City of Angels’ heavenly delights
For many people, Los Angeles is linked to the television and movie industries. However, there’s more to this ‘gnarly’ megacity than just Tinseltown titillation, as Cherie Sivignon discovers.
Los Angeles is big. The Californian metropolis’ No 1 advocate – Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board president and chief executive Ernest Wooden Jr – aptly describes it as a horizontal city.
Unlike its vertical counterparts such as New York, Los Angeles is characterised by low-rise buildings – with the exceptions of small pockets such as Downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood.
The spread-out nature of the city helps give distinction to its neighbourhoods. Well-known areas in greater Los Angeles are cities in their own right such as Anaheim – the home of Disneyland, and the pretty seaside habitation of Santa Monica.
Two-wheeled tour
A nice way to explore Santa Monica is by bicycle. Stephen and Barb Wittels offer the Pedal or Not Electric Bicycle Tours of the city (pedalornot.net). It’s a fabulous way to take in the vast – and still expanding – beach with its distinctive grey lifeguard stations.
A well-swept bicycle path follows the shoreline past the original Muscle Beach and under the iconic Santa Monica Pier.
Barb provides an interesting commentary about the history of the area, pointing out homes where celebrities are said to have lived, stayed, or partied. One such home is a pink and purple beachfront property with a green, twisting staircase that Barb says belonged to Barbie inventor Ruth Handler. Whether that’s true or not, it certainly looks the part and adds colour – literally – to the tour.
Running parallel with the beach is the main thoroughfare of Ocean Avenue, packed with restaurants and places to stay, including one called Hotel California.
Ocean Avenue runs along the top of the Santa Monica Bluffs – huge crumbling sandstone cliffs that look like they wouldn’t cope with many New Zealand downpours. Fortunately, for the bluffs, it seems it never rains in southern California – as the song goes. Of course, the good people of the state are more than a little concerned about drawn-out droughts that plague the area.
The bicycle tour crosses from pristine Santa Monica into Los Angeles at the bustling, colourful hub of Venice Beach. The change is dramatic. Sand now covers a large chunk of the bicycle path and visitors are confronted with an abundance of graffiti on beachside walls and even the trunks of the palms. Venice, now home to Muscle Beach – where people with bodies of chiselled perfection seem to enjoy working out in public – appears more noisy, dirty and dangerous than Santa Monica. However, it’s also full of life with streetside acts, pop-up stalls, and some great pubs and restaurants including High, the rooftop bar with a view atop Hotel Erwin.
Barb’s tour also takes in what remains of the Venice canals, built in 1905 by developer Abbot Kinney who sought to recreate the feel of the Italian city. Many of the canals were filled in to create roads as the car became king. The remaining canals were upgraded in the 90s and the district is now an expensive residential area.
Ball game traditions
A comfortable Chevrolet Suburban was the transport of choice for a trip to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team take on the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium. From the stands, with the scent of hot chips and hot dogs (called Dodger Dogs, of course) in the air, and Take Me Out to the
Ball Game ringing through the loudspeakers, this most American of pastimes played out below.
Before the game, New Zealandborn singer Keith Urban read out the names of the Dodgers players – getting at least one wrong – as their images and game statistics were flashed up on the big screens. Former Baywatch actor Kelly Packard led the singing of the StarSpangled Banner. In what could have been a scene from a zillion movies or TV shows, food-sellers touting snacks including peanuts, churros, and popcorn wandered through the stands. Other specialties such as nachos served in a plastic batting helmet were on offer at the many food stalls.
The Dodgers lost 4-2 but the game was fun and included a wellexecuted line-up of entertainment when the innings changed. Crowd boredom has no place in the United States.
But a word of warning: That packed-stadium standard, the ‘‘Mexican wave’’, is known simply as ‘‘the wave’’ in the US. There was a long pause and an odd look from an American (of Mexican descent, perhaps) when the ‘‘Mexican wave’’ was mentioned.
Art, inside and out
For culture of a different kind, it’s well worth a visit to the Getty Centre atop a hill in the Santa Monica Mountains. Opened in 1997, a collection of stunning buildings houses magnificent art including Irises by Vincent van Gogh. There is also an exhibition of photographs taken by American snapper Robert Mapplethorpe, who died in 1989. Many shots are of people; some well known such