Los Angeles: The City of Angels. (Part 2)

Day 3 in L.A. and the weather was really nice and chilly in the morning. Today, I'm lucky. My host, MW, decided to show me around and be my travel partner for the day. This also means the comfort of a car! yay!

Downside to driving is, I have to spent the night before copying all the directions to the places I plan to go. Consequences for being too cheap to buy a GPS.

Santa Monica beach and pier is one of the must-see sights in L.A. I guess the popular Ferris Wheel on the Pier can be recognized from a lot of movies. It's around 8a.m. when we reach Santa Monica and boy is it chilly in the morning. Lucky we arrived early as the beach and pier is usually crowded. I love it when it's not too crowded, there's a certain charm to the place, especially the Pier. Walking on the boardwalk, people watching, enjoying the breeze and best of there's a street performer playing sax. However, I didn't get to ride the Ferris Wheel *sigh*... we're too early.


Recognize this? It's the famous Santa Monica Pier with the Ferris Wheel on top of it.


Baywatch? These lifeguards are really hot ... and they came in two choices ... babes or hunks!


yours truly :) on the pier


Activities on the pier includes fishing...


Performers on the pier. This guy plays great sax! Really tempted to buy his CD.


Having my cuppa, enjoying the view.


Too bad it's not opened yet, else I'd be able to take some pictures from the Ferris Wheel.


The miles long Santa Monica beach.

Next stop was the Venice Beach and its famous Ocean Front Walk. It's known as Venice Beach most probably due to the canals that run through the housing area there. The canals, bridges and houses are really picturesque. As for the Ocean Front Walk, colorful is an understatement for this place. The walls are painted with different shades of graffiti, the streets are filled with all different kinds of stalls (from hotdogs to marijuana! no kidding!) and the people; be it the tourists, the locals exercising or the street performers. However, this is a big one, the parking is simply outrageous! Metered parking spots are very faraway and limited, while the so called "Public" parking is crazy expensive!!! Min. 18USD per entry and this increases with demand! I've seen one spot goes from 20 to 30USD in a span of 2 hours.


Peaceful canal with mandarins at Venice Beach...envy those who lives in these canal houses.


Isn't it a beautiful? With mirror image on the water as well.


Don't you wish you live here?


The crowd at Venice Beach.


Active Californians rollerblading and cycling. The odd one out will be the tourist :)


Seemed to be a significant monument of some kind. No idea what it is though, forgot to bring Lonely Planet along.


This guy will only move about when tipped.


This fella talks for almost 15 minutes without any real stunts...he ended up being booed by the crowd.


Colorful graffiti...


Another one. There are countless actually, these are the better ones.


See the crowd along Ocean Front Walk

After hours of walking, we had our lunch at a nice cafe by the sidewalk. I had an interestingly, refreshing and tasty ravioli with citrus sauce. MW, however had a boring sandwich. :P



The final destination for the day is Getty Center, one of the best free must go destinations in L.A. It's a private funded yet free, art's museum build on top of a hill. The Center is truly amazing and picturesque. The exhibitions however, are a little difficult for me to comprehend and enjoy. After all, I'm an analytical, practical and boring engineer. Arts, especially ancients ones are really not my cup of tea. Therefore, I went for a guided architecture tour instead of an exhibition tour. I would say the tour is kind of educative, though I might not be able to understand completely. We stayed at G.C. until 8pm for the beautiful sunset and nightview.


The Getty Center. Really loved this picture... the white modern building with a background or blue skies and a pair of tree with contrasting leaves.


Inside the Getty Center.


The day view of L.A ... or part of it.


Lame attempt at creative photography. Tell me if you like it.


I like this one better. Diagonal lines.


The garden at Getty Center. Ain't it colorful?


Introduced to the perfection of the architect. Looks like only a single tree?


It's actually a row of them planted in a perfectly straight line along the pathway.


The tiles used in the center are from the same quarry which supplies to the Coliseum, Italy.
It's aged at the bottom of a lake and there are actually fossils on them.


Can't get enough of blue skies.


Look closely ... This statue is really having a "high". The title of this sculpture..."Angel of the Citadel".


Arc planned in the architectural drawings to frame the view of the twin trees. Lovely.


The sunset view with several layers of colors in the sky.


Night view of L.A.




With that I end my trip in L.A. The next was just a long wait in the airport. I would say it's an exciting and interesting trip for me with different kinds of new experiences. :D