On Monday night I picked up my friend Aaron and his art school compatriot Martin from the North Hollywood bus stop. They were in town until Friday to attend Siggraph at the convention center. On Tuesday Aaron graced us with his cooking skills.
On Wednesday I took a vacation day and attended Siggraph with them. The conference was mostly for 3D artists, which didn’t apply to any of us. Aaron was able to shop his character design skills to several gaming studios though. The highlight of the show for me was the AstroBoy life-size sculpture at the Imagi booth.
After the conference I took them on a short driving tour of the city. We headed south to the fashion district and then east past Little Tokyo. From there we headed north to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and travelled west on Wilshire until we reached Vermont. Aaron had wanted to see what Hollywood looked like so we took Vermont north to Hollywood and travelled west on Hollywood blvd past the touristy parts. Then we took La Brea down to Wilshire to catch the Tar Pits and LACMA before turning up Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. From Beverly Hills we took Wilshire again all the way to Santa Monica and parked at Palisades Park.
After walking around Palisades Park for a bit we drove up Pacific Coast Highway to Topanga Canyon and took that route through the mountains to get home.
We didn’t actually stop at LACMA – just drove by. They wanted to get to the beach before the sun went down and we didn’t leave the convention center until 5, so with all that driving around in rush hour traffic I knew we couldn’t stop until we hit the beach.
Your great Aunt must be very wealthy!
She was, er . . . well her husband was. He was a very successful salesman and entrepreneur. She lived there ever since I could remember. I used to visit my cousins (her grandchildren) in the summers. She didn’t have one of the houses that had an ocean view from the back yard, but lived across the street. It was about a half-mile walk down to the coast. She sold the house shortly after I got married in 1994.
Sounds nice!
I have often driven that route out to the beach. I used to take it when I lived In Simi. My Great Aunt once had a house near the coast at Topanga and PCH.
What’s at the LACMA right now?