Santa Monica

“Oooh, I like your trousers.”

“Thank you. Well, I don’t like to name drop, but I bought them last week in Santa Monica!”

I had the opportunity to visit Los Angeles with my daughter for a week so I jumped at the chance. I’ve never visited America before so I was really excited to see as much as I could.

Day one in Santa Monica was all about finding our way around and shopping for essentials, one of which was a journal so I could document every moment at the end of each day.

It felt so cool to see signs for places from the songs of my life – San Francisco (be sure to wear flowers in your hair), California Dreamin’, Ventura Highway, Ocean Drive , Hotel California, All I wanna do (until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard);  songs I sing (badly) every day in my workshop.

On our second day we visited The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

LACMA Urban LightUrban Light – Chris Burden

IMG_0223Levitated Mass – Michael Heizer

Please don’t let this be the moment it decides to move!

Day 2 LACMA (36) resize

Day 2 LACMA phone pic (2)

Day 2 LACMA (28) resize

It was a particularly hot day so after wandering around the grounds we went inside the museum for some much needed shade.  Unfortunately, the Rain Room exhibition ended in January which is a shame because we really needed cooling down.  ”(In this large-scale installation, approximately 528 gallons of water falls continuously but pauses when a person walks through the downpour.)”

Once inside we were treated to the works of Picasso, Matisse, Giacometti, Mondrian, Warhol and Lichtenstein, to name but a few.

After a quick stop at the cafe we took an Uber to Hollywood. The houses on the journey were incredible, all very individual – some in a Spanish style and some with turrets – they all looked very neat with pretty, well maintained gardens.  According to our driver Hollywood Boulevard had undergone a clean up in recent years, in particular the Walk of Fame.

We started walking down the boulevard on the shady side but it was still very hot.  I wasn’t prepared for the sheer number of stars and the fact that some celebrities have more than one. We took photographs of every star that we recognised and when we got to the end we crossed over and began the walk back in the full sunshine, but those stars were harder to photograph in the sunlight.

Me and Walk of FameDay 2 pm Hollywood Walk of Fame (50)_Fotor_Collage

Anyone that knows me personally will know that my favourite film of all time is GLADIATOR so I was excited to find the stars belonging to the Director, Music Composer and main Actor.  It was also nice to see the stars of Marilyn Monroe, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and other Hollywood greats.  If anyone wants to be emailed a photo of a star give me a shout, we probably have it on file :)

 

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