Here's a name you dont see often!

Sebastapol, California

On our way back to Canada we found this town Sebasapol, north of San Fransisco and west of Santa Rosa where the Snoopy Museum is. Full of hippies we loved it. On the edge of town is a street full of scrap metal sculpture, just great. I took a pick of it all so quite a lot and put the pics on Flicker, one pic shown below, click here to see them all.

Video clips

This is Linzi's YouTube site which has a selection of short video clips for your entertainment, such as:
Universal Studios
Venice Beach
Charles Schulz - Peanuts museum

www.youtube.com/theFeelgoodzone

Los Angeles

LA sunshine and warmth, Hollywood Hills, the land of film scripts, would-be actors, palm tree lined boulevards, the ocean beaches. Wealth and poverty side by side.

We visited LA for a few days sightseeing, only a selection of photos here as took loads.

Typical LA tree lined boulevards

LA freeways 10 lanes. With 2 travelling we used the almost empty Car Pool lane bypassing traffic jams

Us by the Hollywood sign, or is it?

Mark by entrance Getty Villa, off Pacific Hwy1

 There are 2 Getty art museums in LA, we visited the Getty Villa which is built like an exact replica of a Greek villa. It was beautiful and peaceful and a gentle day after visiting Universal studios the previous day. Here are 2 view of the courtyard. On display were plenty of ancient world artifacts, some real and some replicas, eg statues. The Getty museums are free but there's a hefty $15 parking fee. A very pleasant Saturday especially spent with a glass of vino during our picnic lunch. The photos look like there's no one there but I guess I was lucky iwth these snaps as there were loads of people.

After this visit we drove along the Santa Monica highway, by the beach and saw surfers. I think Mark has photos of this.

Venice Beach sign, 7.30am Sunday morning, light was good

No explanation needed here. He was showing off. Comments?

Venice Beach mural by parking lot

Melrose Avenue, near Deisgn Museum, the posh end Hollywood/Beverley Hills. Urth cafe. Popular place full of would-be script writers, actors, well to do ladies with nothing better to do and us poor folk. Delicious breakfast.

Melrose Avenue, Hollywood district Paramount Studios outside wall

The Ivy restaurant. There were no paparazzi when we were there, the place was busy on yet another sunny warm LA morning. I would have liked to have stopped for a coffee but we had no time that day.
White fence definitely needed a lick of paint, looked a real mess. I wonder why the management can't afford to clean it up!

Next to The Ivy all the well known designer shops. This looked so pretty.
If people want more pics of other shops let me know to load them

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

Mark looking through the day's photos

London Hollywood style: Mini's tax disc was July 2007. based on Nottinghill it seems. Fake Irish pub other end of street.

Tour bus past car effects stage

 Desparate Housewife's Wiseria Lane was a 'closed set' as
filming that day. No actors were in view, shame.

The strangest things found in a hardware store

Ace hardware store: a coyote watches

Ace hardware store: I bet at night they all come out to play

Pics of Linzi & Mark - eating and drinking

Mark in thoughtful pose, campervan coffee cup

Wholefoods has delicious healthy food ... 2nd home for us

Mark with bike, reliving his youth!

REVISED Charles M Schulz Museum

We took the RV out for a spin this weekend as wanted to go to another WordPress talk in Petaluma, about 40 mins away. Gave us the chance to refill the Propane tank as nearly out.

The talk was very good, the chap had loads of WordPress experience and went thru loads of plug-ins how they work, etc. At the end I was helping a woman with Photoshop and we got chatting, the English accent ALWAYS gets a certain conversation going.  I happened to as her about Santa Rosa as we wanted to go take a look. She thought Petaluma was nicer but we explained that we wanted to go to the Peanuts Museum. "Oh" she says, "I may have some free entry to that". So she ploughs thru her wallet and pull a couple of free entry tickets out, brilliant.

So 25 mins later we pull up at the Charles M Schulz Museum. Very nice, very modern, not many cars in the car park meaning an uncluttered museum for us to peruse. The photos of the guide (below) show what was there. I went straight to his recreated studio where a 14 min video played on an old TV, I looked at all his stuff and his books, framed articles on him, all very cool and inspiring. The rest of the place was hundreds of cartoon strips assembled for different reasons. One area was about equal sporting rights for women, one was on the theme Snoopy Come Home. It was great. We got there about 2pm and before I knew it we were being thrown out 'cos it was 6pm and the staff wanted to go home. I hadn't finished reading tho!

Anyway, across the street was The Warm Puppy Cafe on the end of the Ice Ring. Charles had breakfast there every day, went home to doodle/get ideas, came back for lunch, went home again and inked in a cartoon. Well I like the sound of that. We had something to eat while little kids played ice hockey on the ice just a few feet away. Bites from my sandwich were interspersed with "kill him, kill him!" from the 13 year olds playing. Once we had eaten we went next door to the Charles M Schulz Gallery and Gift Shop. Not much to say about this as only had 20mins to look round and brain and eyes all frelled from 4hrs of continuous reading already. But I did get a Snoopy Tin Lunch Box I now use as a ArtBin ;-)

Great afternoon out, wanna go back as Linzi saw stuff I didn't, plus you can sit all day in the theatre watching the Peanuts movies, all for just $10 a head.

I didn't take pics inside as mainly hundreds of cartoons or lifeline exhibit and the like, didn't really show anything. Linzi took some video and pics so hope she will add to this entry later. Click on a pic to get it bigger.

Walking back to the Museum, what's that in the distance?

closer

Ah! the guard dog

One side of the museum guide

the other side/floor

Warm Puppy Cafe receipt, we ate where Charles did, his table wasn't marked inside

Fat Arse Yankees?

You know I couldn't believe how huge this portaloo was, about 2-2.5 times wider/deeper than a UK one. That's at least 4x more space inside! We looked to see if it was a disabled one but no markings for that at all, just the supplier name. It's by a park full of stuff for kiddies, swings, batting cage, basket ball, etc.!!! Other stuff here isn't over size. Anyway just made me laugh that 'American Sanitation' was soooo big.

REVISED Christmas lights & Linzi

Hello folks ...A few photos of mine (Linzi). Mark's one's will be a vast improvment on mine .... but then he does flap around a lot more and has a tripod.

Our celebratory outing for Winter Solstice was to hear play a local reggae style band, CR Vibes. Mark said it was the best sound mixing he's heard, professional sound and great playing. Aerobic dancing ensued for Linzi while Mark supped Blue Moon beer with slice orange, makes all the difference.

Linzi here, backdrop the RV kitchen with notice board, and gifts received from her sister all the way from Abu Dhabi: Camel milk chocolate! & necklass/earring

Reindeer all cheerful, front grounds of a country club but often seen in front gardens too.

This house has loads of seasonal things hanging everywhere, even in the daytime it's an electic mix.

'him' do'in his 'hing

How cute is this? Snoopy on a light letter box

Moving deer heads. I like the all white effect.

What the 'other half' is thinking you want for a Christmas gift

Photos taken of a jewellery shop window, Napa, northern California. Made me smile and take a second look so I guess it's one way to encourage a visit inside.
Linzi (P.S. Mark, I don't require any of the items featured in the photos!)

Aphrodisiac gifts: Male brain - Viagra. Female brain ruby ring.

Practical gifts: Male brain - Crocks shoes. Female brain - diamond necklass.