LA, Here We Come!

---

So, today we’re off to Los Angeles! We won’t go directly there. First we’ll drive to Morro Rock (yes, all the jokes apply) on the coast, and then down the coast to the big city.

The drive to Morro took us a couple hours, as usual. Morro Bay is a small town of mostly fishermen and vintners, and the rock itself dominates the coastline. It’s a huge rock jutting out to sea, forming a natural bay on its south side where the fishing boats dock. There’s a road leading out to the rock and you can walk part way around it, but the rock itself is protected and you can’t climb it.

We enjoyed walking around the rock, greeting the squirrels that ran around the rocks along the shore. Some were inquisitive enough to approach us, but lost interest when it realized we had no snacks for it.

Along the way we saw pelicans and cormorants fishing out on the water, gulls harassing them and a few otters floating on their backs, munching on whatever it was they caught. The weather was overcast and chilly, which just added to the atmosphere of a small fishing village. I liked it.

We said goodbye to the squirrels and otters and headed on. We drove through Santa Barbara and saw some of the fancy houses and cars. Our next stop was at an outlet (had to visit an outlet!). So we went shopping at Camarillo Premium Outlets but didn’t find anything. It’s mostly expensive, higher-end fashion shops (Brooks Bros, Versace & such), way over our pay grade… Still, it was nice to get out, stretch and window-shop.

Next stop – Venice Beach Los Angeles!

We drove down the coast, the Pacific to our right and mountains and city to our left, and finally reached our destination. We parked by the famous wharf with the Ferris wheel, roller coaster and restaurants, musicians and not-so-musicians trying to earn a few pennies, stalls selling junk to tourists, seagulls trying to steal a meal and other eccentricities typical to the city. We walked around the wharf, just enjoying it all, and then went down to the beach. It was cold outside, too cold to go into the water, calm as it may be. So instead we walked along the beach looking for shells and seaweed, watching the people and just taking it all in.

At the top of the beach there’s a cliff. Above the cliff are tall buildings, hotels and the like, but just below is a row of odd houses, no more than three stories high, each a different shape, style and color. They seems so, I don’t know, strange but fitting somehow, those funny old houses on the beach, holding on to their spot while the big city towered over and above them.

When we felt we’d spent enough time on the beach we headed to our hotel, the Days Inn. A luxury hotel for us – far more expensive than any of our previous hotels but that’s LA for you, and breakfast is included!

So we washed up, showered and went out to find someplace to eat. I thought LA would be a lively city, especially since we’re not too far from Venice beach, but it was like Jerusalem in that regard. Some cars but almost no pedestrian traffic, lots of the restaurants were closed, and we’re talking about 8:30 PM!

We finally found a place to eat, LDH (Love Dreams Happiness) Rombata restaurant. It looked nice, pleasant but not too fancy, and we decided to try it. I ordered rice with crab and sea urchin and Tamar ordered a beef rombata. We got some hot sake too, and a homemade ginger-ale.

What we got was not what we expected – I got a single sushi cone with some crab and a bland paste, which I presume was urchin. Tamar got a miniscule taste of beef. The beef was tasty and the ginger-ale was very good, but we ended up paying $100 for a taste test (!) and went looking for something to eat! The place sure didn’t seem that fancy! What a disappointment!

Remind me never to eat at a fancy gourmet restaurant again. I’ll have street food any day.

We got some ready-made steamed buns and dumplings from a supermarket, heated it up in the shop’s microwave and ate on the way back to the hotel.

Anyway, tomorrow we plan to do the touristy thing and visit the avenue of the stars, the Hollywood sign and then head back to Noah’s.

---