Last Day in the California & the USA

Happy Memorial Day beautiful people! Today is the day!!!! I'm leaving for Australia tonight- holla! Mother and I have been quite busy out here in beautiful LA, doing all sorts of touristy things. On Saturday morning we went back to the lovely Polliwog Park for a nice long power walk- my first at that. I've always laughed at the sight of power walkers but now I know they really are workin' it! After our walk we went to the store to make salads for lunch at the hotel, where we ate by the pool. Then we got ourselves together to head out for an evening in down town LA! We drove into the city not having the slightest clue what we would do be doing there, and after aimlessly driving around for almost an hour we parked in a garage and then stopped into a coffee shop for some sight seeing advice. The barista there gave us a great agenda for the afternoon. We walked over the LA Phil which is a beautiful rooftop garden to the MOCA (museum of contemporary art). The exhibit was amazing and I found a new love for contemporary art which I had not been introduced to until this point. I am so used to the traditional exhibits at the Philly museum- seeing something new was refreshing! I did learn that reading the artist's description of their pieces is absolutely pointless. It's basically just a bunch of jibber jabber about how they see the world as lines or, having no lines at all. Anyway, there's two parts of the MOCA about 10 blocks apart so we went looking for this other building and got lost and it wouldn't be the last last. I don't know whats worse, running hills at practice or getting lost in down town LA and not knowing the stream of public transportation- all I can say is those LA hills are killer. Next, we went to an out door food market and ended up in a huge music store with the most guitars I have ever seen in my entire life. I fell in love with a ukulele there, but momma talked me out of it :\  We headed back to the other side of town (where we began) to grab dinner at a sweet outdoor restaurant we spotted before hand. The Blue Cow was a mod, cozy place with  comfy couches and heating lamps to keep warm. Once we were all stuffed up, we headed back to the car to get home for some well needed rest. Of course, we got to burn off all that grub getting lost again on the way back to the car. Back in Manhattan we watched the beautiful west coast sunset to end the day.
Sunday called for a chill day outside, with the best weather we had yet. We went down to Manhattan beach for about an hour and then explored the coast. We drove about 5 miles south to Redondo beach where we rented bikes. We rode back up north to check out a street fair we had passed on our way down that forced us to take a minor detour. The Hermosa Beach Memorial weekend street fair was PACKED with vendors and people. It was crazy. We couldn't stay long because there was just too much going on so we went back to Redondo for lunch. Once we dropped off the bikes we ate at a harbor side restaurant over looking the marina, then we went back to the hotel for a nap. For my last night in LA, I had to go out with a bang and so mom dropped me off in Hollywood where I stayed with my Philly boy, Adam. He came out here for an internship and never looked back. Adam, his roommate Sam and I went out for a night on the town. We went to some bar (I forget the name) where I met some people who were also from the East coast. Then we went to a little cafe and called it a night. This morning Adam and I rode the metro all the way back to Manhattan beach where we met Mom and went out to lunch. The tables were turned when I got to show Adam Manhattan, a place he's never been despite the fact he's been living in LA for over a year now. We enjoyed a beautiful Memorial Day brunch at The Strand House where we sat outside on the second floor deck overlooking the shore. We dropped Adam back at the Metro station and hurried back to the hotel to pack up and move out!!! I still really don't know how all my stuff has fit into the luggage I brought but it did. Now we are just killing time until we get to head back to LAX and mom will see me off to SYDNEY. Is Australia ready for it?......
Peace and Love to the beautiful USA
Australia: HERE I COME
~mrlb