Mini postcard from LA

This summer we re-visited Los Angeles, one of our favorite places to be. Our days were spent seeing friends, relaxing and re-exploring all the things we love and enjoy doing there. Most of these places are featured in previous LA travelogues (click here), so this will just be a short postcard adding a couple of new things into the LA mix. To make up for the briefness of this post, a regular one will follow within the next couple of days.

TESLA and SPACEX

Excitingly, California is home to the two technology companies I follow with great interest and passion, Tesla and SpaceX. 

With Tesla, Elon Musk is on the mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable and renewable transport, and to steer us away from meeting our daily transport needs by burning fossil fuels. Los Angeles' roads are a testimony to the success.. even though I stopped counting after the first hundred sightings, I never got tired of pointing out the Teslas (and other EVs), it was just thrilling to see just how many are embracing the change, which makes me hopeful for the future. (If you would like to learn more,  follow these links: About Tesla and Elon Musk's Master Plan Part I).

Obviously, I would have loved to visit the Tesla factory in Fremont, but there wasn't enough time to include a trip to Northern California. Fortunately, SpaceX's headquarters are located in Hawthorne, near LAX. 

SpaceX has revolutionised access to space by developing reusable rockets which dramatically cut the cost of space exploration. Instead of building rockets that burn up on entering Earth's atmosphere, SpaceX's rockets withstand the re-entry and land with pin-point precision on pads or drone ships, to be used again and again.  I can vividly remember how excited I was watching the first Moon Landing with my parents fifty years ago at the age of 6. I would  never have imagined it would take more than half a century for men to reach out to the stars again. Elon Musk's SpaceX is a big part of making this dream happen again.

Visiting SpaceX was obviously on top of my list, and even though they don't do factory tours (unless you know one of the employees), I very much wanted to see the very first stage orbital rocket that  returned safely back to Earth (set up in front of their HQ) with my own eyes!

If you've never watched the magic of rockets and boosters coming from space and landing back on Earth, check out this video (featuring the latest reentry of a Falcon rocket from space) twitter.com/elonmusk, or click here to see the incredible double booster landing of Falcon Heavy last year.

Capsule wardrobe pieces: Tweed jacket with lurex (Georges Rech), jeans (Blank NYC) and a short sleeve sweater in dark green (MaxMara, here)
Sandals by Chanel, belt by Le Temps de Cerises

 THE BROAD

The Board is a fun, modern art museum in Downtown LA, and since everyone wants to see the Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms, the key to visiting is timing...the queues get longer and longer as the day goes on!

To avoid the no-reservation 'first comes, first serves' queues, book free tickets online (here), keeping in mind that during high season you'd have to book several weeks in advance. Make sure to book the earliest time available (11am on weekdays, 10am on weekends) and to arrive 20 -25 mins before the museum opens its doors. You will find yourself pretty much first in line, which is handy because you need a second reservation to access the mirror installation. Once the doors open you simply follow the museum's assistants, who steer you towards the iPad registration kiosk in the Lobby. There you enter your first name and mobile number, which gives you your approximate wait time. By the time you reach the mirror room, you're most likely already good to go in. This procedure saves you several hours of queuing, so it's well worth preparing!

SpaceX: 1 Rocket Road, Hawthorne, CA 90250
www.spacex.com

The Broad: 221 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012. www.thebroad.org (
closed on Mondays)


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