Back in June I traveled to the US for a work trip. The office is in California. These photos were taking on during my free afternoons and weekends over there.

Laguna Beach

The office I was visiting is in Aliso Viajo, Orange County. This is a bland maze of wide roads joining together car parks in front of large concrete rectangles. Pedestrian lights take forever to change, and seemingly large and well maintained sidewalks often end in the middle of nowhere leaving anyone stupid enough to try walking to their location stranded. It is no doubt a city built for cars, not people.

Given all that it was very welcoming to discover that just a short drive away is Laguna Beach, a lovely walkable town stretching along a particularly nice bit of the coast. My introduction to Laguna Beach was drinking beers, eating ceviche, and watching the sun set over the ocean. It’s a really beautiful beach.

Griffith Observatory

At the end of the first week I had a 24 hour cold, knocking me out for the Friday and lingering into the Saturday. This meant Sunday was a mad rush to do as much sight seeing as possible. The first stop was the Griffith Observatory on the southern face of Mount Hollywood.

We parked at the bottom and hiked up the hill. It was a very hot day and we were three very sweaty men when reached the top.

These days the main function of the historic Observatory building appears to be for housing a science museum. My favourite exhibit was a collection of elements of the periodic table. My colleague brought a Geiger counter along with us and it was fun to wave it across the uranium and radium to see how high it would go.

Venice Beach to Santa Monica Pier

Holy shit! What a place.

So many people trying to grab your attention. From pro skateboarders, to elite body builders, bad DJs, and hoards of up-and-coming reggae artists flogging their music on strange shiny metal disks called CDs.

This place is equal parts interesting and exhausting. After the jet lag, sickness, hike to Griffith and then this we were all very tired. But I am very glad I went down to see the chaos for myself but not sure I will be rushing back for more any time soon.

The Getty

After the work trip wrapped up I flew off to Utah to see an old friend of mine. But in order to fly home I had one more day in California. I spent that time visiting The Getty, an art gallery operated by the worlds wealthiest art institution.

A top a big hill in the Palisades, overlooking scenic views of LA’s many Highways, is a massive and obscene piece of modern architecture. Inside it is housing artifacts of the ancient world, illuminated medieval manuscripts, paintings from European masters, and some of the most notable photographic works from the inception of the camera to modern day.

The photographic part of the gallery was closed while I visited. But there were large projectors set up so people could watch live broadcasts of America’s first FIFA world cup when they grew bored with the art.