It was a pretty quiet day for the Leica, Helen decided to take a few shots in her yoga class (blog post to come!) and Dave was getting us ready for our move to the new pad on the beach front! With a spot of Wholefoods shopping and a bit of sorting out we eventually moved out of our wonderful home that has been at Matt’s Feel Good Lounge and he ever so kindly offered to give us a lift over to the new place! So we have now moved and are in a little studio space above a garage on the row just back from the Venice boardwalk. We expect noise, skateboarders passing by and bin dumpsters keeping us awake at night. The studio itself though is very nice! Although we will miss the abyss that we had only a mile away.

Dave had found out about the Venice Art Crawl a few days earlier and so it was on our list of things to do for the evening and along with Sarah (from Helen’s class) we started off at Lilly’s on Abbot Kinney for an exhibition opening. This was one of the many venues featured in the art crawl which happens in Venice on the 3rd Thursday of each month. At Lilly’s we received some free wine and nibbles and enjoyed the atmosphere. After a brief chat with the artist Olivier Pojzman we made our way closer to the beach front to seek out some more venues in the crawl. Pretty much most bars on the front were involved, even the apartments were having little events on their rooftops. Eventually though we made our way to the Erwin Hotel where a good few hundred people were dancing, being photographed, interviewed, drinking and so on, and over the road at the no longer in use Gas Station Courtyard were even more people gathering around live performance art, people painting, selling their work, their vintage clothes, dancing to funky house and enjoying the overall vibe. This whole event was the 1st year anniversary of the art crawl and loads of people were there to enjoy it. We were impressed!!

We ended the night in the Canal club, enjoying a few more drinks and listening to a band play motown classics. We need more of this in the UK, an appreciation of local art and music and more live opportunities for people to showcase their talents.

(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)

We got up early and had the usual breakfast. Every Wednesday in Santa Monica they close off a small section of streets and have a Farmers Market take place. On our way along the beach walk Helen “Hung Tough” and easily beat Dave by going the distance! “Contender READY!” The Farmers Market is great for getting a variety of fresh foods from fish, vegetables, fruits, flowers and breads. It can be a little pricey for the budget traveller but even if you don’t buy anything is a nice little morning stroll. Here is a list for the events…

• Wednesday Downtown. Arizona Avenue (between 4th & Ocean). 8:30am – 1:30pm

• Saturday Downtown. Arizona Avenue (between 4th and 2nd Streets). 8:30am – 1:00pm

• Saturday Pico. 2200 Virginia Avenue (Pico Blvd. @ Cloverfield Blvd). 8:00am – 1:00pm

• Sunday Main St. 2640 Main Street (in Heritage Square). 9:30am-1:00pm.

Helen headed off with Sarah for another dose of yoga teacher training and Dave got on his bike and headed south along the beach. The path does run out shortly after Muscle Beach, but you can head east along the main road for about 0.8 miles and follow the bike path signs (Google map route). These will take you past the Marina and eventually back onto the beach path.

It’s a lovely ride on a concrete path through the sand and along the sea front. Manhattan Beach (10 miles away) has a nice pier with a mini aquarium at the bottom as well as quieter beaches than Venice and Santa Monica. Watch out for the hang gliding crossing and beginner lessons a few miles north from the pier. This looks like a great spot for learning the art of hang gliding, if only we had the time here and the additional funds!

Tonight is our last night with Matt so we took a few photos of our home for the last week and cooked ourselves a great dinner. Packing will commence tomorrow for the move closer to the beach!

(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)

Currently the weather in this part of LA has been fairly predictable, overcast / foggy up until noon and then the sun blazes through, 75F give or take a few with a nice cooling breeze near the seafront.

However most of the 14th during the day was overcast and nothing actually grabbed our eye, which is unusual. None the less we headed for sushi at Hama Sushi for the 5pm – 7pm “earlybird” bar menu which had selected sushi, various other dishes, beers and wine all at a reduced fee. California rolls never tasted so good. A stroll along the beach front brought us upon a large crowd of people who were dancing to the beat of lots of random drums. All sorts of people and characters jumped out, it was a strange little moment on a fairly quiet evening.

The following day, after an early morning run and homemade breakfast, we once again explored some of the Venice canals. They are a great place to wander around whilst having a good nosy at the huge variety of houses on display, these must be worth a fortune! Luckily our host has a bicycle that we can use and this is probably the best way to see the local area, especially the beach path system for “Peds” and “Bikes” which is a great ride past Santa Monica, or in the opposite direction towards Manhatten beach. So while Helen is doing her yoga, Dave is cycling the beach paths enjoying the views and topping up the t-shirt tan!

(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)

Part two of notworkrelated begins with an early start in the UK to make our way to Heathrow airport for our noon flight with British Airways to LA. We have decided to this time to purchase a round the world ticket for most of our flights, as it works out cheaper, and it’s easy enough to change the dates for free each time we want to move on to the next destination. We bought our ticket from Round The World Experts.

After an emotional goodbye with David’s mother at the drop off point at the airport we were soon boarding the 747 for LA. The flight was one of the most spectacular flights we have ever taken. After leaving the gloom of the UK we crossed Greenland which had deep blue seas speckled with white icebergs into tall cliffs made from black rock over northern Canada. Lush lowlands of north America into the snow-caped Rockies and eventually after 10 hours the Martian style deserts of Nevada.

Helen’s cousin picked us up from LAX once we eventually cleared customs and immigration. We headed to our Airbnb booked accommodation in Venice Beach to meet Matt our host, whos house is pretty amazing, with surprisingly springy carpet and a lovely en-suite room. We will get some photos when the light is nice as it’s fairly cloudy during the evening. After a trip down Venice Beach and some food we headed to our makeshift home for the next ten days and got some well deserved sleep.

Helen starts her Yoga teacher training course tomorrow. We both hope you enjoy our travels.

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