This page documents my stay in Los Angeles during the Net.Marketing 1999 conference, when I visited the Santa Monica Beach. Santa Monica by Day These pictures are from downtown Santa Monica, which is a Beach City in Los Angeles. This street is two blocks away from the Beach, and is a sort of main street, lined with stores (mostly tourist attracting stores, but with a few Hollywood specific stores, such as prop rentals) I thought this sign at a playground on the Santa Monica Beach was especially funny: "no adults unless accompanied by a child" These pictures are all of the incredible Santa Monica Beach in Los Angeles. In the distance you can see the "Santa Monica Pier", which is a small amusement park with a roller coaster, Ferris wheel, and other rides. They close quite early, so I recommend you do not go too late at night! This is a very safe area at night, with lots of people walking about. On the Saturday on which I arrived, there was this large organic farmers market in Santa Monica, between the Main Street and the Beach (you pass this farmers market by driving along the road which is closest to the Beach, driving south from the Santa Monica pier). Many of the farmers have pieces of their fruits sliced up so you can taste them. At the time, citrus fruits such as grapefruits and oranges, as well as Fuji apples, were in season. I had lunch from a German sausage vendor, who sold grilled sausages that he made. Santa Monica by Night An interesting nighttime photograph of the front of the "Yankee Doodle" restaurant in Santa Monica. We (Marlene and I) thought it was some sort of chain restaurant, and just wanted to have dessert someplace. It turns out to be mostly a pool hall, with 80's music playing very loudly (not quite what we were looking for, but fun nonetheless). The New York cheesecake was perfectly acceptable. These are two photographs of the main street in Santa Monica at night, when there is a great deal of night life It really is quite pleasant: friendly and informal, unlike most of Los Angeles (which is a continuous strip mall). Interestingly, this street is blocked to all car traffic, something which is very unusual in America, and even more unusual in the car-happy state of California. Of course, because there is no car traffic on the street, there is tons of pedestrian traffic and commerce at all times of the day. I wonder if there is a correlation. No California city would be complete without a large bronze sculpture of a dolphin! There was this incredible twisted tree on the park which faces the beach in Santa Monica. It was nighttime, so there wasn't really enough light to take a photograph, but the photographs are themselves interesting for this low light effect reason. The final photograph is the least blurry if you are interested in seeing what the tree actually looks like. Other pages: The car drive to/from Oakland and Los Angeles. The Century Plaza hotel. Pictures at the Net.Marketing Convention.