Last Day

FRIDAY
I have a couple of hours to fill in before the shuttle bus to the airport picks me up. After another strenuous day of sightseeing, I just wanted to come back to the Mayfair Hotel and sit.

I caught a bus out to LACMA and then realised they didn't open until midday. So I walked up to the Farmers Market (about a mile) for breakfast. Like most markets it has stalls selling fresh produce and meat. Pete would have liked the shop that sold nothing but chilli sauce: top rating was 10++. I thought about bringing some home but worried it might spill.

Across the road was Ross, a shop we girls discovered in Honolulu that sells last season fashions at discount prices. I bought 5 outfits for $80, and could have bought more but I'm running out of space in the suitcases.

I caught a bus back to LACMA and walked along the road to the La Brea Tar Pits, which are next to LACMA. There's a separate museum explaining the Tar Pits and exhibiting lots of the bones they've recovered: did you know there were camels in North America about 20,000 years ago? Also wolves, sloths, cougars, mammoths ... very interesting. They have a "fishbowl" where you can watch the scientists and volunteers cleaning and sorting bones.

Back to LACMA, which has several different buildings in the complex. I walked through the contemporary art building where they had some Andy Warhol (which I like) and a lot of other stuff that did nothing for me. On the ground floor thee's a sculpture called Band which is huges sheets of metal, rust coloured, curving around to make shapes you can walk through.

I had lunch (with wine) at one of the cafes there and then caught another bus back to downtown to visit LA Central Library, which is architecturally interesting, with lots of murals painted on the walls and ceilings. Did a walk-through self-guided tour and decided I'd had enough.

Pete suggested buying a Kindle (electronic book reader) but I couldn't find anywhere in downtown LA that sells computers or anything like it, so I've given up. I think we can buy them on line at Amazon.

Okay, now I'm done. See you in Sydney!