Malibu

For some reason, I can’t keep a pair of sunglasses. It seems like I’m constantly breaking or losing these things. I had two pair when I came to California three months ago, and now I can’t find either one. Since the sun has decided to shine all the time recently, my lack of proper eyewear rapidly became irritating. Fortunately, I found a 99 Cent store that carries sunglasses. Upon reflection, maybe I should have bought more than two new pairs. I’m up to 0 for 6 on the home purchase effort…maybe 7 will be the lucky number.

My only relative who lives west of Texas is my mom’s sister, Cris. She lives with her friend Nicki and their dog Bridget in an area north of L.A. called Malibu. I’d never been to their place before; so I flew down to visit over a long weekend in mid-April. The area has a different feel to it—I’m not sure how to put it in words. The local newspaper seems to be filled with pictures of celebrities who live in the area out supporting their charity of choice. I looked around for pink Corvettes, but never did see Malibu Barbie. While out for a walk with Bridget, we noticed that Casper Van Dien’s (Tarzan, Starship Troopers) place had a leaking sprinkler head or something and was losing a bunch of water down the driveway into the storm drain. Of course his place was gated; so we couldn’t waltz up to the door and inform him of the issue. We had to settle for telling a neighbor who had his phone number.

One day we took a picnic lunch up to Lake Casitas State Park and rented a pontoon boat to cruise around on the lake. The lake was pretty and crowd-free, and it had the only floating outhouse that I’ve come across. I used carry-on luggage for my weekend trip and couldn’t take sunscreen past the airport grinches. Cris let me borrow some that had been left at their place, but I think someone sabotaged the sunscreen. It was white like paint and wouldn’t rub in; so I went around most of the day looking ghoulish (more than normal). We didn’t get the pontoon stuck anywhere, although we did get in trouble with the ranger for tying up the boat to a fishing pier while going for a walk. Later we were chastised by the same ranger for speeding in the no-wake area, but, luckily, I think they give you three strikes in California. After leaving the park, we went to the city of Ojai (I think it’s pronounced oh, hi rather than O.J.) We walked around and ate at a very good Thai restaurant (with S3-like soup!) before returning to Malibu.

The good company and beautiful area made for a very fun and relaxing weekend. The 2 ocean pictures were taken from their backyard--check out the views!

Golden Gate Park

Ok, maybe the weather here is worthy of some (I’m not sure how much yet) extra cost of living. I think it’s only rained once in the past 6 weeks, and that conveniently happened at night. It’s a minor news event when the weather forecast shows a 30% chance of rain, and people start talking about canceling softball games. I was slightly ashamed of myself recently when I agreed with someone that it was warm on a day we reached the lows 80s with 30% humidity. Anyone who’s spent summers in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Texas should automatically make fun of warm weather that doesn’t have three digits in the temperature or >90% humidity.

I’m a bit behind on the blogging; so this trip to Golden Gate Park happened in the first half of April. My grand plan for the day was to drive over to the western part of San Francisco and check out the park and then head north to the Presidio area to see the Golden Gate Bridge up close. At the time, I wasn’t aware that Golden Gate Park is a little larger than New York’s Central Park. In retrospect, my plan to walk around both areas in one day was a bit too ambitious. Here’s a link to park information on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Park

With traffic being fairly light, I was able to drive to the park in less than an hour. I’d skipped breakfast and packed in a picnic lunch; so I had an early lunch by a pond in the park. Some stupid seagull tried a “fly-by pooping” at me, but, fortunately, he missed. I think he was in cahoots with the ducks to distract me so they could get my sandwich. I quickly finished lunch and didn’t stick around for additional target practice. With my new Garmin GPS in tow, I headed off toward the beach and the Dutch windmill. After walking for a while without reaching the beach at the edge of the park, I began to get a sense of the size of the park and wish that I’d marked where I parked the car on the GPS. I did make it to the beach and the windmill, and on the way back I swung by the buffalo paddock. They also have some ponds set aside for fly fishing practice, and I was a little surprised to see several people there practicing their casting. There’s a polo field in the park that was being used to host several soccer games at once.

After seeing the western part of the park, I found where I parked, had a snack, marked the car location on the GPS, and moved eastward. One of the roads through the middle of the park was blocked off from vehicles during the weekend, and the place was popular with bicyclists, rollerbladers, and skateboarders. Some girl was even walking around on stilts. In the midst of people watching, I came upon the De Young museum and went inside to check it out. Some nice lady had an extra ticket to the art exhibits and gave it to me. I looked around a bit and stumbled upon an elevator to a glass walled observation level that offered some nice views of the area. After the museum, I walked toward the conservatory of flowers and came upon an outdoor roller skating area. These folks were showing their stuff using the old school skates (not inline). Someone had brought a portable stereo, and the skaters had a decent sized audience. I watched for a bit on the way back from the conservatory. Then, I went by the Japanese tea garden and spent some time in the arboretum, which has a very impressive variety of plants. Back at the car, I was tired out and had no desire for any further sightseeing that day. The GPS estimated that I’d walked about 8 miles, but I think that’s a bit higher than actual. Anyway, I slept well that night.