Day 16 - North to LA & the $16 Cheeseburger

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Taking our leave of our comfortable digs at the Vagabond Hotel in San Diego, we loaded up again and headed north. We decided to forgo I-5 as long as possible as we wound our way up the Pacific Coast Highway. Almost as soon as we started the sun came out from the clouds and it got just beautiful. We stopped at Scripps Park in La Jolla and walked around a bit. The waves were crashing into the headland there with an almighty booming. Cathy took my picture with the spray flying behind me. We saw a local guy there hanging out with a whole bunch of his lady friends, Cathy took their picture too.

We then drove north to Torrey Pines and the glider park on the bluffs over the ocean. Lots of parasail gliders playing there, but we kept our feet on the ground. After that, we cruised on up to Dana Point, where we hiked along the rocky shore underneath the eroding cliffs. We took time to build a little cairn from beach rocks as a memorial to our visit. It's a beautiful place, and we walked a long way between the waves and the cliffs. Lovely as it is, it seemed a bit threatening too, as above the beach, many huge rocks have eroded out to the point where they seem ready to fall at any moment, but fear not, we escaped with out incident.

Farther north still, we stopped for a snack in upscale Laguna Beach, choosing a likely looking place, we were seated at a comfortable table overlooking the street. When we scanned the menu, the prices were a bit startling to a pair of North Country Woodchucks like us. I can tell you for sure that the $16.25 cheeseburger plate certainly made an impression on this reporter. It was amusing though too, as at just about the same moment we put down our menus, looked into each others eyes, and bolted for the door. Fortunately, a little unpretentious Italian place just down the street came through for us, and we enjoyed a nice meal alfresco, while splitting a short pitcher of Stella, v. nice!

We were sitting right across from where our car was parked, it was fun to watch the people look at it as they walked by on the sidewalk, some seemed to like it, and others just seemed baffled -- funny!

So we continued north to LA, and as we were having so much fun, we weren't really paying attention to the time. We drove right through passed Venice on the PCH, and it was easy driving, but then it seemed to suddenly get dark just as the rain started. Trying to find a place to stay we found ourselves in downtown Santa Monica, and that wasn't working for us, so before we knew it, we were headed east on the 405 freeway. My first ever experience on an LA Freeway was not a happy one, with the visibility bad, the roads crowded, and the speeds varying back and forth between 10 mph and 70, without any particular reason that I could ascertain. Then there were the crazy, lane splitting bikers -- carumba! -- I really hated it, all I could think of was Brando's Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now -- "The Horror..... the horror"

At long last, and only after squeezing some deep finger dents into my steering wheel rim, we saw salvation in the form of a "Holiday Inn Express" in Van Nuys. I'm sure all will be right again in the warm light of day, but this evenings drive was one not to be forgotten, or repeated!

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Comments

[Arthur Emmick]

We were thinking about sending your trip info to Kadify as he needs a place to go . but after reading your copywrite we had to nix it.