Chinatown

Our final day in Los Angeles was pretty relaxing.
We set out on foot from the hotel and went to the Japanese museum, then walked a few blocks toward Union Station to El Pueblo and Olivera Street, the oldest area of L.A.  There was a nice church there, where a wedding was taking place:

 We had a nice lunch at a great Mexican restaurant! 

 You might be wondering why a post entitled Chinatown has started off with Spanish/Mexican content, but that is because the areas are right next to each other.  So you just cross the street....

 And you are in Chinatown:

 beautifully colored painted buildings:

 And lots of lanterns strung up over the streets.

 I'm not sure if they are always up, or whether it was because of the upcoming Chinese New Year's festivals.

 This street was a bit quieter, but had more interesting products than the busier street shown above, which was mainly souvenirs and restaurants.  Here, there were some nice antique places.

Of course I found room in my suitcase to bring home lots of paper lanterns!

The end of the trip to L.A.

I'm home now from Los Angeles, but I didn't want to leave it incomplete in the telling!
Friday night we went on a little mini-cruise of hotels.  First we went over to the Biltmore for drinks with a friend who was also attending the conference, and staying there. 
It is a very ornately decorated place.  

 Several large halls, with amazing painted ceilings, and carvings,

 I think the walls and stair sides are glazed ceramic, but I could be wrong.

 Possibly the rondels contain images of King Arthur and Guinevere, again, just guessing,

 They had this ballroom set up for filming.  It would be interesting to see what show or movie it pops up in someday, or maybe a commercial or magazine

 Our friend had earlier asked the concierge to try for reservations at the Ritz-Carlton, which has 2 Wolfgang Puck restaurants: the Bar and Grill, and WP:24.  She asked him to call WP:24, just in case they had an opening-- because they have a 5-week wait time for reservations.  He made the call and fortunately was able to make the reservation....

So we taxied over there and took the elevator to the 24th floor, where the restaurant is located. 
Unfortunately, they did not have a record of the reservation.  You guessed it, it had gone to the Bar and Grill.
But!  they fit us in anyway!  Hurray! 

Although the food was great, the view was the real attraction for me.
Just stunning to look out the floor to ceiling windows and be right up in the middle of that L.A. skyline.

Okay, yes, the food was fabulous.

Window shopping in L.A.

Yesterday R went to his meetings, so I had the day to wander around on my own. 
So, I did lots of window shopping!
First, there are some interesting displays in the windows of restaurants:

These are some 3-D origami swans.  I'm not sure what paper they used to make them, but they are quite pretty.  There is tons of origami paper available in the shops here in Little Tokyo.
Sometimes, you don't need origami paper though-- these roses are made from one-dollar bills.  I imagine that to give someone a rose like this is to wish them good fortune and prosperity.

This little tiger is prowling among the menu dishes in the window of a Japanese restaurant.  The Chinese New Year is coming up in a couple of weeks, so we are at the end of the year of the tiger, and will be entering the year of the Rabbit!

These bells are in a "window" built into a wall. 

 I was on my way over to West Hollywood.  I'm not too interested in Hollywood Boulevard where all the craziness is, but there are some other nice areas over there.  A while ago I got a knitting book called "Greetings From the Knit Cafe", written by the owner of a yarn store/coffe shop.  I found the address of where it was supposed to be, on Melrose Ave.,  but when I arrived there, all I found were high end designer shops like Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Marc Jacobs, and in the spot where the Knit Cafe was supposed to be was Diane von Furstenburg. :(
Apparently the area got quite upscale a few years ago, and the Knit Cafe was forced out by economic forces-- which is a shame, because it was partly because of such hip shops that the area became popular.
One of the designer shops really caught my eye because of the window displays.  The wedding gowns are all placed in fairy tale settings:   (sorry for the glare on the window glass)

 At one point, I noticed a little space between buildings filled with interesting bric-a-brac,

 More windows found more interesting animals:

 

Another street that has amazing shopping opportunities is West Third Avenue.   It is where I went to search out a "newer" yarn store called "Knit Culture".  (They have a web site, here, but I confess that I haven't explored it yet)

I spent a "while" there cchecking out all their gorgeous products!!

Actually, it was pretty nice to be in a comfort zone like a yarn or fabric store with beautiful samples, books, incredible yarns!!!  They have a really beautiful range of colors, and stock a lot of lovely yarns, lots of silk and cashmere, merino, angora, Noro, Koigu.....

 This scarf really caught my eye, and it is a free download on their site: (here)

Yes, I confess, I purchased the yarns and intend to make one, but who knows what it might evolve into....

I had such a great time just enjoying all the wools, and also got some lovely soft yarn in a light robin's egg blue shade --- hopefully enough to make a short sweater.  

They had some nice fingerless gloves made up, and I am interested in them right now, so started a pair this morning.  

The store person who rung up my purchases kindly offered to wind a couple of my skeins into balls, and so I went a couple of doors down to a fabulous French cafe (Little Next Door) for coffee while she did that. 

 Cappucino and an orange flavored madeleine, perfection.
I went back, picked up my yarn, and went back to the hotel.
To be continued....... (in which I go to a very posh restaurant for dinner)

This time, it really was an early morning to get out and about.  This is because we went over to the Getty Villa, to which we had to pre-book a timed entry ticket. 
It was a bit of a bus ride from downtown, almost 1-1/2 hours, but it went pretty quickly, (unlike the bus ride home which seemed to go on for-ev-er!)

 The Getty Museum has 2 locations in Los Angeles.  This is the smaller of the two, but it is in a beautiful setting, as it overlooks the ocean.
The photo above shows the reflecting pool, and the museum at the end of it.
The plan for the building is based on the House of the Faun, which was a villa in Herculaneum that was buried and preserved under volcanic ash along with Pompeii. 

 This is me,
and a beautiful stone mosaic floor.  Doesn't it look like a beautiful quilt pattern?

 Pattern is all around. 
 I love to go to places where pattern has been so thought out, and considered, so that it is a joy for people to be there. 

 And yet nature contains pattern that isn't contrived, but is beautiful as well. 

 Wouldn't it be lovely to look out a window in your house and see beautiful formal plantings?

 This branch of the Getty houses the antiquities stuff -- lots of sculpture and Roman glass.

Leda

 And this is the reflecting pool seen from the other end:

 And a hallway leaving the museum leading to the parking structure:

 The museum is in Malibu, barely, just north of Santa Monica. 

 It was a pleasure to see the ocean.

 Even though it was not too sunny today, it was nice to see the water and hear the surf. 

 We took the bus back through Santa Monica along the oceanside road, and got off when we got to Venice. 
 There we walked along the "Boardwalk" which is actually just paved, but is filled with vendors and buskers, and tables set up with people selling things.  It is an interesting walk if you like people watching.  Muscle Beach is along there too, where the body builders show off, but sadly there weren't any today -- must have been too cold.  I imagine that the place is quite different in the height of summer. 

 So from one type of art to another.  People just have to create.