Comedy, Kayaking, Museums and Farmer's Markets in Los Angeles

Looking for some comic relief in the evening after fighting traffic earlier in the afternoon, I stopped in at the famed Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd – just down from the celeb rich Chateau Marmont for some comedy. Many famous acts have started here or performed on its stages including Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase among others. It was #blackout Tuesday and I was the only Caucasian in the audience. Oh and I was in the front row. Therefore I took lots of comedic abuse from the African American comics – why was I there, why was I there by myself and what was my story?

I usually stay in town with friends or at a few select hotels I am familiar with but there are plenty of other options in town including renting a house or apartments for longer term visits. HouseTrip recently reached out to me – this looks like a good alternative to hotels or hostels – with lots of coverage in Europe but plenty of other destinations as well.

With a goal of visiting nearly all museums in Los Angeles I ticked off another six this trip, bringing me to nearly 90 visited and reviewed including the very interesting African American Firefighters museum – with a great tour by local volunteer, Jimmy – a retired fire safety officer.

A visit here is a unique insight into the early African American fireman in the LAFD and the struggles they had to fight before and after department segregation. At the time, there were only two fire stations in Los Angeles that African Americans were allowed to work in. African American’s were segregated from the other area fire stations for 50 years from 1902 to 1954. The racism after segregation was implemented was harsh at times. Enduring taunting, nasty tricks, such as forcing them to reach the second story of the firehouse only by using the fire-pole which other firefighters put butter on to make it extremely slippery, separate sleeping arrangements and other abuses.

Los Angeles is a major museum town – there are well over 100 museums here – and if you count all the museums in Orange County, you will have plenty of museum visits to keep you busy for weeks!

A current exhibit at the Orange County Museum of Art (next to Fashion Island) displays the works of Peter Sarkisian. His artwork combines an intriguing combination of video projection as well as sculpture. Eclectic pieces such as a woman bathing nude in a metal bowl, nude mother and child playing together and a man scribbling on a book are some of the more memorable displays.

After visiting the oldest residence in Los Angeles, the Avila Adobe which dates from 1818 it was a short drive up Caesar Chavez to Sunset Blvd to reach the Silverlake Farmer’s Market. Los Angeles has farmer’s markets on every day of the week – and plenty of them! I’m slowly making my way through this overwhelming list!

This is sapote season – a creamy mild flavored sub tropical fruit that you sometimes find at markets. There is not much of this planted in the state and when I find these I usually buy these in large quantities. This fruit does not ship well – it ripens fast and can quickly become an over ripe mess without proper refrigeration.