All you can eat crab buffet.

Along with the sea-lions Morro Bay has a large colony of Sea-Otters.

We came across some of them diving for crabs and gorging themselves - it must be 'crab season'.

One of them would dive collect a crab & a rock, then lying on his back with the crab on his belly would use the rock to smash open the crab shell to get inside.

Others would bite the claws off first, before attacking the shell.

One of them brought 2 crabs up and used one to smash open the shell on the second.

Crab mustache;

Morro Bay

After the hustle and bustle of LA we needed a few days off so headed for the small coastal town of Morro Bay a few hours drive north of LA.  

The town is dominated by a huge volcanic plug of rock which; a, creates it's own weather and b, has caused a 'sand-bar' to form thus creating a well protected natural harbour for the local fishing boats.

Sunset over the fishing boats;

Very localised weather;

Sunshine on the rock;

Some of the locals who inhabit the harbour and scrounge from the fisherman;

Really enjoyed just chilling by the sea and really fresh seafood for a few days.

LA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art

LACMA has a new 340 ton exhibit that we thought we should visit;

Yes I know it just looks like a big bit of rock balanced over an over-sized trench, but, it took the artist more than 10 year to find the 'right' rock.  Guess he wasn't looking too hard.

A surprising number of people wouldn't step under the rock - I assume it's something to do with living in an active earthquake zone.

Another exhibit we had to see was Metropolis II, modeled after a fast paced modern city with a 6 lane motorway and scaled trains.  Model cars and trains race around the 'city' replicating the noise and stress of living in a large modern city (see link above).

And as befitting the art theme of our blog - a small selection of some of the other art in the museum;

The entire contents of the artists house painted pink.

It's all just a load of

if you ask me.

LA - Beverly Hills & Hollywood

Jakki finally got to go shopping on Rodeo Drive;

The Beverly-Wiltshire Hotel, aka the Pretty- Woman Hotel at the bottom of Rodeo Drive;

And on to;

You can just make out the sign in the background;

Hollywood walk of fame;

Some of the stars we had to photograph for friends (you know who you are);

Outside the Chinese Theater are all the hand prints;

Jim Henson Studio- in the old Charlie Chaplin studio;

 

Charlie's poking his head out of the door at the bottom.

Although not in Hollywood we passed the fabulous Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry;

Los Angeles - Beaches

The next stop on the tour was LA, with side trips to Hollywood, and the beaches.

In Venice Beach we found a farmer market with stalls serving a selection of brunch foods.  At this stall you could have the giant pancake, the fruit or ice-cream pancake, I'm just not sure about a waffle with fried chicken...

In the end we went for very, very large omelets;

Venice beach;

The big grey building in the middle of the photo is the lifeguard HQ made famous by Baywatch.

We looked at some beach-front properties, but, decided the gardens weren't big enough;

I'm not saying the stores in Venice Beach are fancy but, I couldn't even work out what this one was selling;

Santa Monica Beach, a couple of days later, was altogether more normal.


No one surfing round the car-park;

Or model shoots on the beach;
 

Just a wide beach with the town in the background;