I Love L A
OK… maybe I don’t LOVE LA, that’s Randy Newman’s thing, but it ain’t that bad. And Santa Monica and Venice Beach, and Topanga Canyon were great, so if THAT’S also LA, maybe I do.
Yesterday we rode the train down from Oakland to LA, checked into our hotel and crashed (well, I uploaded a bunch of San Fran Pictures because I finally have some good internet). Today we walked back to the train station to get our rental car. Did you know you can’t rent a car in LA at night except at the airport? So after getting the car we headed out to Santa monica to meet my cousin Mike Prock, another of the “lost” Kelley side relatives that I have reconnected thanks to Facebook. We spent the day catching up on what lives we each have lead between the nineteen seventies and now, and it was pretty interesting. While we visited we walked around Venice Beach, and went for a drive to check out Topanga Canyon, Mullholland Highway, and Malibu. I was really surprised not so much by how quiet and remote some of the area was, but how BIG the quiet backroad area was. We went for quite a while and it was amazing to think we were still really in the city.
We had diner at one of Mike’s favorite “greasy spoons” Teddy’s on Bundy Drive. I told Mike I wasn’t sure about eating a a place Called Teddy’s on Bundy Drive but I’d give it a try. It was a pretty good meal n a place with a lot of character. The day was great, and the weather was OK except it was very windy during the time we were on the beach. But I have to say, you could do some serious weird watching in a place like that. Quite the community. Of course Mike has been here for a long time and notices how the old scene has changed, but he did run into people he’s known since they were just kids. And even the people he didn’t know were talking to him like they knew him. It’s just has such a real neighborhood feel, it’s amazing to realize you’re in a modern city.
But I really don’t have a lot to say right now, so I’m just going to try to get some pictures up. I don’t think I’ll have time to do captions tonight, and don’t know if I will for a while. So those of you who can handle seeing them now and having them explained later feel free. Otherwise, I will post when I have the captions on them. I gotta go to bed soon as we plan EARLY yoga tomorrow. I think I yacked my back pulling the luggage around too much yesterday, so I don’t know about how it will work out for me, but I’m hoping it will actually help. I’m hoping for a mellower class than in San Francisco, but you just go and see what you get.
Our best to all, R&R