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By Root 1496 0

and Wilshire Blvd, Third Street Promenade is a case study on how to morph a dilapidated, dying main street into a dynamic and happening strip. It offers carefree and car-free strolling accompanied by the sound of flamenco guitar or hip-hop courtesy of street performers. You can grab a bite, catch a movie and browse the Gap or Zara. And every Wednesday and Saturday, hobby cooks and professional chefs jostle for the freshest foods at the farmers market Click here. It’s a lively and dynamic zone except for Santa Monica Place, the shopping mall at the end of it, which is expected to be replaced by an open-plan mall before too long.

MAIN STREET

Retail therapy gets a fun twist along Main St, which is lined with owner-run boutiques and galleries that are light years from chainstore conformity. As you browse around, keep an eye out for Frank Gehry’s playfully postmodern Edgemar Center for the Arts, a former ice factory turned sculptural complex and cultural venue. For a trip back in time, check out the latest exhibit at the California Heritage Museum (Map; 310-392-8537; www.californiaheritagemuseum.org; 2612 Main St; adult/student & senior/child under 12 $5/3/free; 11am-4pm Wed-Sun; ), housed in one of Santa Monica’s few surviving grand Victorian mansions. Curators do a fine job presenting pottery, colorful tile, Craftsman furniture, folk art, vintage surfboards and other fine collectibles in as dynamic a fashion as possible. To see locals at play, come during the Sunday morning farmers market Click here in the museum’s parking lot.

SANTA MONICA MUSEUM OF ART

A saucy and irreverent home of edgy art and community events, this small museum (Map; 310-586-6488; www.smmoa.org; Bergamot Station, Bldg G1; suggested donation $5; 11am-6pm Tue-Fri, 11am-8pm Sat; ) gives exposure to both local and national artists working with new and experimental media. Cool gift shop. It’s part of the Bergamot Station Arts Center, a cluster of galleries and arty shops.

GEHRY HOUSE

In his creative life before the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Frank Gehry was primarily known as that crazy guy who sculpted houses from chain-link fencing, plywood and corrugated aluminum. A great place to see the ‘early Gehry’ is his 1979 private home (Map; 1002 22nd St), a deconstructivist postmodern collage that architecture-critic Paul Heyer called a ‘collision of parts.’ Neighbors were none too pleased about it at first, but that was before Gehry had claimed his spot in the pantheon of contemporary architects.

Venice

If you weren’t around in the hippie days, inhale an incense-scented whiff in Venice, a boho beach town and haven for artists, New Agers, homeless people and free spirits of all stripes. This is where Jim Morrison and the Doors lit their fire, where Arnold Schwarzenegger pumped himself to stardom and where Julia Roberts, Dennis Hopper and Angelica Huston make their homes today.

SoCal’s quintessential bohemian playground is the legacy of Abbot Kinney (1850–1920). A tobacco mogul by trade and a dreamer at heart, Kinney dug canals and turned fetid swampland into a cultural and recreational resort he dubbed ‘Venice of America’. For nearly two decades, crowds thronged to this ‘Coney Island on the Pacific’ to be poled around by imported gondoliers, walk among Renaissance-style arcaded buildings and listen to Benny Goodman tooting his horn in clubs. But time was not kind to Kinney’s vision.

Most of the canals were filled and paved over in 1929 and Venice soon plunged into a steep decline until its cheap rents and mellow vibe drew first the beatniks, then hippies in the ’50s and ’60s. A few years later, Venice turned ‘Dogtown’ as modern skateboarding hit the big time. These days, there are pockets of gentrification, but overall it’s still a low-key enclave with a strong sense of community. Think indie boutiques instead of cookie-cutter malls and not a Starbucks in sight. There’s plenty of innovative architecture and public art but no traditional attractions as such, making the area great for independent exploring.

Abbot Kinney Blvd has street parking, while parking