The view from Mullholland Drive overlooking the Hollywood Bowl and downtown L.A. in the background
The drive into L.A. hit a glitch with a blowout on the 10. If you have never been to California they refer to all their highways as “the”. For example we took the 10 to the 605 to the 105. Luckily it was a rear tire and we have two on each side and we were able to limp to an abandoned store parking lot to work on getting back on the road. It actually was not a huge setback. We located a tire place was just minutes away and the tire was half the price we expected to pay. After only 90 minutes we were back on the road.
We were greeted by a very “active” RV park on Dockweiler Beach, which was literally a parking lot that was converted into an RV park by adding hookups. It was full of old motor homes of all shapes and sizes. We noticed there are so many old class c coaches parked all over the place in Venice and Santa Monica. Seems like the RV has been a hosing choice for many Californians for some years now.
The park was right on the beach, but it was cold and grey! Not what we expecting for June being so accustomed to the warm sunny weather in Florida at this time of year. We have come right at the beginning of what locals refer to as “June Gloom”. Perfect timing right? :( Also no dogs were allowed anywhere near the beach.
The first night we had a great time hanging with my long-time friend Sean. Sean is a fellow photographer who I have been close friends for over 20 years! It was so great to see him and spend time with someone we know. That has been one of the hardest things on this trip is the isolation from good friends. Sean also introduced us to his girlfriend Gina who was a wonderful person, but we did not expect anything less from someone Sean who choose to share his life with. We highly recommend if ever in the Santa Monica area to go enjoy the Farmer’s Market on Sunday. There is great food and produce. You can get a wonderful breakfast there. From Crepes to Sausage sandwiches, they have it all! It was a great call by Sean to go.
The dog park in Santa Monica was not a great experience, so I am not going to go into detail. We are started to be soured on SoCal dog owners. Not all are bad at all by any means, just quite a few bad ones that are not making dog parks there a good experience. Self absorbed attitudes seem to abound in SoCal but that is not news for most I am sure :)
We would like to thank Kelly and Alex for a very fun evening on their roof patio eating and sharing time with good friends. It felt so good to feel like we belong somewhere again where people know our name.
The diamond day came when we got the tour of the area by Sean. He took us all over Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. He gave us a tour that many would pay big money to get. We got to have excellent Thai Food at Toi on Sunset Strip. Touring the hills of Hollywood was a blast. The homes were unbelievable, I just cannot imagine how so many people have made so much money!
While winding up Mulholland Drive I spotted a great shoe perched in a perfect spot, and I mean a perfect spot! The hollywood sign was in clear view right behind it, I could not have set it up any better unless I had a f-me pump. But this shoe was almost just a good. Check it out here. We continued to go down Sunset Blvd. to Rodeo Dr. We could not be there and not go down that road. It is so funny to actually see first hand the Paris Hilton wanna-be’s walking down the street. This was right after she went to jail just down the road. We passed by someone who had a “Pray for Paris” sign hanging on a yellow jumpsuit dangling from a tree in their front yard. Good stuff!!
After we got back to the coach the sun was actually breaking through the gloom and lighting up the clouds for our first sunset over the Pacific ocean. We watched it go down with a glass of Shiraz we picked up in New Mexico, bundled up in our Mexican blanket from San Felipe on Dockweiler Beach. It was so awesome. Sharon even spotted a seal that had beached himself for a bit and then he slid back into the surf. Very surreal! Overall we had an awesome time in L.A. area but it was time to move northward.