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November 29, 2008 Historic Saint Mary's City
St. Mary's City - a hop away from Piney Point - November 29, 2008 Well, a bad cold I picked up mysteriously on my flight back from LA prevented me from joining my family over the holiday, and perhaps that was a blessing in disguise, as I was really exhausted and did not wish to make four trips to the airport in less than one week. Then, an email informs me that I do not have to travel back to LA this weekend! Home for two weeks - priceless! More on Saint Mary's City tomorrow. November 23, 2008 From the massive Pacific to the mighty Potomac: Flight time: 4 hours, 6 minutes
Another nuance of Manhattan Beach Pier - November 21, 2008
24 hours later and 40 degrees colder: another nuance of Piney Point from my pier - November 22, 2008 What a shock: I left a balmy 75° F California with only a light jacket to endure a twenty minute wait at Dulles International Airport for the rental car shuttle. The temperature in Washington DC: a numbing 32° F! When I left home four weeks ago, I just shut of the heat, as I recall Thanksgiving holidays in the past as sunny and mild. The house was like a refrigerator when I stepped in, and I had to set the thermostat at 80° for a solid twelve hours just to thaw it all out. Fortunately I have a small electric heater in my master bath and within two hours of arriving home I was soaking comfortably in a steamy Jacuzzi tub with a nice glass of Petite Sarah. I tell you, one can get spoiled when on assignment long term in Los Angeles, especially this time of year. As much as I miss Korea, Japan and Italy, I have no complaints about working domestically for a time. And it looks like that may be the case, as I have months of work backlogged in LA. My assignment will likely end in mid-2009, which is perfect in terms of a six month sabbatical here at home. I was assuming it would end at the close of 2008, not exactly the best of times for someone that has not experienced a real winter since 2005 (in Vermont). Well, I had one glorious day (today) to relax before embarking on a hectic holiday travel schedule that graciously dumps me back in LA on December first. I'll make the most of the week and survive the holiday like also, but I can't wait to get back to my sunset beach walks. November 15, 2008 FIRE!
Long Beach Marina about to become totally overcast with dense smoke from the Freeway Fire 30 miles to the East I decided to have lunch in Long Beach at the Marina today. What an eerie change of scenery I witnessed while munching on some tasty hummus, pita bread and falafels! It was a record hot day and windy throughout LA, just the type of weather all here dread, especially if you live up in the hills. Montecito, the famed Santa Barbara neighbor, was devastated the day before with 111 homes destroyed, many of them multi-million dollar mansions. In the Sylmar file, 600 trailers were destroyed mostly occupied by senior citizens evacuated moments before their homes were incinerated. Can you even remotely imagine that! These fires are pretty indiscriminate when it comes to one's economic status. By 1:00 PM most of the LA Basin was covered with a grayish brown cover of thick smoke that completely blotted out the sun at times - but from a new fire that started in a remote area in Riverside County now deemed the Freeway Fire.
91 Freeway Eastbound with cars to the right exiting an onramp! The sight of this mass of brown smoke engulfing all of Los Angeles was so bizarre that I had thought I better capture it on camera. I got back in my SUV and headed east but could never get quite the right vantage point. I ended up on the Newport Beach Freeway, and finally eastbound on the Riverside Freeway. I should have know better when every approaching exit had more and more cars backed up. Finally cars were turning around right on the freeway and exiting the wrong way on the onramps! I kept going until traffic stopped dead on the freeway. By then I could see flames and helicopters and the smoke was dense enough to make breathing somewhat taxing. Traffic crawled to a weigh station and one line of cars was exiting and doing a u-turn to a local road as the highway patrol apparently had opened a locked gate. I opted that route rather than continue into the dense wall of smoke. An hour later I'm free, and I'm thinking what an idiot I was for venturing into this inferno. I never did get a good shot of the smoke, but my clothes wreaked of the smell. We'll find out how many lost their homes tomorrow. Funny if we are unaffected, how we take such things for granted, and how life goes on as normal for the 20,000,000+ here in LA that were not. November 14, 2008 Manhattan Beach Pier
Manhattan Beach Pier after sunset after a hot day on November 14, 2008 Ok, I have no time to update the Blog tonight and may take an unknown path at whim tomorrow when I awake. It's crazy - so much to do and no time to do it! Who cares, this is fun! November 9, 2008 Del Coronado Hotel
After a relaxing evening in a "villa" at the bayside Marriott (I can stay free there), I toured the seaside of Coronado Island for a look at the world famous hotel by the same name. The wind was howling as you can see from the palm frowns, adding a a spark of magic to the afternoon while touring this allegedly haunted hotel.
As always, I have far to many photo to post here. Perhaps someday I'll start actually using my Flikr account to post a entire series. In any event, it was a near perfect get away weekend on this delightful little island. November 8, 2008 Lunch in La Jolla . . .
I got up early and took Pacific Coast Highway from Manhattan Beach all the way South until it ends in San Clemente (where you have no option but to get back on I-5). It was a glorious trip early on a Saturday before the local traffic got bad even though summer has long since gone. Each coastal city south of LA county has its charm and character. Nothing has changed much except more building everywhere. More on this journey coming . . . . . . dinner in Coronado
November 2, 2008 In the Heart of the City of Angels
It had been well over a decade since I walked the streets of downtown Los Angeles, and although today I had originally lost my bearings (parking right across from Pershing Square and not knowing it until I returned to the car), I felt right at home immediately. The late afternoon was sunny and near perfect, and Sunday afternoon was free of the hundred of thousands of commuters, leaving only the tourists, the immigrants and the homeless in the streets - a perfect afternoon!
Imagine LA without Latinos - some might like to but, impossible - they were here before us!
Finally - really seeing the Walt Disney Concert Hall in person. Now I must attend an event!
A Pershing Square Rally - Little has Changed in LA - Thank God!
Two landmarks in LA - the Bonaventure Hotel and the Library Tower It's funny when I travel to other parts of the US and tell people that I am bound for LA - they sort of look sympathetically at me and say something clueless like "yeah, that place is crazy, glad you are going instead of me." Yeah - me too. I love it here!
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