It was great to finally see Herb and Joan again after 20 years. We had met on Victoria Island outside of Vancouver and then again as we went through LA. They still have the same lovely home in Topanga Canyon and I struggled to stay awake as we went up the canyon road. I took over Joan’s studio and slept for 12 hours straight. That’s jetlag for you.
Joan is quite a good artist and Herbert is a very good photographer and engineer so naturally some art galleries were on the menu for the next few days and I’ve got to say I was very impressed by the Getty Museum and Art Gallery as much for its position and architecture high in the Santa Monica Hills. You take a monorail to the top and the whole thing is free apart from $15 parking. The view from the top can be great but dust storms away to the south were covering things a bit. The highlight exhibition inside was the drawings of Rembrandt and his school and the galleries permanent collection, and Irises by Van Gogh took my fancy there.
In between helping me find an unlocked IPhone to buy we also went to the Huntington Estate the next day. The IPhone is a bit of a story with one guy who had 2 to sell wanting to meet us in a Starbucks! So we didn’t go there and eventually found a store that had a 3G with 8gb for $300.Probably a bit much, but felt better getting from a store. The Starbucks man had the 3GS with 16gb for $375. What the heck I can’t get a 3G simcard and plan in Costa Rica anyway as its only just been released here so only citizens can have it. I found this out at the end of a 50 m queue in San Jose!
Back to the Huntington, this was the favorite of mine because it was a nice mix of fabulous buildings with lots of mainly British Art and beautiful gardens of many types. The estate was built by one of the guys responsible for driving the railway through to the West Coast so that must have been a nice little earner! Funny how these early pioneers thought that local art had no merit and clung onto the art of Europe and the Greek and Roman classic periods. The Chinese and Japanese gardens and then the Aussie garden that was taken over by a film crew led to the huge and amazing cactus garden. Back over to see a lithograph exhibit and through a water spout garden and it was done , sort of, I’m sure we missed some stuff like the Library itself.
Venice Beach is where I met up with a travel companion for the Central American leg. The websites for people looking to link up and do some travel together have certainly helped people, who are on their own, to meet others going in the same direction. The place itself is like a mix of Kings Cross and Bondi Beach with a very bohemian feel. The sunsets over the ocean are great and there was an amazing Drum jam session that developed as time went on with more people joining in and doing their thing.
