder, because his is well worn and often just a very dusty looking grey. The least cool are colourful and new. We saw a silver, embossed skateboard, but it was in the Museum of Contemporary Art and unphotographable.

Another busy day. We went to Simi Valley, about an hour and fifteen minutes away, just north of the Santa Monica Hills. At last we managed to see Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village. You have to make an appointment with someone from the 'Preserve Bottle Village' committee - and it is worth it! Grandma Prisbrey completely 'did over' her very ordinary suburban lot with bottles, pencils, broken ceramics, miscellaneous junk, broken toys, bits of guns, and lots of cement. She lived in a wonderful, pre-airstream, caravan, but built all these amazing rooms, which have mostly managed to survive earthquakes and extreme, desert weather. Unfortunately, although they are no longer in danger of being pulled down by the council, they get no funding whatsoever - and Joanne, who showed us around, doesn't really look as if she will be able to keep going too much longer! So, a must for any visitor to LA, before it is too late!

After that we went to Bombay Cafe - another old favourite. Who says they can't do Indian food in America?

Then we went to see The Simpsons movie on Third Street Promenade. It was excellent! The final credits went on for absolutely ever - and only we and three other people stayed long enough for all the Simpsons to reappear and for Maggie to say her first word - 'Sequel'! Good!

Food. Yes, we've had a bit! Most of it very good and generally a bit cheaper than London. We try not to eat too much - but I'm not sure that we are succeeding. We have a superb breakfast of granola and berries, followed by toast and brie and then we try not to have anything else until dinner time, usually very early, six thirtyish. Some nights we eat in (tonight it's chicken curry, surprise, surprise!), but more often we eat out. So far we have been revisiting old favourites and have only tried one new place, Chaya Venice, nearby on Main Street. Top five so far.

1 Axe, 1009 Abbot Kinney (Californian French)
2 Joe's, 1023 Abbot Kinney (French)
3 CBS Seafood, 700 N Spring (Chinese)
4 Il Forno, 2450 Colorado (Italian)
5 Piccolo, 5 Dudley Avenue (Italian)

Busy day in LA today! After a miserable visit to MOCA, the museum of Contemporary Art yesterday, we decided today needed to be good. We started at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market this morning - but not before catching the Hari Krishna Festival of the Chariots on the way. Both good. The Farmers' Market has got more to do with eating than buying products, and we had only just had breakfast! Still fun - and there was a tremendous Marimba band on the way in. Loads of small kids, dancing and enjoying the band, as well as watching a conjuror and riding on tiny ponies.

Then we went on a mural hunt. We went to see the Great Wall of Los Angeles, which is the longest mural in LA. It is a history of LA from prehistory up to the end of the twentieth century. Well worth an explore - we had never heard of it before. Not content with one mural, we then returned to Famer John's Pig Murals, which cover the surrounding walls of a pig processing factory. The whole painting is of romping, happy pigs in the country side - unaware of their dreadful fate! Ironically, the artist, Leslie Grimes, fell to his death from scaffolding, before completing the mural in 1957. Power to the pigs!

Our last stop today was at Little Tokyo, where we wandered around, visited a Japanese bookshop we always go to and then had dinner overlooking the rooftop garden of the Otani Hotel, where we had an ace view of a Japanese wedding. Everyone was taking photos of everyone else! The groom looked rather worried.

Interesting snippit from the press. An old lady was given an instant $140 ticket - for crossing too slowly on a Zebra Crossing! She is, not surprisingly, arguing the case.

The trouble with having a blog diary is that everyone knows just how little we do! Still, I've decided little and often. Lots of my number images - and I don't write so much that it changes the line spacing on the type - like wot it did for '1' and '4'. Once a graphic designer, always a graphic designer.

Yesterday we drove to Hollywood and then up in the hills again. It was nice, but the Hollywood side of Mulholland is much less remote than the Malibu end. We did manage to find a dirt track road, but it wasn't very special. We started off near the Hollywood sign. Useful fact (given to me by a young girl from Essex who had been on a Hollywood tour); each letter is 40ft high.

Dinner at CBS Seafood, a Chinese restaurant we loved last time we were here. It's very low key and we had an amazingly surly looking waiter, who blossomed into smiles once he had approved of what we ordered. Yum!

We have been here for almost a week now. We thought that the weekend would be more chaotic than it actually was. No police raids at three in the morning! A few late night shriekers, but then Hamilton T isn't exactly quiet as the grave!

We went to a flea market on Melrose and we visited Schindlers house (don't think he was related to the war hero). I did some practice driving with my driver, so that I would be ready to go off shopping on Monday. Which I did! And lost the car in the car park. I eventually found it with some help! Shops not too brilliant so far - so I ended up browsing in Staples, buying self adhesive coloured dots, pens, paper and other wonderful things! Surprise surprise, we are turning our apt into a home office! We have bought a printer, because Moop has to prepare for a talk he is giving and can't deal with the info he is getting in, without printing it out. It is only £40, so we will donate it to Venice Suites at the end, and hope it is still around for next time!

Last night we went to Typhoon, at Santa Monica airport and found that they had a jazz group playing. It was 'big band' with 16 players of varying age and size (mostly vast). They included 4 trumpets, 4 trombones and 4 saxaphones - so they made quite a lot of sound! It was good.

My techno freak son has complained that I have disabled the interactive thing where you can make comments on my blog. Sorry, but this is for aesthetic reasons. All comments are welcome on emails! He also suggested that I include hyperlinks to other interesting and relevant sites - which I have started to do. I'm hoping to be told a joke I can share with you, but none so far!

Yesterday PT and Gloria (Glenda's rather efficient, portable satnav friend) took us to Watts Towers. The last few times we've been there it has been closed, but this time we did 'the tour'. It is lovely. There was one very nice story about Sam Rodia, who spent 30 years building the towers as a place to live - and then gave them away and moved on. Someone showed him pictures of the Goudi Cathedral and he said "Nice building. Did he have lots of people to help him build it?" When he was told that he did, he said "I prefer to build my towers by myself"! Apparently the only help he ever had was from kids who brought him broken plates and bottles to use!

It has become time to confess that we are having excellent weather. Not too hot by the sea. About 75 degrees. Today we are going to wander down to the farmers market behind Main Street in Santa Monica. As you will notice, we seem to be doing a lot of walking. This is because our car is parked several blocks from the apartment. So sometimes it just isn't worth collecting it. if we have lots of stuff to deliver, there is a car park just beside the building, but you can only use it for a few minutes and it is usually pretty full - requiring reversing, which is all rather dodgy.

It is now Saturday and we have been here for four days. Not a huge amount of action yet - but lovely just the same. On Thursday we took PT (cruiser) for a pootle. We decided to drive up the coast road past Malibu. Then we turned off down Mullholland Drive, having missed the only garage we had passed. The road up the mountains was really gorgeous and almost completely deserted. Then we discovered we were getting low on gas! And lower. And lower! We eventually asked some young lads who were fixing their car. They tried to send us back the way we had come, which wasn't encouraging - but then said 15 minutes up the other way.
We stopped at a house selling huge hand carved totem poles and other wooden sculptures. When we found the owner/artist (also fixing his car), he said about six miles. With lights flashing and bells ringing, we limped into a garage - thank heavens!

We have arrived

We had a good flight and arrived in LA on time and ready to go! Then we had an hour queuing to get through immigration, which was pretty awful. Fingerprints and photos are now in the system! Once we made it to Alamo we decided to upgrade our car to a convertible PT cruiser - what fun! It is silver grey with a black roof and, although it takes a bit of getting used to, we've decided we like it! Because the window at the back is quite tiny, it is difficult to see behind, so we have to put the roof down whenever we need to reverse. But the temperature in Venice is just right for an open car - so we aren't too worried!

Venice Suites are as we remembered them - perhaps a little smaller, but perfectly nice. Our resident vagrant has moved on from the tree opposite our window - supposedly to Seattle, which is presumably another nice place to be, but without the lovely weather. The rest of the boardwalk chaos is pretty much unchanged. We celebrated our first night by having dinner at Sidewalk Cafe - not the best food in the world, but a lovely place to watch the world walk - or skateboard by. It was relatively quiet on a Tuesday night, but by Wednesday we could already sense that it was hotting up for the end of the week!

Food shopping on Wednesday - cheaper than Waitrose, but still quite a lot. We pottered around for the rest of the day, did quite a lot of walking - found a hairdressers for Friday, managed to get Moop some reading sunglasses to replace the ones he forgot, experienced cash machines that didn't work and cash machines that did work - and then had dinner at Piccolo, round the corner. All good stuff and much enjoyed!