Los Angeles Apartment and Doings

We searched Craigs List to find an apartment in LA. We contacted a nice lady who was renting her daughter's apartment for a short term stay. Her daughter is a medical student at UCLA and in Europe for the summer. After establishing that we would have Internet service, but no TV (okay, since we won't have many English TV channels in China, if any), we took the apartment. The cost was $345 total for a two-bedroom, two-bath place. The place was nice and a typical apartment set up for two college students. It was located in West LA, next to Santa Monica. We have been wanting to check out Santa Monica for future stays, so it worked out well.

We ate at some favorite restaurants-Pink's Hot Dogs, Tommy's Hamburgers. We also ate at the oldest Italian restaurant in Hollywood, in business since 1949, called Miceli's. Great pasta and pizza. We also visited several Farmers Markets and cooked some good fresh veggies and made salads and tomato sandwiches at the apartment. We found the most delicious tomatoes at the farmers markets. Also, found a great donut shop in Santa Monica and indulged in donuts a couple of days for breakfast. Nothing like eating healthy and not so healthy!

We went to see the musical "South Pacific" at the Mark Taper Forum. Doug went to the LA Opera-Die Walkure, one of the "Ring" German operas. We went to a free concert performed by the Santa Monica Symphony and it was very good. We also visited the Getty Museum in LA and The Huntington Library and Museum and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. Also, went to the LA County Museum. Doug missed three things he wanted to do-ride the new subway, go to an Avant Garde movie at an artsy theater and go to a movie at a big, old movie palace, such The Egyptian or the Chinese Grauman theater.

DOUG on the opera- I did not want to spend $100 on the ticket. I stood outside with my $30 waiting to scalp a ticket. A woman was waiting. She said they did not sell them in LA but someone would give us tickets. She was right. Top balcony obstructed view. No problem. I moved to a good empty seat. At the second act, I moved to an empty seat in the Orchestra. The opera lasted 4.5 hours. The first intermission was 45 minutes so the "big dogs" could dine. I had a $5 subway.

We also drove down the coast through Malibu and back through the hills on Mulholland Highway. We enjoyed the pretty scenery. We stayed busy every minute we were in LA! And, we walked around the Santa Monica pier with all the tourists.

We will fly to Shanghai on 6/1 on China Eastern Airlines, leaving at 12:30 p.m. It is a 14 hour flight and a 12 hour time difference with the east coast. Our next post will be from Shanghai.