We made to Cali in one piece despite the fact that we had to leave the house at 5:30 in the morning. We had an eight o'clock flight and of course we didn't have time to pack so we stayed up all night and went straight to the airport.
We were flying Jet Blue which had two big advantages. It is cheap and they have direct TV so I was able to watch the Giant game. Did I tell you lately that the Giants are going to win the Super Bowl?
Jet Blue flew right into Long Beach Airport where a friend was picking us up. When you got off the plane it was like it was the fifties. You walk down a stairway onto the tarmac next to the plane and walk to the minialistic terminal. It was the place where rinky met dinky. But it was quick and we got out of there pretty quick which is all that matters.
We are staying in Huntington Beach at the Hilton and it seems to be a good hotel. We upgraded to a suite and it wasn't ready yet so we went for a drive along the pacific coast highway and went to a few of the small towns along the way like Seal Beach and
Laguna Beach and what not. We stopped for lunch and even went into an open house to see what you can get for a couple of million dollars in California. There seemed to be an open house sign on every other beach house so it was pretty interesting.
We finally got into the room and it is pretty sweet. We have a terrace that looks over the ocean and it has two chairs. So we ordered a bottle of wine and some snacks and are going to watch the sun go down. How knows if we drink enough we will sneak down to the beach and do some chubby dipping.
I wonder how late the hot tub is open?
8 comments:
Hey, Trooper, you're in a pretty good spot. As an EX-Californian, born in LA, and raised partly in the desert, I'll tell you the basic principle of Los Angeles is to stay as near the ocean as possible. The South Bay, which you are hovering near, including San Pedro, is NOT Santa Monica, but it's still better than the more inland alternatives.
You do NOT want to go anywhere near San Bernardino County. If you find yourself on a freeway with a sign that says, "Riverside," "San Bernardino," "Colton," etc., turn right around and head for the ocean. A lot of the eastern reaches of the LA megablob resemble Newark with palm trees.
Visit the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Breathe that salt air. It smells different, sweeter, I think, than the Atlantic.
Not saying it's better. Just sayin'.
The drive down Sunset Boulevard heading west toward the ocean is pretty cool.
So what can you get for 2 mil in California?
The spot you're in sounds ideal. The thing about California (LA anyway) is you get to the ocean and it's a now what? feeling. Totally different from the east coast where you don't have that end of the world feeling.
Troop:
We won't be seeing the Steelers in the Super Bowl so it might as well be the Giants.
Any team but the Cowboys!
Ode to L. A.
I wonder how late the hot tub is open?
Dude, a hot tube is called a Jacuzzi out here, in honor of the inventor(s). The correct pronunciation is Ya-cutsi, but the Californicated version is Ja-kew-zee, especially if you're like, from the valley.
Well, ricpic, it depends on the neighborhood.
You can get a nice-sized mansion in Chatsworth, a well-appointed cottage on a small lot with a view in Beverly Hills, or vertical living on the Beach in Malibu.
Huntington Beach isn't L.A., though. There you can get a biggish house on a teeny lot by the quay.
Why am I not surprised to learn that Theo Boehm was raised in the desert?
Enjoy the coast, Troop.
And, oh yeah - New post alert!
My mother was born in Oakland, but my grandmother died when my mother was 9 or 10, so my grandfather moved to Huntington Beach with the three girls, where he sold hot dogs and souvenirs from a truck by the beach. He had been an able-bodied seaman in the merchant marine, but that's a hard occupation to keep up as a single parent 6000 miles from any family in Spain, so he sold food and trinkets on the beach, and they lived in a large house a few blocks from the ocean. He died five years later, after a truck accident on what is now the Pacific Coast Highway. My mother was 14, and her twin sisters were 17. They all grew up quickly in L.A.
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