Saturday, March 31, 2001

Limit: 47 people

This tour is wheelchair accessible

The city of Santa Monica is located on Santa Monica Bay, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. Incorporated in 1886, it was and is both a seaside resort and a residential city well-known for its shopping districts, parks, and beaches. Many art galleries, artists’ studios, bookstores, and acclaimed restaurants are located within the city.

Our tour begins with a stop at the Museum of Jurassic Technology located in a modest building in an unlikely neighborhood on Venice Boulevard. Subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Lawrence Weschler (Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, New York: Vintage, 1996), visitors expecting dinosaurs will instead be confronted with a quirky display devoted to the radar-equipped Deprong Mori bat, a horn that grew from a woman’s head, miniature dioramas of RV parks, and many other arcane artifacts. It is simultaneously a critique of, and a paean to museums, the founder is former movie miniaturist David Wilson.

Next stop is Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, a former trolley station transformed into a modern arts complex containing over 18 galleries, several architecture and design firms, a museum, and café. Visit the Santa Monica Museum of Art or one of the many galleries including ArtWorks Bookarts (for artists books) or eat at the outdoor café. Lunch is on your own.

Our final destination is Santa Monica’s award-winning Third Street Promenade shopping district, located just two blocks east of the Pacific Ocean. A 3-block long outdoor mall features Claude and Francois LaLanne’s topiary dinosaur fountains, with interesting shops, restaurants, coffeehouses, and bookstores, especially Hennessey and Ingalls (art and architecture), Arcana (contemporary art), and Midnight Special (general with an emphasis on the politically progressive). Two blocks west, at Colorado and Ocean Avenues, the Santa Monica Pier has recently undergone a transformation that features a glorious new nine-story-high neon-decorated ferris wheel, and at the far end a dramatic fishing and viewing platform where you can sip margueritas at tables outside (or inside) at a moderately-priced Mexican restaurant. The bubble man will probably be there, as well as the Pier’s beloved 1922-vintage carousel (featured in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"). Stop and look into UCLA’s Ocean Discovery Center. Or enjoy a sensational view of the ocean from the newly renovated Palisades Park (just north of the Pier), a 3-mile-long park and walking path along the bluffs. Check out the Camera Obscura (latin for "darkened room") above the Senior Recreation Center at 1450 Ocean Avenue. (Best at what it does on a sunny day, just trade your driver’s license for the key, then step inside for a unique experience.) All this is within easy walking distance of the Promenade.