LA unexpected

Sometimes when travelling it's the little unexpected things that give me the most pleasure. Here are some of my favourites from LA.

I know LA is a real car-driving city, but these colourful ones were a little different and less polluting!

 Downtown LA is full of vertical lines, but I wasn't expecting this forest of lamp-posts (an installation outside the LA County Museum of Art, LAMCA).

I love the In Wonderland exhibition of female surrealist art. Frida Khalo's paintings were amazing, strange and powerful. This one is called The Two Fridas (1939) but what I photographed were three women looking at each other.

 Possibly the best sticker shop in the whole world. I bought a few diggers and trains for my little boy but the real reason for going in was to add to my own growing collection...

 I'm sure Venice Beach isn't supposed to be seen in a huge storm, with thundering grey skies and the palm trees whipped by the wind and rain. No wonder that building looks so scared.

 There were several creatures I wasn't expecting to see: a mermaid in a doorway...

 ...an owl on a rooftop...

 ...a tiger in the canal. Venice's canals were so beautiful. Everything is reflected in the water.

A fire engine on the boardwalk on Venice Beach. It was especially unexpected after all that rain the day before! I had to take a picture for my little one, who loves fire engines. The sea is right behind me in this photo, but the long sandy beach, the deep blue sea, the gulls in the blue sky - all these things I was expecting. I'm glad I got to see them too.