Los Angeles
City of the Angels - well unless they drive cars, I don't see any.
The temperature is ideal and winds balmy. Which is more than I can say for Wellington, where I landed with a paper bag on my knee, inscribed with the same message in ten languages and the cheery addendum, 'It all comes out the same whatever the language...'
It took about two hours to clear customs this end. They hate that I live on a farm. I ended up sticking my foot up on the customs bench to prove my shoes were mud-free.
We have since learned that going the extra mile (legging it alongside six lane highways) does not improve one's chances of being able to buy brown bread and milk, and one might as well go with the flow and get a Taco/McDonald's/Subway earlier rather than later with sore feet. Meanwhile I am learning to make tea in a coffee percolator.
LA is not the shopping centre one imagines. We have searched in vain two days now for a supermarket or a SIM cardery. Silly-price clothes available in selected locations, sure, but...
La Brea Tar Pits
I had not realised that LA is built on an oil field, I always thought Beverly Hillbillies was bunk, however, beneath Beverly Hills is indeed crude oil, looking like black treacle and with the same consistency. The seeps at La Brea look innocuous. They are only a few metres across, and, with a covering of wind-blown leaves and a little rainwater, invisible, and for 30,000 years, animals died, stuck in tar.
Page Museum is fascinating, they have skeletons of mastodons (which I was surprised to find were furry and smallish elephants) and mammoths – down to mice, and although it is the mammals one relates to, it is the insects, plants, fresh-water molluscs and pollens that tell the tale of climate change and environment.
Many more carnivores than herbivores, because when a big herbivore got stuck, it made a noise and lots of carnivores turned up to investigate. They all got stuck and died. They did not sink entirely for up to 20 weeks, depending on the ambient temperature. They smelt, attracting vultures and jackals. There were over 1000 golden eagles and 1,600 Dire Wolves of which they have skulls.
About 100 pits have been dug. 60 odd had fossils from 40,000 years ago to 10,000 yrs ago. Since then there have not been many deaths and only one human skeleton. Why this is, is not stated. Also, few nocturnal animals as the tar was more solid then, and no raccoons at all. (?)
City of the Angels - well unless they drive cars, I don't see any.
The temperature is ideal and winds balmy. Which is more than I can say for Wellington, where I landed with a paper bag on my knee, inscribed with the same message in ten languages and the cheery addendum, 'It all comes out the same whatever the language...'
It took about two hours to clear customs this end. They hate that I live on a farm. I ended up sticking my foot up on the customs bench to prove my shoes were mud-free.
We have since learned that going the extra mile (legging it alongside six lane highways) does not improve one's chances of being able to buy brown bread and milk, and one might as well go with the flow and get a Taco/McDonald's/Subway earlier rather than later with sore feet. Meanwhile I am learning to make tea in a coffee percolator.
LA is not the shopping centre one imagines. We have searched in vain two days now for a supermarket or a SIM cardery. Silly-price clothes available in selected locations, sure, but...
La Brea Tar Pits
I had not realised that LA is built on an oil field, I always thought Beverly Hillbillies was bunk, however, beneath Beverly Hills is indeed crude oil, looking like black treacle and with the same consistency. The seeps at La Brea look innocuous. They are only a few metres across, and, with a covering of wind-blown leaves and a little rainwater, invisible, and for 30,000 years, animals died, stuck in tar.
Page Museum is fascinating, they have skeletons of mastodons (which I was surprised to find were furry and smallish elephants) and mammoths – down to mice, and although it is the mammals one relates to, it is the insects, plants, fresh-water molluscs and pollens that tell the tale of climate change and environment.
Many more carnivores than herbivores, because when a big herbivore got stuck, it made a noise and lots of carnivores turned up to investigate. They all got stuck and died. They did not sink entirely for up to 20 weeks, depending on the ambient temperature. They smelt, attracting vultures and jackals. There were over 1000 golden eagles and 1,600 Dire Wolves of which they have skulls.
About 100 pits have been dug. 60 odd had fossils from 40,000 years ago to 10,000 yrs ago. Since then there have not been many deaths and only one human skeleton. Why this is, is not stated. Also, few nocturnal animals as the tar was more solid then, and no raccoons at all. (?)
