A big burger for me and a pulled pork sandwich for Kent both accompanied by a big pile of fries AND onion rings. Ahhhh. We had to try the local diner that had advertised in the campground flier. The place didn’t look to traditional diner-like from the outside but inside we found the classic booths and lots or cutesy posters and what not. Perfect. The food met the expectations too. …wonderful
Venice beach was beautiful. We drove and strolled and checked out the fancy homes. There are some great views of the city and out into the ocean all along CA1. There was a little gray-brown haze though. An ever present reminder of just how many people live around here. The whale viewing area off Pt Vincent was great even today. They are out far enough to be clear of the smog and we could see for miles. We saw three whales moving together and just spouting along for our enjoyment. They seemed in no hurry but they didn’t do any fancy cavorting like the one we saw early this week up by Malibu. Still thrilling to see.
We extended a couple days just to see all we had planned but we have got to go soon. Kent is starting to drive like the locals. Tomorrow, The Getty Center then back out into the desert.
We hope to do more in Yosemite.
A drive out through the country was super curly but not too much traffic. We set out to see rock formations along the San Andres fault and got a bonus in the Devils Punchbowl which is formed where two other faults collide. All pretty amazing when you think of the forces to cause it and the many years in the making. We met a supper enthusiast county park ranger….great to talk to or more accurately to listen to. We learned about the faults and about bugs. He has a collection of them (along with more rattlesnakes) in the visitors’ center.
Did you know, there are honey ants that store nectar in there bellies, not hives and native Americans used to eat them. Whole. Also, the big fat bright red velvet ant is actually a very stingy wasp! We saw her along the trail but he made the id from a pic.
First, there was more filming. At the San Andres fault “famous rocks” they had a crew working and an elephant. So all you movie goers, watch for an elephant in front of huge angled rock formations. Again, sure, there will only be one of those scenes used over the next few months! Then, as we drove we climbed to about 5000 feet and found snow, still several feet of it as we neared 7000 ft. A beautiful lake side campground in the national forest. It would be neat sometime. Then, we found a sign “road closed ahead, rockslide”. Bummers, we had to find an alternate route and just as we were getting close to the big horned sheep area. They have had a lot of rain and snow and now temps are rising and all is melting so slides are happening…fun stuff. Really makes one question the intelligence of all these folks with multimillion dollar homes perched on cliffs. Some cantilevered for more than three quarters of their size. Good insurance and/or lots of dough I guess.
We saw a whale. He/she was just having a great time jumping clear out of the water not far off shore a little north of Malibu. We had actually stopped to watch surfers but this was even better. Such fun to watch. I was afraid that they had all already moved on.
We spent the day driving Route 1 along the shore. They were filming something on Santa Monica beach. Watch for a beach scene with blue and white stripped umbrellas….yeah, right. Probably a 100 of them in upcoming movies or move ads. We watched a while and we walked the boardwalk and pier. They have street venders who don’t just make caricature sketches; they make 3D sculptures of people on the spot. The quick dry sculpty stuff must make that possible. Pretty cool. The clown balloon tying guy was really talented too. I watched for two or three creations.
We walked the 3rd Street promenade in Santa Monica and had dinner there. It was a nice evening. They have topiary, water spewing dinosaurs for street lawn ornaments along the promenade and we enjoyed the street entertainers everywhere we went.
Disney Concert Hall-primary stop for the day-closed for dignitary’s memorial service – bummer
Grand Central Market since 1917 Any food/produce/meat/fish you might need or want. Originally developed as a shopping mecca for the area and still serves that purpose. Great Pork Taco(really spicy) and an average cream horn.
Angels Flight (worlds shortest railroad) Built to move the well healed up and down Knob Hill including shopping at the Grand Central Market. Goes about 1 block @ 33% grade.
What visit to Hollywood would be complete without a visit to Mulholland Drive. We drove along for several miles overlooking various parts of the city and homes of the rich and famous. Apparently only a very short section is frequented by the tour groups as once we left the 1st overlook we never saw another tour van.
La Brea tar pits. The main lake looks just like in the movies and there are half dozen or so other pits just oozing and stinking. There were methane bubbles comming up through the water puddles on the sidewalk! He page Museum where the fossils are housed is really well done and the whole thing is set in a beautiful park among other museums. We even got to see into the active “dig”. Thin is NOT a place where I would be a volunteer. They actually slog around in the asphalt-like goop and dig our bones and stuff or they sit with a toothbrush and tri-chlor and clean off the tar….icky. It was cool to see it all though.
Did you know, it is saber-tooth cat not tiger? He is not a tiger. They had life size models of giant sloths. You wouldn’t want to meet up with even the little guys of those times 40,000 yrs ago or so. Another big did you know. Did you know that C14 (that they use for carbon dating) comes from irradiated N14? Just doesn’t sit right with my science education. I must have slept through some lecture. I need to look it up. It is worth a stop.
Hollywood Blvd. Did you know that some stars have more than one star? Bob Hope has at least 3! My favorite “handprint” at the Chinese theatre is actually Jimmy Durante’s “Dis is my schnoz” print. We saw Michael Jackson, Some rapster, a Marilyn Monroe, Mario and Woody from Toy Story, all hamming it up to get folks to have a pic with them for a price. We passed on those but I do have my picture coming down the main stair case at the Kodak theatre.
If in travels, you happen across a bakery named “Crumbs”….splurge. At $3.75 for a cupcake it felt almost too extravagant. With the first bite of my mocha toffee crunch I’d call it just plan decadent. A great stop on our Boulevard stroll.
There are MANY clothing stores on Hollywood. Not much of what I would consider street attire though. Costumes, wigs, and “evening wear” seem to rule. I notice too that the mannequins seem to be D-cup or larger too. Interesting west coast phenomena I guess. Fun window shopping!
The farmers market was spectacular. There were organic veggies every kind and food booths from nearly any part of the world you can think of. It was early in the day when we passed through so we didn’t sample anything but it might be worth another visit before we get out of here unless the market in downtown is just as good. That is where we are heading tomorrow
We took in a fun little festival in the town of Filmore. Their claim to fame is vintage trains of all sizes. They run a steam and a diesel fun ride and they have a for-real train turntable. They can drive a full size locomotive onto it and spin it around. Heavy duty. In their model train club, the display track is actually an assemblage of members 3’ by 5’ sections into a big oval. Pretty cool. They really like to talk about their trains! The Historical Train Society had a booth that sold absolutely yummy smoked beef sandwiches. Festivals can have the best food. We sure enjoyed it. Strawberries are ready here too. They didn’t all even make it into the trunk without being sampled.
Did you know that squid have a clear plastic-looking backbone skeleton thingy?
We took in the tide pool talk at the Channel Islands park nature center. Squid was on the menu for the residents in their tide pool. That’s how I know about the skeleton…since it is always long gone by the time the calamari hits the table.
More fish tacos and some great clam chowder. I could get used to this fresh seafood.