16th August and again we stretched out our legs first thing and went for a walk! There is a lot of that to be done in this part of LA, mainly as we only have one bike between us, and it costs $20 a day if we want to rent one! We are trying to budget afterall.

We reached the Venice Marina Del Ray, which was a little of an anti-climax, again the weather was flat but we did come across a few interesting spaces and shapes along the way that caught our eye. When 11.30 came Helen went off to her teacher training course and Dave stayed local to take in more amazing skateboarders, and Venice beach fitness fanatics. This time a TV commercial was being filmed for the new Sponge-bob square pants computer game, so two young boys were attempting half-pipes one take after the other. Meanwhile a tattooed, pierced and very eclectic looking young man was receiving applaud after applaud for his amazing height on jumps and tricks. The skateboard park is such a good place for people watching! We cannot recommend it enough. Also engaging were the many squash and hand-ball players who fill out the courts all day long.

After Helen had finished her course for the day we along with John (Helen’s cousin) went out to UCLA ,Westwood Village to visit the Hammer Museum. There was a strong Paul Thek retrospective taking up a third of the gallery and recent works by Ed Ruscha were equally intriguing. We also enjoyed sitting in the open air atrium. It’s a very nice space to sit and watch the world go by. The museum charges $10 admission fee for the exhibits but you can sit in the atrium or visit the restaurant and bookshop for free! A short walk away is the Fox Theater, a famous landmark for movie premiers. We finished the night at another sushi favourite, recommended by John, Sushi Karen in Culver City.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Olympus PEN EP-1, 17mm f/2.8 & 100mm f/2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)