Zion to Los Angeles in a day looked like it would be too much for us. Even without the heat. When we were younger we had an impression that Americans abided to a 55mph maximum speed limit, otherwise there was a snazzy black and wide law enforcement vehicle pulling them over. It is not the case now. If we have to use Interstates then they scare us with the speed people travel at; especially the big lorries. We chose our overnight stop carefully. There was only one possibility anyway. Las Vegas.
When we stayed in Las Vegas in 2014 we stayed on the strip, in the Venetian and it was pretty incredible. It is absolutely massive and has its own internal canal with gondoliers and a painted sky and some pretty amazing lighting. You can almost believe... This time however we are slightly more budget conscious and we stayed a couple of blocks behind the strip but still in the centre. The accommodation was within walking distance of the strip, but due to the heat, only just. Rather unbelievably a perfecty good room at the Ellis Island Casino Brewery and Hotel - including parking - was 35$ the night - plus an extra 42$ 'fee' for something or other. Still... We suppose they must make their money by enticing guests into the 24hr Casino. We somehow resisted that. It was interesting to note that we were also offered one free coffee and croissant for breakfast (between the two of us). And the cafe doling out these goodies was actually in the Casino. And the only place to sit down and eat and drink the croissant and coffee was at a gaming machine. Something else we resisted.
What we didn't resist was a stroll round the Venetian which seemed even more impressive to us now than it did ten years ago. And there was also the new venue - the Sphere - just behind the Venetian which certainly puts the Dome to shame as far as ridiculous excesses are concerned. At least we did see batteries and batteries of PV panels as we rode into Las Vegas.
We left for LA early in the morning as we weren't going to profit from our free coffee and croissant. It was 105°F (40°C) at 0730 and it didn't get any better for a long time. It actually hit 115°F (46°C) just before we stopped at Peggy Sue's '50's Diner for lemonade and Chocolate Cream Pie amid plenty of nostalgic memorabilia.
Much to our surprise LA was substantially cooler. In temperature. After cleaning up a bit we showed up at BikeShed which is like London but so much more 'LA'. We loved it. As for LA itself, there were a couple of things we wanted to do which were more city based than what we have been doing; visiting the Getty Museum and also LACMA.
The Getty Museum is free to visit, but, if you go there by private vehicle it costs 25$ to park and who doesn't travel by private vehicle in LA, especially as the Getty was 18km from Downtown where we were staying? And let's not talk about the perfectly ordinary plastic petrol station sandwich at 13$... At the time it was built, Paul seems to recollect the Getty being the most expensive building in the world. That is understandable. There is even an airport style shuttle train taking you up the hill to the museum itself from the car park. There are plenty of nice houses in the area - we know, we got lost trying to find the car park. It wouldn't be surprising if Harry and Meghan lived around the corner. We didn't really do much of the museum itself - we just wandered around the gardens and admired/criticised the building.
LACMA was different. It was a design competition Paul had participated in - one of the losing teams. Paul was in LA to present the project with the Architect to the judging committee. They woke up on the morning of the presentation to CNN news. 9/11. The jury could not fly that day so the presentation was cancelled, as were all airplanes out of LA. It took Paul over a week to get home. So we were here not only to visit the museum but to see what had been built. Unfortunately Paul could not remember much about the competition, but the exhibitions were great including Metropolis II by Chris Burden with Hotwheels cars and electric model trains.
In one of the galleries, Judy Baca, the artist, was painting part of her 1 mile long mural. Half of it is already installed on the LA River and she, along with artists from SPARC (Social and Public Arts Resource Centre) have been painting additional panels. The mural depicts the history of LA and the new panels will bring the mural into the 21st Century. The panel she was painting with her assistants shows a policeman grabbing a young black protester by the collar and about to beat him. Judy was not happy with how the policeman's hand and arm looked, so called on Paul to model for her!
We then capped off the day and our short stay in LA with a couple of beers in the Member's Bar at BikeShed. Note to selves: need to return.
