A visit to UCLA

On Saturday Will had an all-day Neuroscience conference at UCLA. There was room in the car that was going so I also tagged along for the ride. We met at UCI at 7am, then headed off shortly after to make it for the 8:30am conference start. I think it was the earliest I've had to get up since leaving NZ! We arrived at the university in good time and Will and his colleagues headed off to the conference, and I headed off exploring.

UCLA has a beautiful campus, much more impressive than UCI! It has obviously had some very wealthy benefactors who have sunk some serious cash into the place. I enjoyed wandering the extensive sculpture garden which has, amongst other things, a Rodin (above) and a Henry Moore. The architecture is gorgeous too, apparently its style is Romanesque Revival .

It is pretty much the end of the academic school year here, and the campus was full of students getting graduation photos taken. It seems to be a big deal here with a lot of people using professional photographers. It has been the same at UCI over the last week or so. Here's a few more pics of the campus.

We were there just 3 days after the tragic murder-suicide of Professor Klug by one of his ex-students which took place in one of the engineering buildings. There was a noticeable police presence around the campus, and security guards posted inside the foyers of the buildings.  I don't know whether that is a consequence of the shooting, or whether it is the norm. The statue of a bruin, the UCLA mascot, had been turned into a memorial for the professor.

Like UCI, UCLA had some very impressive sports facilities, including a brand-new huge (4 full-size rugby fields) artificial turf that had only just opened.

They also have a football team (as in the 'American' kind) so have a big football stadium on campus. UCI don't run football as part of their athletics programme which is a shame, as both Will and I would have enjoyed watching some local college games.

After I had explored the campus to my heart's content, I managed to find a bus that would take me to Venice Beach (for all of $1.25 for a 45-50 minute ride). Now when I left UCLA I had beautiful blue skies, sunshine, and about 30 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately the beach was shrouded in a dense grey sea-fog, which is apparently quite common at this time of the year. You wouldn't have thought these photos were all taken on the same day!

Venice Beach was bit of an experience. I don't think I've ever seen/smelt so much weed openly smoked in a public place before! In California medicinal marijuana is legal, so obviously Venice Beach must just have a lot of sick people hanging out there...

Venice Beach was all go with loads of people engaging in various sports on the public courts. It was the first time I had come across Paddle Tennis. It's a sport I think I'd enjoy playing. It was also cool watching the guys playing 3-wall handball.

The basketball courts were also full of guys strutting their stuff and showing off their moves.

Muscle Beach itself was a little disappointing, much smaller than I expected. I was hoping to watch some huge 'roided up guys working out, like you see in the movies, but I was all out of luck. Speaking of movies, I did come across a movie being shot in one of the side alleyways off the main Venice boardwalk, but I didn't recognise any of the actors in the shoot.

Once I'd finished exploring Venice Beach, I walked the couple of miles along the beach to the Santa Monica Pier. On the way I came across a very cool event by a charity called Life Rolls On which enables disabled people to experience surfing using specially adapted boards. The sheer numbers involved in the event were impressive. There were 5 or 6 different coloured 'teams' and each team had a crew of 20 or so volunteers to help each participant catch some waves.

Santa Monica also offered plenty of sport and action to watch. There was women's beach volleyball...

People practising their slack line walking...

People playing around on the various ropes and bars...

And also some lifeguard training to enjoy...

Finally I reached the Santa Monica Pier. This place was absolutely heaving with people enjoying the amusement park, as well as watching all of the buskers and entertainers.

My favourite busker was Dancin Dave, a Santa Monica institution. He was brilliantly entertaining, and definitely in the 'so bad it's good' category.

Despite the sea-fog, there were plenty of people out and about, enjoying the beach. I was lucky enough to see several pods of dolphins swim by when I was on the pier, but not close enough to get any decent pics.

Will's conference finished at 5pm so I walked from the beach to the Santa Monica Downtown metro station, then caught a bus back to the UCLA campus (and back to blue skies and sunshine) in time to meet him and travel back home to Irvine.