Quiet times being back in La Canada (LA) especially after an 8 hour journey in the Chinook (Jill and Joe’s RV) but we pretty much caught up on the blog and packing. We did some exercise and cooked some lovely food for us all 2 nights in a row. On the 2nd November Dave and I ended up leaving the lovely home from home we have adopted and ventured down town LA from Pasadena on the Gold Line Metro to Union Station.

This is something new for us, public transport in LA! It’s such a big city to navigate but there is a good metro system if the destinations suit you! It’s $1.50 for one ticket which is valid for 2 hours of travel and took around half an hour to reach Union Station. We were confused when we arrived, but eventually picked up an area map from the information desk at the main entrance and managed to head in the correct direction towards Pueblo de Los Angeles; a very traditionally Mexican area. We hadn’t quite anticipated so many tourists and school groups to be around and realised The festival of the Dead was also taking place. There is a mini Mexican market and lot’s of authentic Mexican restaurants.

Walking down Main Street we stumbled upon Occupy LA at The City Hall. The Mayor has said they can camp there for as long as they want but we’ve since heard that they’re now trying to think of ways to move them on as the area around the City Hall isn’t holding up so well. Aside from this though there is a very strong presence at Occupy LA and we were invited in by a 19 day occupy resident to take a look around. It’s hard not to and it’s an interesting topic to photograph and observe.

So from the 99% to the 1% we ended up making our way to The Disney Concert Hall of which Frank Gehry who’s exhibition we followed in Beijing was the architect. The Concert Hall offers a bizarre versus beauty in its shape, reflections and form, standing out from any building that surround it. We were pleased to be able to explore the building for free and  enjoy both inside and out without any tours or lots of people around. The garden on the 3rd floor is open for people to use in their lunch break and offers a little abyss away from the city blocks of downtown behind. It’s a pretty cool building to explore if those of you out there venture to downtown LA.

On our way to Little Tokyo we wandered further through Occupy LA before enjoying some sushi on 1st Street opposite the Japanese Plaza. $20 between us in a very authentic Japanese style eatery.

We took the Gold Line back to Pasadena, and later that evening we all enjoyed another lovely family dinner! That night we would move closer to the sea as we were to be reunited with Sarah from Helen’s yoga course. We would be exploring a little more over the next few days!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We said goodbye to our time in Venice with one last stroll along the beach, packed up and thanks to Helen’s cousin; John we had a lift over to La Canada where her Aunt lives with husband Joe. So far it’s been a pretty easy ride for us so-called backpackers, but we’re pretty sure we’ll make up for this later on!

Jill and Joe live on the edge of the LA Forest, it’s a world apart from the metropolis that makes up downtown LA, Venice, Hollywood and so on. I think that’s partly why we’ve enjoyed staying here as much as we have because we’re not normally doing the tourist thing. So for the afternoon we just chilled out, got our bags sorted for the next trip ahead and did a little bit of planning. It’s around 10-15 degrees hotter where they live too so we were appreciative of the aircon and a nice cooling dip in the pool. We also had fun with our underwater Sony camera purchased in Thailand. We do feel like we’re on holiday right now! ha!

Later on we enjoyed a drive out to Pasadena via some rich homes and gardens, and a few scenic spots along the hill tops for good views over LA. We strolled around the streets of Pasadena which was built up just after the war and has since been modernised, it seems pretty upmarket with a more boutique-like feel to the place. We did enjoy a great Mexican meal at Mijares along with our first Margarita before heading back for an early night.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5 processed in Lightroom 3)