Lee’s World
California May 2004
In May 2004, I headed back on a flight to LAX to spend time visiting Mark (see previous visits) as well as a long weekend in Palm Springs. Both towns seem to be becoming a second home for me!
As
Mark was working away in Palm Springs, I took the opportunity to follow up
on some previous visits, spending more time at the Getty Centre and in Santa
Monica. Both had been visited on my first visit to Los Angeles in 2002.
The Getty Centre
is a fabulous place just to unwind -
the gardens and the buildings are the perfect place just to wander, enjoy a
drink, and see some of the World's most famous paintings.
Santa
Monica, equally, is a place to unwind. The Pacific coast is beautiful, with
a long sandy beach broken only by those lifeguard towers featured on shows
like Baywatch. Away from the beach, though, the city boasts excellent
shopping on Montana Avenue, Third
Street and in Santa Monica Place, designed by Frank Gehry. Elsewhere in the
town there are some of Frank Gehry's most recognised works, such as the
Chiat Day building.
Los Angeles is a city of contrasts - it's high rise
buildings are restricted to two zones several miles apart, the downtown
financial district
and
Century City, to the West of Beverley Hills. Climb up to Mulholland Drive
and these stand out. Along Mulholland Drive are some of the most amazing LA
homes, featured in so many design/architectural guides, including Lautner's
futuristic Chemosphere on Torreyson Drive. In the Hollywood Hills are also
some other classics - Mark and I sought out the Storer House, by Frank Lloyd
Wright, on Hollywood Boulevard, where it disappears into a small road behind
Chateau Marmont.
I also took the opportunity to visit a couple of
contrasting homes in Beverley Hills - Greystone Mansion,
the
largest home in the city with 17 acres of fabulous gardens, and by contrast
the tiny Spadner House, on Carmelita Avenue, which originally was part of a
film set at Culver Studios.
For a couple of wonderful viewpoints over the city
head up to either the top of Runyon Canyon Park, on Mulholland Drive, or to
the end of Beechwood Drive, Hollywood, and follow the sign along the
Hollyridge Trail. From the trail, you not only get a wonderful view of town,
but get very close to the Hollywood Sign.
During my stay in Los Angeles, I stayed at the Valadon Hotel, West Hollywood, and the Summerfield Suites, West Hollywood.
We ate at Cheebos, Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood; the award winning, Campanile on Le Brea Avenue; and very memorably at Chateau Marmont, Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood.
The long weekend in Palm Springs was spent at the
Triangle Inn, with my friends,
Michael
and Stephen. Mornings were spent shopping or touring the modernist
architectural homes of the town, with afternoons around the pool. As usual,
I spent far too much at the Desert Hills Shopping Centre, 20 miles out of
town at Cabazon.
As ever, I had an amazing time, and it was great to catch up with Mark, a very special friend.