California 2018

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Photos © Ruud Leeuw

BIG BEAR LAKE

We found exquisite accommodation in Big Bear Lake, but could have done with an
extra blanket on our beds that night, when temperature went below 0 Celsius!

Big Bear Lake
Nice classic car outside Nottinghams, where we had a meal and drinks in the bar
Nottinghams at Big Bear Lake
I can recommend the Dragon's Milk !!!

Big Bear Lake; alas, we could only take it in while leaving town!

Big Bear Lake

Big Bear Lake
Still some snow on the slopes

LOS ANGELES (a.k.a. LA)

Los Angeles LA
Driving into LA and soon the traffic slowed us down. Traffic congestion would bring me much frustration and delay.

Big Bear Lake
We found a place to park and continued on foot, on the Sunset Boulevard

Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP)

Los Angeles Center of Photography

For some reason I had pictured the LACP as a much larger affair, perhaps because of the name.
They were in fact closed upon my visit, for Tuesdays is their cleaning day. But knocking on doors helped and I was allowed to have a look see of the photographs on display.
The Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) was established as recent as in October 2013. Their mission statement includes ' .. providing education, scholarships, grants, exhibits, public programs and events, focused programming for youth and low-income families, and community outreach'.
The picture in my mind was more of a gallery rather than a center providing classes. Having said that, there was some excellent work on the walls here!

Visiting photo exhibitions, as I did last year in Tucson and Phoenix, did not work out for me in LA as the Fahey/Klein Gallery was in between exhibitions and the exhibitions in the Getty Center did not not tickle my creative imagination much. I had made a note of the Leica Gallery (at 8783 Beverly Blvd in W.Hollywood), but that visit was struck off because of lack of time and priorities.
Samy's Cameras had an excellent selection along the staircase, but obviously was only a limited number of photographs.
lacphoto.org

Hollywood Walk of Fame - The Beach Boys, Oliver Hardy.
This was on the corner of Sunset Blvd and Vine.

Samy's Cameras in LA
Walking on Sunset Blvd I could not resist getting some 'typical Downtown LA' photos, but my streetphotography
remained without any results during this trip as almost all of the time any travelling was done by car.

Los Angeles Center of Photography
Surely this is a typical streetscene too. All seemed calm and under control.

Samy's Cameras in LA was our next stop. I was impressed with the amount of equipment for sale here, but
I only came for batteries and a nice, unobtrusive camera bag for my streetphotography and daytrips.
An adress to keep in mind!

Samy's Cameras in LA
Some high quality photography on the wall at Samy's

It was only a 15 minutes drive from Samy's to our motel, the Friendship Inn.
It had been hard to find affordable accommodation in LA.
Friendship Motor Inn
The one disadvantage here was that the area was seriously short of nice dining places.
The Mexican restaurant El Cholo was nice enough, though I did not like the mandatory valet parking there.

Friendship Motor Inn - nighttime

Friendship Motor Inn, LA
Time to get up, for the first full day in LA...

Los Feliz, Los Angeles
Skylight Books LA
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
Picked up a nice photobook on streetphotography, by Carrie Boretz. But found nothing from my shopping list.

Los Feliz, Los Angeles
Skylight Books consists of two stores next to each other, one a regular bookshop, the other for art- & photography books

Los Feliz, Los Angeles
The bookstore is in an area called Los Feliz, but we did not have time to explore it further on foot

Los Feliz, Los Angeles
I love street art and this was just around the corner, fine work, larger than life!
It was time to collect the car and proceed to our next stop.

THE HUNTINGTON BOTANICAL GARDEN

In 1903 Henry E. Huntington, a railroad tycoon, purchased the San Marino Ranch, a working ranch
with citrus groves, nut and fruit orchards, alfalfa crops, a small herd of cows, and poultry.
Today, the estate is home to more than a dozen spectacular gardens spread across 120 acres.
12 gardens, 15.000 plant varieties...

The Huntington Botanical Garden, Los Angeles

The Huntington Botanical Garden, Los Angeles
This place is the perfect place to relax, breathe the scent of fresh flowers, enjoy peace and have a snack or tea. Definitely one of the highlights of my trip to California this year.

The Huntington Botanical Garden, Los Angeles

SEE MY FULL REPORT OF VISIT TO THE HUNTINGTON BOTANICAL

The Last Bookstore came recommended, but their selection I thought was crap.
The only notable thing here is what one can do with books that won't sell.
My fifteen dollars worth of parking fee wasted here.

GETTY CENTER

Getty Center, LA
The Getty Center in Los Angeles is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust.
The US$1.3 billion Center opened to the public in 1997 and is well known for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles. The Center sits atop a hill connected to a visitors' parking garage at the bottom of the
hill by a three-car, cable-pulled hovertrain funicular.

The Getty Center was on my 'bucketlist' for over a decade and I was pleased to be able to visit it now.
Unfortunately we had lost a lot of time in traffic and I had to consider our afternoon program. But a 3 hour
visit allows for a good chunk of the museum, even considering that going to & fro the parking (inside a mountain)
takes some time (about 10-15 minutes) too. The view over LA from here is breathtaking.
Getty Center

Originally, the Getty Museum started in J. Paul Getty's house located in Pacific Palisades in 1954. He expanded the house with a museum wing. In the 1970s, Getty built a replica of an Italian villa on his home's land to better house his collection, which opened in 1974.
After Getty's death in 1976, the entire property was turned over to the Getty Trust for museum purposes. However, the collection outgrew the site, which has since been renamed the Getty Villa, and management sought a location more accessible to Los Angeles.
The purchase of the land in the Santa Monica Mountains, above Interstate 405 and which is surrounded by 600 acres (240 ha) kept in a natural state, was announced in 1983.
en.wikipedia.org:_Getty_Center

Getty Center
Enjoy life to the full !!!!!!!!!!!!
Funnily enough I came across exactly the same sculpture, by the same creator Marino Marini in Venice (Italy),
visiting the Peggy Guggenheim Collection! Maybe between 2018 and 2022 it was purchased and moved to Italy?!
VENICE 2022

I am always interested in photo exhibitions: Paper Promises
Getty Center, LA
Prior to this visit I had not realized that there was such a divide in photography, between the US and Europe.
While the Europeans quickly adopted techniques that enabled photographs to be printed from negatives in multiple,
Americans initially preferred processes involving metal and glass. But during the late-1840s and into the 1850s
a few intrepid photographers tried producing photographs from negatives. Some of the results were on display here.

Getty Center

While I enjoyed the exhibition 'Paper Promises' I did not like it enough to buy the catalogue. However,
I did buy three other nice photobooks plus a Getty Center souvenir t-shirt involving a photography theme.

And there was plenty of other art to be seen as well; as here some very nice 18th and 19th century paintings.
Getty Center

I am not sure if I want to visit LA again, the traffic and the attitude of people is awful. But if I am in the area
venues on the edge of Los Angeles are indeed worth considering. A future visit to the Getty Center will see other photography on display and I would plan more time here, more than three hours, if at all possible.

RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

Since we had enjoyed so much visiting the LB Johnson Library in Austin a few years ago, I am now triggered to visit
such venues. This time we were able to visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs is the presidential library and final resting place of Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th President of the United States (1981-1989), and his wife Nancy Reagan. Designed by Hugh Stubbins and Associates, the library is in Simi Valley, California, about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and 15 miles (24 km) west of Chatsworth.

The Reagan Library is the largest of the 13 federally operated presidential libraries.
The street address, 40 Presidential Drive, is numbered in honor of Reagan's place as the 40th President... Construction of the library began in 1988, and the center was dedicated on 04Nov1991.
The Air Force One Pavilion opened in Oct.2005. It was built entirely with private donations, at a cost of US$60 million.
For fiscal year 2007, the Reagan Library had 305.331 visitors, making it the second-most-visited presidential library, following the Lyndon B. Johnson Library (which I visited in 2015).

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
I had (almost) forgotten the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan..

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
This is the 2nd time I am in the Oval Office!

The library also houses personal papers collections including documents from Reagan's eight years as Governor of California.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
For me as an aviation enthusiast is was of course a bonus to see an 'Air Force One' on display here.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Air Force One Pavilion
A metal-trussed hanger with a glass front and a shiny floor accommodates a large jet, a Boeing 707, emblazoned with 'United States of American' and other artifacts.
This huge airplane was once utilized as 'Air Force One' during Reagan's administration.
The aircraft, serial 27000, was also used by 6 other presidents in its active service life, from 1973 until 2001. These include Richard Nixon during his second term, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.
In 1990 it became a backup aircraft after the Boeing 747s and 27000 was retired in 2001.
The aircraft was flown to San Bernardino IAP in Sep.2001, where it was presented to the Reagan Foundation.
Boeing, the plane's manufacturer, disassembled the plane and transported it to the library in parts. After the construction of the foundation of the pavilion itself, the plane was reassembled and restored to museum quality; it was subsequently raised onto pedestals 25 feet (7.6 m) above the ground.
The pavilion was dedicated on 24Oct2005 by Nancy Reagan, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush

Air Fore One 27000 is part of a display about presidential travel that also includes a Johnson-era Sikorsky VH-3 Sea King, call sign Marine One, and a presidential motorcade-Reagan's 1984 presidential parade limousine, a 1982 Los Angeles Police Department police car (as well as two 1980s police motorcycles), and a 1986 Secret Service vehicle used in one of President Reagan's motorcades in Los Angeles.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
The 'Air Force One' pavilion is also home to the original O'Farrell's pub from Ballyporeen in the Republic of Ireland
which President and Mrs. Reagan visited in June 1984, now called the "Ronald Reagan Pub."

California 2018 travelogue
Driving along Malibu Beach; it was too windy and too cold to see many people on the beach

California 2018 travelogue

California 2018 travelogue
We soon found us slowed down by traffic

California 2018 roadtrip
In Santa Monica this vintage car appeared next to us at some traffic light
We had visited the Museum of Flying here. Santa Monica is the birthplace of the famous Douglas DC-3

Roadside USA (California 2018)

Roadside USA (California 2018)
That larger-than-life guy made me take the shot, but later I was more bewildered by the 'Atheists United'-sign