For those of you who are not West-coast hip, SLO stands for San Luis Opisbo, a town on the central California coast about sixty miles north of Santa Barbara and twenty miles south of Hearst Castle. Jeanette and I recently visited there for a brief holiday with our kind friends, Liz and Russ Seymour. (Actually, the Seymour's new home is in Arroyo Grande, about eight miles south of SLO.) Here follows a long … and possibly boring synopsis of our trip:
FRIDAY
Jeanette has never seen Los Angeles, so we started our tour with a very pleasant Midwest Airlines flight to Lala Land. (Rebecca had driven us to Logan airport.) I convinced Jeanette that our sightseeing tour of LA should not occur on a weekday (freeway shootings, traffic jams, and all that) but rather upon our return, the following Sunday. So, in our Budget compact, we scooted up Rte 101. Along the way we passed the town that was devastated by mudslides this spring, past Vandenberg Air Force Base (Liz and Russ can see nighttime rocket launches at Vandenberg from their back deck), and, near Santa Barbara, lots of off-shore oil derricks. In about four hours, we found the Seymour abode easily with the help of Mapquest.
The Seymour's home is quite large and fancy. It is of the hacienda style located in a gated golfing development overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the distance. Pizzazz! After settling in at the Seymour’s we ordered out for pizza delivery. The pies were just OK but they made up for it by being extremely expensive. When I asked the delivery boy for an explanation, he said "gourmet ingredients." I took this to mean that the sausage was made of chopped up gourmets.
SATURDAY
This morning Liz had scheduled a yard sale of much of the Seymour detritus accumulated during and since their move from Seattle. Jeanette and I helped out with the pricing, arranging, and sales. I exhibited a little too much hucksterism and was relegated to helping load buyers' cars with various and sundry purchases. Liz did net almost $300 though. We then went out for a Liz-treated lunch at an earthy-crunchy deli in an old corrugated tin warehouse out in the nearby country -- very good victuals. We also stopped briefly at a tiny town called Harmony, famous for its ceramics and blown glass. Both these stops were steeped in the ambience of neo-hippydom.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Farmer's Market in Arroyo Grande. This was a unique experience with plenty of free samples -- juicy orange slices, fresh strawberries, homemade salsa, guacamole, and taco chips, olives, artichokes, etc. There was a very large Mexican presence at this market. They seem quite an energetic group. We came home laded with farm goodies to add to a delicious homemade meal also courtesy of Liz.
SUNDAY
This day was devoted to a trip up to Santa Cruz to see Danny (the Seymour's son) and his new bride, Angelina. (Does anyone remember that old ditty "Home Again Angelina”? Everyone looks at me cross-eyed when I claim there is such a song … even Danny … who is a disc jockey in his spare time.) On the way up Route 1 we stopped at Cayucos to do some antiquing and a nice lunch at Schooner's Wharf. We next stopped to see the elephant seals just north of the Hearst Castle. As we wound our way past Big Sur we stopped at a gas station for some bottled water. The price of gasoline there was $4.00 a gallon! It soon will be cheaper to fill your tank with cheap vodka. Then the severe geography flattened out as you pass Monterey. Danny and Angelina have a cute apartment overlooking the ocean in Capitola, a Venice-like village near Santa Cruz. Angelina made a lovely dinner for us. The trip up Route 1 took over four hours. The return trip, back down Route 101, took about half that.
MONDAY
This day Russ took us on a wine tasting tour to the Edna valley. In his spare time, Russ gives such tours for $100 per head (Back Roads Tasting). Most of the vineyards we visited were around Paso Robles and Cambria. One was run by an old B-movie star and his ex-Miss America wife. In general the wines were expensive ($20 to $30 per bottle) and nothing to do hand stands for. We had lunch at Panolivo, a nice little French bistro in Paso Robles. Russ ended this tour with a car ride on the beach at Oceano (next to Pismo Beach). Pismo was once thought to be the furthest north beach in California where one could swim (before the age of wet suits). This was a real experience. This beach is wide, long, and beautiful … where visitors drive the RVs right on the beach and park overnight (or longer). There are also vendors there renting Hummers, dune buggies, motorcycles, etc. right on the beach. Some groups go there with convoys of RVs and park them in a circle around a bonfire -- just like Conestoga wagons. Oh to be young and carefree again! We had dinner at Adriano's, a neighbor of the Seymour’s across the street. He was the one who had previously lent us his condo in Portugal -- a real sweet guy.
TUESDAY
Earlier, Jeanette and I decided that we should give Liz and Russ a few days respite from our house invasion. When I ask Russ for a suggestion for a side trip and he suggested Yosemite. Bingo! Neither of us had seen this ecological icon, so we left this AM to travel there. Yosemite (as a kid, I pronounced it yos-MITE) is about 200 miles ENE of SLO so we had a long trip through California's central valley. This seems to be mostly raisins, walnuts, cattle and almonds country -- with miles and miles of vineyards, pastures and orchards. The geology of this region is also curious. You first traverse rocky hill country just East of the coast. (Paso Robles, the town there, is Spanish for "Pass through the Rocks.") Then there is a very large pancake-flat plain before the hills start again around Fresno, which then soon graduate to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The reason for the curious character of this geology is that we know that the Pacific tectonic plate diving under California is creating these mountains. But then how and why the big central plain?
On the way to Yosemite we ate at In-and-Out Burgers (which Russ had touted to us). It is clearly superior to our East coast fast food with everything cooked to order. (Try the grilled onions on your burger). Anyhow we arrived at the Wawona lodge, a turn-of-the-century hotel built for Teddy Roosevelt, inside the National Park around 2:00 PM and got settled. We then started out to go to the Yosemite Valley -- about 25 sinuous miles over the first mountain range. On our way down into the valley, we hit a snowstorm that seemed to grow increasingly dangerous. So we turned around and crept back to our hotel. There we had a few Manhattans, a delicious meal, and went back to our bathroom-less room for a fitful sleep.
WEDNESDAY
Jeanette and I spent this day in Yosemite Valley. By the time we got there (around 11 AM) there was no more snow to be seen. We took a bus tour of the valley to see the famous Ansel Adams stops (El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, etc.) One impressive fact: El Capitan is about three times the height of the Empire State Building … and hundreds of times more massive. Our tour guide said that it was the largest granite structure in the world, but my recollection is that this honor goes to Ayer Rock in Australia. Moreover, our tour guide's delivery was so soporific that Jeanette and I wasted the last hour of the tour snoozing away sandwiched between two Japanese couples taking pictures. Yosemite Valley is quite awe-inspiring, but, to me, it was far smaller than I expected. From the Ansel Adams photos, I had gotten the impression that its area was quite vast. But, it is only one and a half miles wide and about six miles long (only about 1% of the entire Yosemite Park). So one is sightseeing straight up most of the time as opposed to being able to digest the entire vista from afar.
Another thing struck me. Our government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (perhaps millions) restoring the meadows in Yosemite Valley to their original swampy condition. Our guide told us that such swampy meadows purify the water that eventually ends up in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Excuse me! If these meadows represent less than 1% of Yosemite and Yosemite itself is but a small fraction of the total wilderness area of the Sierra Nevada range, then the water filtered in these meadows must be but a few drops of the millions of gallons of potable water drunk in coastal California. This is clearly tree hugging gone berserk.
We lunched at the Ahwahnee Hotel (Cobb salads with bay shrimp … yum!). We would have tried to stay there except it was about four times as expensive as the Wawona. However, it would have been worth it. It is an exquisite, massive stone structure built in an Indian motif with lots of theme textiles, leaded glass, and paintings. That evening we had another Mexican dinner in Gold Course, a town a few miles outside the park, and gambled in an Indian casino nearby. I won $100 on the nickel slots (four duces). I keep kicking myself that I wasn't playing the quarter or dollar slots.
THURSDAY
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we got an early start back to Arroyo Grande. We stopped for lunch at the famous Madonna Inn, a few miles north of SLO. It is the epitome of kitsch. Pink dining room, a waterfall urinal in the Men's room, and waitresses dressed like Heidi at Hooters. On the way out we saw a notice that the Madonna Inn was being sold … so bad taste DOES have a half-life. That afternoon we went to the farmer's market in SLO. It was a bigger version of the Arroyo Grande one. We had drinks and bar nibbles at Mother's tavern then meandered among the sundry booths of goodies. I bought fresh morel mushrooms for son George and Mission figs for his wife Anne. And Russ bought another flat of delicious fresh strawberries that had been picked in the fields below the Seymour house. (We had seen these very same berries being picked a few days before. The Mexican workers are paid on a piece basis so you saw them running back to the truck with their pickings and then back with empty flats. On that evening, I think it was Monday, we could hear them singing in Spanish and laughing in their transient quarters -- kinda like a scene from "Gone with the Gringos.") Later that farmers-market evening we had tri-point roast beef sandwiches, BBQ, and home-brewed beer at Firestone's, a real funky college hangout in SLO. Delicious!
FRIDAY
We spent most of this day in Santa Barbara with the Seymours. It is a very lovely town but, to me, somewhat overrated. (The median home price there is over a million dollars.) We stopped at the Santa Barbara mission and the Biltmore hotel (a little hard to find but quite fancy). Before we returned home we had dinner at Jockos, about 10 miles inland from Arroyo Grande. This is a sight to see --- two-inch high pork chops and spectacular steaks, all cooked on a huge charcoal grill taking up an entire back room. It is crowded with cowboys and bikers (kinda archetypal Americans). We sat at the bar and downed many Jack Daniels sours and local wine. We then pigged out (of course) on most everything they offered ... including sweetbreads!
SATURDAY
In the morning Russ took me to see his hobby -- large-gage model railroading. There is about a two-acre layout of these trains only a few miles from his home. We stopped to see this landscape with tunnels, trestles, roundhouses, etc. All the informal club members here must work on the components. Russ has helped with some of the landscaping and restored the roof of a water tower. Next I saw something quite remarkable. A friend of Russ builds these trains from scratch. Russ took me to his modest home where, in the living room, were a hand-made boxcar and a locomotive tender -- both the size of a large coffee table. But in the garage was the piece de resistance, a steam locomotive the size of two coffee tables. Everything on this engine worked and was to scale. Even the sand dome on the roof had miniscule glass beads (small sand) that were fed through copper plumbing to give traction to the drive wheels. This engine has taken three years to get to this stage and may take another year before it's done. The client is the former CEO of Continental Airlines and its price tag will be about $250,000. This builder friend was given a bonus of a month's trip to England with his wife when he first agreed to take on this commission.
Then Russ took us all to the See valley for a little more wine tasting. At the Kelsey vineyard we tasted the best wines of the trip -- a sparkling Syrah and a port -- both of which are experiments (not even labeled). I hope to buy a case of the sparkling Syrah when it is ready. Next Russ took us on a "Sideways" tour (from the recent movie of the same name). We went to Los Olivos (near Santa Maria) where the women shopped and the men sat in the shade. We had lunch at the Side Street Café. (Try the endless bowl of chili soup.) Then came San Ynes (where Michael Jackson pursues his passions at Neverland). We visited the San Ynes Mission there and copped a free tour. (California's 28 missions occur about every 25-30 miles -- a day's trip on a horse -- all the way from San Diego to above San Francisco.) We then drove through Sovang -- a community dressed up as a Danish village -- weird! While driving back to Route 101 we passed the Hitching Post (from the movie) but chose not to stop and gawk.
SUNDAY
We started out for Los Angeles around ten o'clock in the AM. We stopped on the other side of Santa Barbara at a small surfing town called Carpinteria for lunch. We chose the restaurant with a line standing outside (Esau's Café). The food turned out to be sophisticated and quite good. I had lox with capers and red onion on a toasted bagel with cream cheese. And Jeanette had delicious BLT with avocado. There clearly is a California style of eating -- herb tea, pita bread, apple-smoked bacon, avocado, sprouts, tomato, and lots of other fresh ingredients.
We exited route 101 in Woodland Hills at Mulholland Drive. We then followed Mulholland Drive south toward LA, hoping to get into Beverly Hills. However, there seems to be two Mulholland Drives because this one petered out in a dirt fire road high in the hills overlooking Los Angeles. We retraced and got back on 101 South and after about ten miles got back on the other Mulholland Drive … in Beverly Hills. As we wound our way through Beverly Hills we saw the stately decay of what once was the playground of Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Carol Lombard, and their ilk. Seeing a yard-sale sign we stopped to find out that Beverly Hills junk is just the same as Natick junk. Groping our way toward Hollywood, we turned down Sunset Boulevard. When we got to Grauman's Chinese Theater, I don’t think I have ever experienced a more depressing place. It looked like the exercise yard at San Quentin mixed with the bar scene from the original Star Wars. I truly believe Hell can't possibly be any worse. Santa Monica followed and then we did Venice Beach. This latter "tourist" spot looked a lot like Grauman's, only with sand, exercise equipment, and more (visible) tattoos. This was followed with Marina Del Rey where we fittingly ended our trip with another Mexican meal avec Margaritas. After we dropped off the rent-a-car, we stayed the night at the Airport Hilton -- a better deal you won't find anywhere ($50 a night through Priceline). It was, believe it or not, quiet and quite plush.
MONDAY
We had another pleasant but daylong Midwest Air flight back to chilly Boston where son George picked us up in Jeanette’s wagon. After dropping him off, we returned to Natick … and so to bed.
Thank you Liz and Russ!
FRIDAY
Jeanette has never seen Los Angeles, so we started our tour with a very pleasant Midwest Airlines flight to Lala Land. (Rebecca had driven us to Logan airport.) I convinced Jeanette that our sightseeing tour of LA should not occur on a weekday (freeway shootings, traffic jams, and all that) but rather upon our return, the following Sunday. So, in our Budget compact, we scooted up Rte 101. Along the way we passed the town that was devastated by mudslides this spring, past Vandenberg Air Force Base (Liz and Russ can see nighttime rocket launches at Vandenberg from their back deck), and, near Santa Barbara, lots of off-shore oil derricks. In about four hours, we found the Seymour abode easily with the help of Mapquest.
The Seymour's home is quite large and fancy. It is of the hacienda style located in a gated golfing development overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the distance. Pizzazz! After settling in at the Seymour’s we ordered out for pizza delivery. The pies were just OK but they made up for it by being extremely expensive. When I asked the delivery boy for an explanation, he said "gourmet ingredients." I took this to mean that the sausage was made of chopped up gourmets.
SATURDAY
This morning Liz had scheduled a yard sale of much of the Seymour detritus accumulated during and since their move from Seattle. Jeanette and I helped out with the pricing, arranging, and sales. I exhibited a little too much hucksterism and was relegated to helping load buyers' cars with various and sundry purchases. Liz did net almost $300 though. We then went out for a Liz-treated lunch at an earthy-crunchy deli in an old corrugated tin warehouse out in the nearby country -- very good victuals. We also stopped briefly at a tiny town called Harmony, famous for its ceramics and blown glass. Both these stops were steeped in the ambience of neo-hippydom.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Farmer's Market in Arroyo Grande. This was a unique experience with plenty of free samples -- juicy orange slices, fresh strawberries, homemade salsa, guacamole, and taco chips, olives, artichokes, etc. There was a very large Mexican presence at this market. They seem quite an energetic group. We came home laded with farm goodies to add to a delicious homemade meal also courtesy of Liz.
SUNDAY
This day was devoted to a trip up to Santa Cruz to see Danny (the Seymour's son) and his new bride, Angelina. (Does anyone remember that old ditty "Home Again Angelina”? Everyone looks at me cross-eyed when I claim there is such a song … even Danny … who is a disc jockey in his spare time.) On the way up Route 1 we stopped at Cayucos to do some antiquing and a nice lunch at Schooner's Wharf. We next stopped to see the elephant seals just north of the Hearst Castle. As we wound our way past Big Sur we stopped at a gas station for some bottled water. The price of gasoline there was $4.00 a gallon! It soon will be cheaper to fill your tank with cheap vodka. Then the severe geography flattened out as you pass Monterey. Danny and Angelina have a cute apartment overlooking the ocean in Capitola, a Venice-like village near Santa Cruz. Angelina made a lovely dinner for us. The trip up Route 1 took over four hours. The return trip, back down Route 101, took about half that.
MONDAY
This day Russ took us on a wine tasting tour to the Edna valley. In his spare time, Russ gives such tours for $100 per head (Back Roads Tasting). Most of the vineyards we visited were around Paso Robles and Cambria. One was run by an old B-movie star and his ex-Miss America wife. In general the wines were expensive ($20 to $30 per bottle) and nothing to do hand stands for. We had lunch at Panolivo, a nice little French bistro in Paso Robles. Russ ended this tour with a car ride on the beach at Oceano (next to Pismo Beach). Pismo was once thought to be the furthest north beach in California where one could swim (before the age of wet suits). This was a real experience. This beach is wide, long, and beautiful … where visitors drive the RVs right on the beach and park overnight (or longer). There are also vendors there renting Hummers, dune buggies, motorcycles, etc. right on the beach. Some groups go there with convoys of RVs and park them in a circle around a bonfire -- just like Conestoga wagons. Oh to be young and carefree again! We had dinner at Adriano's, a neighbor of the Seymour’s across the street. He was the one who had previously lent us his condo in Portugal -- a real sweet guy.
TUESDAY
Earlier, Jeanette and I decided that we should give Liz and Russ a few days respite from our house invasion. When I ask Russ for a suggestion for a side trip and he suggested Yosemite. Bingo! Neither of us had seen this ecological icon, so we left this AM to travel there. Yosemite (as a kid, I pronounced it yos-MITE) is about 200 miles ENE of SLO so we had a long trip through California's central valley. This seems to be mostly raisins, walnuts, cattle and almonds country -- with miles and miles of vineyards, pastures and orchards. The geology of this region is also curious. You first traverse rocky hill country just East of the coast. (Paso Robles, the town there, is Spanish for "Pass through the Rocks.") Then there is a very large pancake-flat plain before the hills start again around Fresno, which then soon graduate to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The reason for the curious character of this geology is that we know that the Pacific tectonic plate diving under California is creating these mountains. But then how and why the big central plain?
On the way to Yosemite we ate at In-and-Out Burgers (which Russ had touted to us). It is clearly superior to our East coast fast food with everything cooked to order. (Try the grilled onions on your burger). Anyhow we arrived at the Wawona lodge, a turn-of-the-century hotel built for Teddy Roosevelt, inside the National Park around 2:00 PM and got settled. We then started out to go to the Yosemite Valley -- about 25 sinuous miles over the first mountain range. On our way down into the valley, we hit a snowstorm that seemed to grow increasingly dangerous. So we turned around and crept back to our hotel. There we had a few Manhattans, a delicious meal, and went back to our bathroom-less room for a fitful sleep.
WEDNESDAY
Jeanette and I spent this day in Yosemite Valley. By the time we got there (around 11 AM) there was no more snow to be seen. We took a bus tour of the valley to see the famous Ansel Adams stops (El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, etc.) One impressive fact: El Capitan is about three times the height of the Empire State Building … and hundreds of times more massive. Our tour guide said that it was the largest granite structure in the world, but my recollection is that this honor goes to Ayer Rock in Australia. Moreover, our tour guide's delivery was so soporific that Jeanette and I wasted the last hour of the tour snoozing away sandwiched between two Japanese couples taking pictures. Yosemite Valley is quite awe-inspiring, but, to me, it was far smaller than I expected. From the Ansel Adams photos, I had gotten the impression that its area was quite vast. But, it is only one and a half miles wide and about six miles long (only about 1% of the entire Yosemite Park). So one is sightseeing straight up most of the time as opposed to being able to digest the entire vista from afar.
Another thing struck me. Our government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (perhaps millions) restoring the meadows in Yosemite Valley to their original swampy condition. Our guide told us that such swampy meadows purify the water that eventually ends up in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Excuse me! If these meadows represent less than 1% of Yosemite and Yosemite itself is but a small fraction of the total wilderness area of the Sierra Nevada range, then the water filtered in these meadows must be but a few drops of the millions of gallons of potable water drunk in coastal California. This is clearly tree hugging gone berserk.
We lunched at the Ahwahnee Hotel (Cobb salads with bay shrimp … yum!). We would have tried to stay there except it was about four times as expensive as the Wawona. However, it would have been worth it. It is an exquisite, massive stone structure built in an Indian motif with lots of theme textiles, leaded glass, and paintings. That evening we had another Mexican dinner in Gold Course, a town a few miles outside the park, and gambled in an Indian casino nearby. I won $100 on the nickel slots (four duces). I keep kicking myself that I wasn't playing the quarter or dollar slots.
THURSDAY
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we got an early start back to Arroyo Grande. We stopped for lunch at the famous Madonna Inn, a few miles north of SLO. It is the epitome of kitsch. Pink dining room, a waterfall urinal in the Men's room, and waitresses dressed like Heidi at Hooters. On the way out we saw a notice that the Madonna Inn was being sold … so bad taste DOES have a half-life. That afternoon we went to the farmer's market in SLO. It was a bigger version of the Arroyo Grande one. We had drinks and bar nibbles at Mother's tavern then meandered among the sundry booths of goodies. I bought fresh morel mushrooms for son George and Mission figs for his wife Anne. And Russ bought another flat of delicious fresh strawberries that had been picked in the fields below the Seymour house. (We had seen these very same berries being picked a few days before. The Mexican workers are paid on a piece basis so you saw them running back to the truck with their pickings and then back with empty flats. On that evening, I think it was Monday, we could hear them singing in Spanish and laughing in their transient quarters -- kinda like a scene from "Gone with the Gringos.") Later that farmers-market evening we had tri-point roast beef sandwiches, BBQ, and home-brewed beer at Firestone's, a real funky college hangout in SLO. Delicious!
FRIDAY
We spent most of this day in Santa Barbara with the Seymours. It is a very lovely town but, to me, somewhat overrated. (The median home price there is over a million dollars.) We stopped at the Santa Barbara mission and the Biltmore hotel (a little hard to find but quite fancy). Before we returned home we had dinner at Jockos, about 10 miles inland from Arroyo Grande. This is a sight to see --- two-inch high pork chops and spectacular steaks, all cooked on a huge charcoal grill taking up an entire back room. It is crowded with cowboys and bikers (kinda archetypal Americans). We sat at the bar and downed many Jack Daniels sours and local wine. We then pigged out (of course) on most everything they offered ... including sweetbreads!
SATURDAY
In the morning Russ took me to see his hobby -- large-gage model railroading. There is about a two-acre layout of these trains only a few miles from his home. We stopped to see this landscape with tunnels, trestles, roundhouses, etc. All the informal club members here must work on the components. Russ has helped with some of the landscaping and restored the roof of a water tower. Next I saw something quite remarkable. A friend of Russ builds these trains from scratch. Russ took me to his modest home where, in the living room, were a hand-made boxcar and a locomotive tender -- both the size of a large coffee table. But in the garage was the piece de resistance, a steam locomotive the size of two coffee tables. Everything on this engine worked and was to scale. Even the sand dome on the roof had miniscule glass beads (small sand) that were fed through copper plumbing to give traction to the drive wheels. This engine has taken three years to get to this stage and may take another year before it's done. The client is the former CEO of Continental Airlines and its price tag will be about $250,000. This builder friend was given a bonus of a month's trip to England with his wife when he first agreed to take on this commission.
Then Russ took us all to the See valley for a little more wine tasting. At the Kelsey vineyard we tasted the best wines of the trip -- a sparkling Syrah and a port -- both of which are experiments (not even labeled). I hope to buy a case of the sparkling Syrah when it is ready. Next Russ took us on a "Sideways" tour (from the recent movie of the same name). We went to Los Olivos (near Santa Maria) where the women shopped and the men sat in the shade. We had lunch at the Side Street Café. (Try the endless bowl of chili soup.) Then came San Ynes (where Michael Jackson pursues his passions at Neverland). We visited the San Ynes Mission there and copped a free tour. (California's 28 missions occur about every 25-30 miles -- a day's trip on a horse -- all the way from San Diego to above San Francisco.) We then drove through Sovang -- a community dressed up as a Danish village -- weird! While driving back to Route 101 we passed the Hitching Post (from the movie) but chose not to stop and gawk.
SUNDAY
We started out for Los Angeles around ten o'clock in the AM. We stopped on the other side of Santa Barbara at a small surfing town called Carpinteria for lunch. We chose the restaurant with a line standing outside (Esau's Café). The food turned out to be sophisticated and quite good. I had lox with capers and red onion on a toasted bagel with cream cheese. And Jeanette had delicious BLT with avocado. There clearly is a California style of eating -- herb tea, pita bread, apple-smoked bacon, avocado, sprouts, tomato, and lots of other fresh ingredients.
We exited route 101 in Woodland Hills at Mulholland Drive. We then followed Mulholland Drive south toward LA, hoping to get into Beverly Hills. However, there seems to be two Mulholland Drives because this one petered out in a dirt fire road high in the hills overlooking Los Angeles. We retraced and got back on 101 South and after about ten miles got back on the other Mulholland Drive … in Beverly Hills. As we wound our way through Beverly Hills we saw the stately decay of what once was the playground of Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Carol Lombard, and their ilk. Seeing a yard-sale sign we stopped to find out that Beverly Hills junk is just the same as Natick junk. Groping our way toward Hollywood, we turned down Sunset Boulevard. When we got to Grauman's Chinese Theater, I don’t think I have ever experienced a more depressing place. It looked like the exercise yard at San Quentin mixed with the bar scene from the original Star Wars. I truly believe Hell can't possibly be any worse. Santa Monica followed and then we did Venice Beach. This latter "tourist" spot looked a lot like Grauman's, only with sand, exercise equipment, and more (visible) tattoos. This was followed with Marina Del Rey where we fittingly ended our trip with another Mexican meal avec Margaritas. After we dropped off the rent-a-car, we stayed the night at the Airport Hilton -- a better deal you won't find anywhere ($50 a night through Priceline). It was, believe it or not, quiet and quite plush.
MONDAY
We had another pleasant but daylong Midwest Air flight back to chilly Boston where son George picked us up in Jeanette’s wagon. After dropping him off, we returned to Natick … and so to bed.
Thank you Liz and Russ!
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