An LA kind of day

Might begin on the patio, waiting for our car to arrive and wondering what this strange little area of the hotel is really for – until someone comes along and lights his cigarette and it all becomes clear.

Today it will start with turning right, not left into Santa Monica Boulevard, heading for the ocean for a short time before turning towards downtown.  At this hour on a Monday morning, many of the locals are out power walking, jogging or doing their taichi under the palm trees.

As we turn right into San Vicente, we drive past the smart and spacious homes which suggest wealthy inhabitants.  Their gardeners are out trimming the hedges, watering the lawns and tidying the driveways.  The joggers are out on the road in the cycle lane, because curiously, the cyclists appear to prefer riding on the pavement.  Funny, that.

 

We’ve decided to join the smart set at the Brentwood Country Mart for breakfast at the FarmShop, recommended by the Los Angeles Magazine as one of the best breakfasts in town right now.  In just a few short minutes we’re sitting in between the ladies with their egg-white omelettes and the guy reading a screenplay.  Some are sitting reading ipads or behind their laptops in spite of the note on the menu

We too are in breach of the recommendation as we’re still trying to contact our friend Kristy, texting her to arrange a meeting tonight.  We’ve each left voicemail messages here and there but somehow haven’t managed to speak to one another yet.

Meanwhile there are important decisions to make.  Aren’t American menus great?  Our breakfast tastes as good as it sounds, believe me.

After an hour on the freeway, we visit an old haunt in Burbank from years ago when Edward was young.  Can you imagine a small boy’s reaction to a shop entrance like this?  Fry’s Electronics have several outlets, each one themed differently.

More mundane shopping in Glendale then, armed with a short list of fairly dull items more easily/cheaply/effectively bought here than at home.  

We resist the temptation to equip ourselves for Halloween, however.

After a quick zip into Michaels Arts and Crafts armed with my 40% off one item coupon (I saved $2 – didn’t buy much!) we drove back through a variety of rich and poor suburbs to meet Mary.  As we drove along Beverly Boulevard, we spotted these two beauties catching the attention of passing traffic.

Looking more closely, they were heading to join a queue of other smartly dressed people waiting by a gate.

A bit of reasoning now: this is the entrance to CBS studios…the crowd are dressed well…it’s late Monday afternoon…hmmm, didn’t we see Dancing with the Stars trailed on TV this morning?  Sure enough, that’s what they’re waiting for!

We’re meeting Mary in Larchmont Village, a delightful small community with a row of interesting, individual shops set out village style.  This one was having a “trunk sale”.

After an hour or so with Mary, who arrived fresh from her day’s teaching, we headed off back to Santa Monica along Wilshire Boulevard.

Past the La Brea Tar Pits – I always think of the Beverly Hillbillies when I pass by here!

Past the lighting installation outside the LA Art Museum.  Amazing.

Finally, stop – start through all the traffic lights all the way to the end of this road where the sun is setting over the ocean.

We’ve made contact with Kristy and are thrilled to meet up with her, catching up on the news and hearing all about her work.  As we sit chatting, the party people in the hotel are just heading out, there are people celebrating a birthday (rather noisily!) and we reflect on our good fortune to be here in the company of such a delightful young woman.

It’s also now past our bedtime, so after catching ten minutes or so of Dancing with the Stars in the comfort of our hotel room, we turn in for the night after another marvellous LA day.

Too tired to salsa

Another lovely Californian morning.

We took the Wilshire Boulevard route this morning for a change, collected Mary from her apartment and headed northwards up the valley towards Camarillo.  We were meeting Diana and Brad for lunch in Santa Barbara but had the idea that we might sneak in a little shopping first.

With reduced prices and special offers there was plenty to tempt us and being of similar mind today, Mary and I chose the same top and trousers.  We could now play a pair of those spooky sisters who dress alike and really embarrass you know who!  Perhaps it’s as well we live so far apart.

There was time to mooch around this pleasant outdoor shopping centre before meeting our friends and one shop in particular caught our eye.  Not only did it appear to have a disproportionate number of pet accessories like

and

there was also a very cosy and practical Christmas present idea which might prove useful for the man who has everything (because he most certainly doesn’t have one of these)

We all agreed that the camouflage print could prove beneficial – one might want to hide when wearing such a thing don’t you think?

Setting the satnav for the restaurant proved challenging too, because The Voice suddenly took to wishing us “Goodbye”, which wasn’t so helpful when we were expecting her to instruct us to turn right or left. Hmm.

We kept her interest as far as the Art and Letters Cafe, a great place for lunch set in a beautiful courtyard in central Santa Barbara.  Diana and Brad arrived shortly after us and we spent a couple of happy hours in their company – how lucky we are to have such delightful friends.

 

After lunch, we pottered along State Street, window shopping and people watching on this lovely sunny Sunday afternoon.  the Anthropologie windows were a slight variation on the Santa Monica branch displays – the wrapped yarn was the same theme, but the “mopheads?”

There were quite a few charming shops along the street and we all agreed, if we decide on a Californian roadtrip, then Santa Barbara would make a great stopping place for a couple of days.

The greenery on both sides of the street, the cute shops and the ocean at the end of the road all combine to make this a pretty place to be.

Driving back the freeway, we spotted the first pumpkin patch of the season – a huge one, too.

Then, having dropped Mary off in time for her to prepare her classes for tomorrow, we continued on our way back to Santa Monica until our progress was stopped by the fire department attending an emergency there in front of us.  A bit of a mystery however, because although the firemen were climbing that long elevated ladder, there were people standing on the balconies in that very same building taking photos of them.  What was going on, we had no idea.  Maybe we will find out tomorrow.

We chose to eat Chinese food tonight, in PF Changs, but the food was so very disappointing we called over the waiter and said so.  Enter one restaurant manager, full of apologies who immediately offered dinner on the house – which was generous but actually the right action, we thought.  Only then did it occur to us that the manager had been speaking to another couple nearby who then left without paying as well.  Not one of that particular restaurant’s better nights, I’d say.

As we left and walked across the top of 3rd St Promenade, we heard music and looked across to see a large group of people dancing salsa in the street.  We’d have gone over and joined them but we were so very tired...

Just time to upload the photos, write a blog and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hooray for Hollywood!

We woke to clearer skies this morning.  The “MegaDoppler” weather report said the marine layer would soon burn off and they were proved correct, because by the time we were out on our way, the skies were blue and everything was tickety boo.

First things first – a visit to Starbucks for hot drinks, enjoyed in spite of the dire warnings

Oh California, we love you so

Anyway, fortified by our carcinogenic beverages, we headed into the city, towards Mary’s.  There weren’t so many people around at this early hour.

Waiting to turn onto Sunset, we did our usual ogle of the house on the hill.  Who lives in a house like that?

An hour or so later, we were off out for breakfast, to one of our favourite haunts – Canters. 

This is a long standing LA favourite and offers traditional fare – it’s the choosing that’s the problem, because the menu is extensive.

We eventually settle for cheese blintzes for me, waffles for Mary and Corned Beef Hash for you-know-who.  Delicious.

By now it was getting towards lunchtime and we headed for the area between Hollywood and Highland, now a fairly new shopping mall with a vaguely Egyptian theme.  We weren’t here to shop, more to ensure a place to park the car for the afternoon, because this part of Hollywood is prime tourist territory and we really didn’t want to encounter difficulties later.

The “mall” has a pathway running through it with short tales of success and stardom. These quotes are not attributed to any individual, though it’s fairly easy to guess who is being quoted in a couple of them.  Most are of the “dream came true” type of story, generally overlooking the years of hard work and/or rejection and failure before achieving stardom.  Yes, we are in LaLaLand.

We love it though and thought it fun to spy the Hollywood sign up there on the hillside opposite.

Whilst the children played in the fountains – it was getting quite hot by now – we enjoyed a cool drink in the shade before heading down to the Kodak Theatre, same place as the Oscars are held each year.  Lucky for us, Mary had got tickets for the hottest of shows right now – Cirque du Soleil’s $100 million Iris.  Only recently opened, we were delighted that, after several year’s dithering about a visit to see this altogether different circus from our “usual” one, we were finally going to see it for ourselves.

All I can suggest is that you take a look at the website and get a flavour of this amazing show – no photos of course.  We were all three of us utterly gobsmacked by the whole spectacle; at times there was so much happening, it was hard to know where to look.  The costumes and characterisation were superb, the performance and production beyond all expectation and at times we gasped with amazement and delight at the skill of the performers and the clever concepts which had been created.

What can I say but “wow”!

How could we follow that?  Late afternoon was no time to be starting something fresh, so we returned to Mary’s apartment and simply relived as many details of the show as we could remember – whilst I was scribbling madly into my small notebook to record them!

Of course, we were hungry too, so we made a short drive to The Counter for a bite to eat before dropping Mary off at her home and braving the traffic from the Hollywood Bowl right opposite.  Santana were playing there tonight and though I would down the windows to try to hear something of their music on this warm, still evening, there was none to be heard. We carried on past the Bowl and went back to Santa Monica and “home”.

What an amazing day – will we ever lose the buzz of driving back along Wilshire and simply being in this great city?

Later that day

3 Sudoku puzzles :: One gin and tonic :: lunch :: two glasses of Pouilly-Fume :: Midnight in Paris :: zzzzzz :: Two episodes of Desert Island Discs :: Water for Elephants :: zzzzzzzzz :: Five chapters of Travels with my Aunt :: tea :: return to seats and buckle up for landing and…

We’re here in Los Angeles.

Sadly, the sky isn’t quite as blue as it might be and that grey raincloud actually dispensed a few drops as we landed.  But it’s warm and the forecast is good.

Our aptly named Chevy Malibu was there waiting for us in the parking lot and in no time at all we were heading out of the airport and on our way.

The magic of the lunchtime flight which leaves at noon and lands at 2.30pm, meaning that our Friday afternoon view is of palm trees, beach and the ocean. 

(Unless we look immediately down into the parking lot beside the hotel, where there is a car dressed as a chicken.  Hmm.  Only in LA?)

Anyway, the hotel has upgraded us to a suite, we have showered and put on fresh, clean clothes and are off out to meet Mary and Diana for Margaritas and Mexican tonight.

Life is good!

Where am I?

I’m in a kind of shopping centre this morning.

It’s a place where the WH Smith magazines are at the rear of the store, not right by the front door.

The front shelves are reserved for tea towels

and shortbread.  Was there ever a more “British” WH Smith?

The Olympics are a strong theme here too, with a dedicated shop selling all kinds of souvenir of an event which is still to come.  Perhaps there is another word for that? (My Hero suggests "prevenir”.  Discuss)

For some reason, people here love their Toblerone and there is a huge display of the biggest sized bars.  I’ve yet to work that one out, too.

But I love the art and always smile when I pass the horse-with-a-lampshade-on-his-head.

Maybe you’ve guessed already?  Perhaps you need no further clues?

We’re sitting at Heathrow Terminal 5, waiting for our flight. 

See you when we get there!