Art and cars...

So Thursday my friends came up from The OC and we hung out (a very Californian past time!) 

Bergamot Station in Santa Monica is an Arts Centre. There are a plethora of independent galleries and the Santa Monica Museum of Art. It is a cool place, that lays true to it's old industry roots and has all the galleries placed in some of the old train sheds.

We saw some fab pieces of art (Miriam Wosk) and some great photography (Steve McCurry) with unfortunately both of them being massively out of my price range!

A teapot would you believe...

Merc with a succulent forest in it!

We then headed off to the Petersen Automotive Museum on Miracle Mile for an wedding event. Different wedding organisers had spent the day creating tables that were judged by judges and by us (I chose the winner of the people's choice and the overall winner!) The event was lots of fun, with yummy food, and free booze (hurray). But the best part of the evening was the museum itself. 

I had never been before, and didn't have any desire to, but the cars were awesome!!! There were lots of hot rods, but also international cars including of course a couple of Rollers and Jags.

Here are some of them (car enthusiasts may want to turn away from my captions - ahem):

shiny orange one

awesome neon sign

gorgeous grey/silver one

beautiful Bugatti - I want one

The Hot Wheels arch

Gangster Squad sign (Mickey Cohen movie out here at the mo)

Car and Emma Stone's dress from Gangster Squad

Police car and costumes from Gangster Squad

THE car from The Hangover

A spaceship/land speed car

Lovely day out with lovely friends.

This weekend marked the last of my cat sitting time in Santa Monica.
It has been lovely staying in an apartment and Dulce my cat to look after was gorgeous.

However I found out today that the little sod had peed all over the lid of my suitcase! A parting gift to show me his love?! I shall remember the good things about him, and after a while I am sure I will forget that I had to spend all afternoon at the launderette... 

Pros and Cons

So I have been here almost 5 months now, and I have been thinking about the positives and negatives about living in Southern California. It's not an exhaustive list, but here are some of my thoughts.

Things I love about SoCal:

• The weather. Temps in at least the 60s, most of the time in the 70s is not to be sniffed at. It's lovely seeing the sun almost everyday and if I am honest I don't give a hoot about the seasons like we get them in the UK. Sunny and warm virtually all of the time works just fine for me! I don't think it should be underestimated how smiley the sun can make one feel. 
• The beach and the Ocean. The beaches are beautiful. Big old clean sandy bad boys with awesome boardwalks that go on for miles. And the Ocean is big and blue and ever present.
• The friendliness of people. Waiters/bar staff/shop staff - everyone seems to be so much more friendly than at home. I don't know if the accent helps, but people seem to go out of their way to talk to me and provide me with good service. I know some of it is to do with tipping culture, but genuinely people seem happier here (linked to the sun?) 
• The food. Generally is awesome. So much choice (probably too much choice) in restaurants. It would be very easy not to cook again if I lived here (although a tad expensive).
• I get to see all the TV shows I love at the time they are broadcast, not 6 months to a year later when one of the British networks thinks that they might be worth investing in. 
• It is laid back and very relaxed and none of the freneticism of London
• It's so different to London

Things I don't love about SoCal:

• Everything is a drive away normally of at least 30 minutes. Imagine London neighbourhoods split up with 7 odd miles between each of them and no tube system...For me, this means a lot more mental effort is required to actually leave the house and get in the car to go places. Somehow walking to the tube at home seems less arduous...
• None of the prices have tax added anywhere, so you have to figure that in to your bill at the end along with up to 20% tip if you are in a restaurant - it makes things a fair bit more expensive than you originally thought. 
• Most of my friends and family aren't here.
• It is possibly too laid back and relaxed and I wonder how any business gets done...
• It's not London

Be our guest!

So Wednesday came and it was time to say goodbye to my folks. We went for a last lunch at Martha's on 22nd Street in Hermosa Beach. The sun shone, the food was good, and we were all smiles!

We had a lovely two weeks. I was really pleased that my folks had enjoyed themselves, and I think I struck the right balance between us having time to relax and exploring. I wish the weather had been a bit warmer and we hadn't suffered the coldest snap in 22 years for around 5 days, but it was still a lot warmer than home!

So I flung them out at the airport, dropped my stuff back off in Santa Monica and headed off to Melrose where my sister had just arrived in town with her boyfriend. Melrose is a really interesting street. Home to Paramount Studios, funky shops, bars, restaurants, and up one end lots of designer stores such as Paul Smith, DVF, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Fred Segal etc.

I drove them round some of the tourist sights (Griffiths and Chinese Theatre) and we grabbed a bite to eat down on Hollywood and Highland - tourist central!

The next day we went back to my fave dive diner, Marias on the corner of San Vincente and Venice. They do awesome breakfasts there, and it is a really old school diner. I don't think it has been decorated in 40 years! I then took them to see some of the downtown sights and we popped into Olavera Street, a little part of Mexico with stalls and very cute cafes.

Paramount called to us in the afternoon, and we had a super tour. I think Warner Brothers probably beat it due to the fact they showed us the props store, famous cars, and the set from friends, but both of them are definitely worth doing if you ever find yourself in this part of the world...I would have liked some Glee action, but alas it wasn't to be. We saw Happy Endings being filmed in the NY set that was masquerading as Chicago.

Friday we went down another divey diner for breakfast, and then onto Abbot Kinney, an awesome shopping street in Venice Beach. We went to a pop up store with amazing designer clothes, but alas all of them were a size 0 - 4. My sister managed to find a Vivienne Westwood top that was fab, and I got a T-shirt that was also pretty lovely and the bargain price of $16!!! We then headed down to the beach, and I soaked up the rays, whilst my sister and boyf soaked up the rather unusual characters on the boardwalk...There was also a seal lion surfing along the waves that caused a ripple of excitement among us sun worshippers. We then took in the lovely Venice waterways, that cover around 3 miles of Venice and were created by eccentric millionaire Abbot Kinney.

I went to my first official dinner party on Saturday night, at a fabulous home in Harvard Heights, Koreatown. The wine, brandy and gin were flowing, as was the food and conversation. Before we knew it I was tiddly winky and it was 2am!!!



Needless to say my head was a little sore the next morning, but I dragged my sorry arse up to Melrose to take sis/boyf down to Santa Monica for a little retail therapy. My sister did a bit of supermarket sweep at Zara and then we headed off to Malibu, back to Duke's for some beautiful fish, a lovely sunset and of course another Hula pie...

So that is the end of family visits out here. It has been a blast and was lovely to catch up with everyone. Mum and dad even bought me some gifts out for a belated Xmas which was lovely. 

But now I intend to lay like broccoli for a couple of days and do very very little, except relax and be at one with myself and Dulce the cat I am looking after...then of course back to all the fabulous things I have left to do here in the 6 weeks I have left!!! ARGH!!!

Someone told me it's all happening at the Zoo...

So we got some tickets and went to San Diego Zoo. It is a world famous zoo, and as they go it is pretty spacious and feels pretty natural in terms of environment and enclosures. A fair few of their almost 4000 animals are rescue cases. They have also done sterling work on the panda breeding front and have sent 6 cubs back to China over the years. 

Mum and dad hadn't been to a zoo in over 30 years, so I thought if they are going to go to any one, this is probably the best!

Our guesstimate of a 3 trip was way off, and we ended up spending 6 hours there, and still only seeing about half of the zoo! It was a lovely day out, helped by the sunshine, blue sky, and the temperature rising about 8 degrees higher than it had been for the past couple of days.

We started with a bus tour of the park, which gives you a good idea of where everything is (the park is 99 acres!). We had planned our priority animals the day before (I know, I know - it's not like me to be uber organised) and hit the park at 9am with gusto...

Highlights for me and the folks were the pandas, baby panda (who was hiding and I only got to see him with a camera) polar bears, orangutans, giraffes and the gorilla. 

mummy panda

baby panda

big old gorilla

orangutan (not King Louie)

baby giraffes with mama

is the head attached to the body?!

partial to a bit of honeydew melon

boyf and girlf out for a stroll

who wins most pink bird?

aurevoir olyphants...

Mexico in our sights

So we had a lovely stop in Temecula on the way to San Diego. As you may remember Temecula is wine country in SoCal. We went back to Callaway, not because I was in love with the wine, but I thought my parents would like the tasting room and the view.
We also ended up having lunch there, which was delicious. Massive gourmet sandwiches with chunky wedges! We also picked up a couple of bottles of wine - turns out they do a nice pink fizz that mum really enjoyed! In the distance the snow on the mountains looked quite wonderful but thankfully it was far enough away that it didn't make it cold in Temecula!

Our accommodation in San Diego was two studio apartments overlooking Mission Bay. This was a great location, and had it been warmer would have been great to sit up on the roof terrace and watch the sunset. We did actually do this anyway, but had to put our jumpers and coats on!!!

We went up to La Jolla to see the seals, sea lions, pelicans and cormorants. As the wind was blowing out to sea they were less smelly than before!

 

Sea Lions (not seals as I incorrectly put last time)

Seals - see the difference?! No neither can I particularly. Sea Lions are more adept on land as they have bigger front fins!

Pelicans/Teradactyls

We then went up to Mount Soledad and had a lovely view of the whole city and as we seemed to be on a San Diego from above kind of tour, we continued on to Point Loma another high vista point. I was hoping that the Grey Whales would be much nearer into shore, but alas all we saw with some rather bargain basement binoculars was some water spouting a very long way away! We could also see Mexico from Point Loma - my 'soon to be home' in 6 weeks time!

Point Loma from Mount Soledad

Downtown from Point Loma

The next day we headed off to what I think is one of the best tourist attractions in San Diego, The Midway. A former aircraft carrier, it has been converted into a museum that you can walk all over with your own personal audio guide. These ships are huge, and I mean huge. If you ever get the chance to go on this, or any other aircraft carrier, do it, as the sheer scale of it will blow your mind! This was essentially a trip that we thought dad would enjoy, but turns out mum really enjoyed it as well! Naval history - who knew?

Then we nipped across the Coronado bridge for a spot of lunch on this lovely little island. Half of the island is taken up by a naval base, so we saw plenty of people in uniforms, and plenty of jets and helicopters whizzing about. We also saw the Coronado hotel that some of you may recognise from the movie Some Like it Hot. Gorgeous hotel with a lovely beach, but a little too chilly to sit on that particular day...

 I really should find out where the naval officers drink in San Diego...

Desert touring with the oldies

So we took some time in Palm Springs to relax a little. The temperature being in the 70s gave us the perfect opportunity to get into our swimming kits and laze in the sun reading books.

But we are suffering from what the Californians call a 'cold snap' - yes it got to mid 50s. So we did do some exploring of the local area.

We went to the outlet mall nearby that I had visited before and mum got some presents for people. I still haven't been brave enough to venture into the Gucci store here...

We went back to Joshua Tree National Park, which was 34 degrees at one point, and felt it! I took way less photos than before. Freezy fingers will do that for you. Dad really enjoyed the scenery but agreed with me that we had seen far more spectacular National Parks on our travels last year (Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Monument Valley). 

We went up the aerial tramway that took us to the top of the San Jacinto Mountain. The trip up was pretty scary. As I get older I am getting worse with heights, and the fact that the car actually rotates made it all the more white knuckle for me. But the view and the snow when you got up there was worth the treachery of the 10 minute ride up. 

You could see all the way out to the Salton Sea (around 30 miles away), and it really was pretty spectacular!

Eveningwise we went to the Follies which was a show of singing and dancing from people over 56. Some of them were fabulous, but overall the show was not really to any of our tastes. I hadn't heard of the guest star, Lou Christie, and even my parents only knew one of his songs! I gave it 3 stars on TripAdvisor and think I was being pretty generous...

We went to the Market which runs every Thursday evening. Alas the wind had got up a bit by this point, so we didn't dwell there too long, but mum managed to buy her obligatory block of fudge. Walnut and vanilla, we all agreed it was some of the greatest we had ever tasted.
We also went out for a meal at one of the best restaurants in town, Trio. I am not sure I have ever seen a place so full at 5.45pm of an evening (they do a fixed price menu until 6!) Again the food and service were great, and it is easy to see why it is such a popular choice in the desert...

And that was it. Before we knew it, we were packing up again and heading back to the ocean - this time to San Diego. I genuinely love Palm  Springs. It is a small quiet town, but there is plenty to do and it has lots of character. 
Alas we didn't spot any stars, despite the Film Festival taking place when we were there. I was mildly devastated to see Bradley Cooper and Eddie Redmayne had left the day before I arrived. But the film festival gave us the opportunity to gawp at the private jets coming in, and play a game of 'Whose Lear is it Anyway?' as we sat in our pool!!!

Balmy Palmy Springs

So we hooned out of the big smoke and across to the desert town of Palm Springs. As regular readers of my blog will know I have already been here on this trip with a friend and I was looking forward to returning.

Last time we stayed in a couple of hotels, but this time I hired a 3 bedroom place for me and my folks, just a couple of miles from all the action. All I can say is WOW! It was brilliant. The decor was 50s style and in keeping with the architectural style of the house. I was allowed the en-suite for booking the place, and I had my own little garden with a view of the mountains.

There was a swimming pool, fire pit, bbq, secret garden, beach and outside dining and living room areas AND our own lemon tree, all for the bargain price of $235 per night. Now obviously there were only 3 of us, but it could sleep 7. Imagine how cheap it would be then?!

Anyways here are some photos of our fabulous abode. I swam 4 days out of 5 in the heated pool, which I have to say was more enjoyable when it was 75 degrees air temperature, compared to 57 degrees air temperature!