California visit

While at Bouchercon, my husband and I took a quick trip to Los Angeles.  I like this city and not just the weather. For one thing, Los Angeles is the home of many world class museums. On this trip, we visited LACMA – the Los Angeles Couny Museum of Art. They had a special exhibit on the armor of the samurai. It was beautiful as well as functional. I especially enjoyed the art deco textiles. As a weaver, I was astonished by the complexity, as well as the beauty, of these pieces.

A display of all the lights used in LA grace the front walk before the gates.

Because it is LA, of course, there are unique LA twists. Every place has food trucks. LA has unusual ones. Not a hot dog truck in the bunch but there is seafood, sushi and ethnic food of all varieties.

We stopped at the Nespresso store for coffee. It makes starbucks look like gas station coffee. All the staff wear black uniforms that look almost like martial arts outfits. Art work related to coffee adorn the walls and the front, where the coffee and food are served, looks like someone’s living room with sofas, little tables and comfortable chairs.  (The back half is where the capsules are actually sold. And expensive coffee it is too.) More than anything, this store reminded me of a temple set up for the worship of coffee. I love coffee and am a huge coffee drinker but to my New York eyes, this looked  over the top.