Greetings from LA

Well, I did it..... I finally made it all the way to the west coast. I have always wanted to see the Pacific Ocean, and now it has been a great time being in LA. I am here for a photography seminar with Becker who is hosting me and 4 other photographers from around the country in his home for a day. More on all that later. I came to LA a couple of days before my meeting to be a tourist and see the sights.

We'll start with a couple of pics from the plane. I love plane pictures. This first one is over Texas looking down at the storm system currently causing so much ice and problems in the midwest. This looked like a Kodak moment...



This is the mountain range just east of LA basically separating the desert from the ocean. Palm Springs is to the left in this photo while beautiful green, grassy Orange County is to the right on the back side.




When I arrived yesterday, I decided to get out of town.... I drove about 25 miles northwest of LA to the Simi Valley and visited the Ronald Regan Presidential Library. From the time I saw his funeral last year at this beautiful library, I said that if I was ever in the area that this would definitely be a destination. It was not dissapointing! The main attraction of the museum below was Air Force One. This is the original here, not some Hollywood imitation! And.....I got to walk through it too. Notice the view through the glass in front of it. They were setting up for a wedding reception underneath while I was there. How cool would that be?








This is the view of the valley from Reagan's grave site behind the building....Spectacular!



I spent the night a few miles south in the mountains near Mailbu so I could spend the morning driving the Pacific Coast Highway back into LA. Malibu was the location where Baywatch was filmed (not that I ever watched it of course). Here are some photos along the coast....







Future gang members at work practicing on the public graffiti wall...



Here is my ugly mug at Venice Beach near LA. Notice the curved sidewalk in behind me you have probably seen a million times in movies with people skating and biking in the background. It is also known well from the movie White Men Can't Jump.



There are so many things I could not make pics of that were just unbelievable. Driving down Sunset Avenue through Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and down Rodeo Drive was fantastic. I saw everything from the UCLA campus, The Kodak Theater, the Hollywood Stars sidewalk and the streets of beautiful Santa Monica. So far it has been a great trip. The only thing missing is Rae! Tomorrow I am working my way on down the coast from Long Beach (where Rae was born) down to Mission Viejo, CA for my seminar. More to come soon.

Wesley