Traffic got in our way

July 14 2016, Day 14 Ventura, CA – San Pedro, Ca.

We left the hotel, Pam cooked.  It was a beautiful day although cloudy.  Stopped at Zuma Beach in Malibu to make pictures. Saw Santa Monica pier and headed to Venice Beach where we walked the canals and down thru Muscle Beach.  Drove into LA and over Mulholland Drive and up Encino Dr.  Looked down on LA from top of mountain. Ate lunch in Beverly Hills.  Saw Hollywood sign.  Traffic took up all our time, headed to San Pedro. Saw Angels Gate light house and breakwater.   Had dinner at the yacht club. Saw Point Fermin light house and Point Vincente light house.  Camped at the Residence in Torrance Ca.  Mileage 150.6 miles.

We left our nice room this morning to head down the coast to Venice Beach.  As we were leaving the hotel, we saw 4 guys scrubbing footballs.   Why???  They must like clean balls.  They all had Dallas shirts on.  It was hazy, really just the clouds that had not burned off, but it made for dull pictures.  We drove Hwy 1, the Pacific Coast Hwy.  Along the way we saw many farms with their plants under tents.  They really treat their plants nice.  I’ve heard about Happy California Cows.  I guess these farmers thought they should make their plants happy.   Susan is still lusting over the magenta flowers and has a multitude of pictures so she can figure out what they are.  Pam wants some too.

I was driving down the road, yes, I got to drive again for a few minutes and my car drove by.  Oh, I like my car.  We then saw people camping on the beach.  After that we stopped at Zuma Beach at Malibu and made some pictures.  We saw a bunch of little kids in a surfing club.  We then passed Pepperdine University in Malibu and none of us realized that it was in Malibu.  We think it would be a cool place to go to university.  When we passed by the Getta Villa, Pam called it opulence on the hill.  Then we got caught in the San Monica pier parking lot for about 20 minutes.  They tried to charge us $20, but we told them our GPS sent us in there and they laughed and let us drive thru.  I think we were behind about 10 others that had the same problem.  We finally arrived at Venice Beach and walked over the canals and walked thru the crowds down to Muscle Beach.  We don’t like crowds so we headed back to the car.

Headed to LA.  Oh my.   Traffic.  More Traffic, LA is a traffic disaster.  We drove Mulholland Dr and Encino Dr.  for the gorgeous views of LA.  They go up, up, up, up, at least a 10% grade and down, down, down, another 10% grade and curve, curve, down, up, ….  If they had snow like NC there would be a lot of dead people.   While we were up high we saw the LA smog, lots of it. That’s why our pictures look fuzzy.  Pam gave us a lesson about Nitrogen Dioxide (Smog).  It smells like chlorine and has a yellowish color. We rode down thru Belair into Beverly Hills to have lunch.  Ok, our lunch consisted of fruit we had in the car, while we were driving.  The traffic was horrendous and we were so far behind schedule.  Did I mention we don’t like traffic and are really starting to HATE LA?   We inched our way to Hollywood.  As we sat on the I10 we realized that we were not going to be able to

  • Slide down the glass slide at the top of the bank building
  • See the space shuttle at the science center
  • Drive thru Lincoln Heights
  • See the walk of fame
  • Drive by the move studios
  • Or any other fun thing that LA has to offer

Did I mention that we hate traffic!!  When our GPS said I have found a shorter route and it saves 6 minutes, we took each and every detour.  We drove back on mostly surface streets. Who knows what kinds of neighborhoods we were passing thru.  We kept our doors locked.  When we were finally able to move, it was late so we headed to San Pedro.   We went to see the Break Water and the Angel’s Gate Lighthouse.  It was finally peaceful.  No traffic, cool, breezy and not many people.

Then we ate supper at the Yacht Club (22nd Street Landing) and it had a beautiful view from our table.  After dinner we went to the Fermin Light House.  The landscape around the light house was quiet interesting and unique.   Then Pam drove up a BIG hill with a stop sign at the top of it.  It was like a 10% grade.  Of course she tried to stop.  Susan and I screamed go, don’t stop all the way, we will slide down the hill backwards.  We drove the coast to the next light house.   We loved this drive it was quiet and pretty and we said, we could live here if someone gave us a house.  Then we saw the sign which said “Caution: constant land movement next .8 of a mile”.  Oh no.   The road was not good and looked like it had moved all different ways.  We agreed, we didn’t want to live in THAT area.

Then we went to the Point Vincente Lighthouse and it was all gated off and closed.  Of course, we got out of the van and went up to the fence held our cameras high so we could get pictures.  They will never know, unless they look at my blog.  But who looks at my blog????

Then we drove up, up and up and down, down, down to our Residence Inn hotel in Torrance Ca.  Another 20K Marriot points and we are still getting free nights.  Well, last night when I booked this, I was told I would have to pay the taxes for the area which came out to be $.07.  I’m still not sure of that tax rate when the cost is $0????  We will see when I get the final bill tomorrow.

Our room is nice but NOTHING like our apartment from last night.

Marsh land near the coast

Marsh land near the coast

travel along the coast. This is NOT North Carolina

travel along the coast. This is NOT North Carolina

Cut thru the mountain, right at the coast

Cut thru the mountain, right at the coast

the beach

the beach

Pam and Claire getting their feet wet. Claire is holding Allie's Dino

Pam and Claire getting their feet wet. Claire is holding Allie’s Dino

our feet getting wet

our feet getting wet

Susan's pink flowers

Susan’s pink flowers

cliff beach - we are definitely not in NC

cliff beach – we are definitely not in NC

malibu houses I sure wouldn't want one of these in NC

malibu houses I sure wouldn’t want one of these in NC

Long Beach. Long flat beach

Long Beach. Long flat beach

Malibu pier. Got this picture from the parking lot we were driving thru

Malibu pier. Got this picture from the parking lot we were driving thru

Muscle beach

Muscle beach

more flat beach

more flat beach

sisters at Venice walkway

sisters at Venice walkway

Venice canals

Venice canals

cool feature about some cameras - continuous - you can catch the wave crashing on the rock. :-)

cool feature about some cameras – continuous – you can catch the wave crashing on the rock. 🙂

view from Mulholland Dr

view from Mulholland Dr

did i say I hate traffic???

did i say I hate traffic???

break water - like picture dandy took. Houses where he took picture

break water – like picture dandy took. Houses where he took picture

light house at end of breakwater

light house at end of breakwater

view at dinner

view at dinner

view of the shipyards

view of the shipyards

cool big tree

cool big tree

lighthouse

lighthouse

another lighthouse

another lighthouse

view from the coast at sunset

view from the coast at sunset

view of San Pedro area from the hills

view of San Pedro area from the hills

2 thoughts on “Traffic got in our way

  1. Barbara Fox

    Susan and Chris live on the Fort MacArthur base right where you were. It is lovely. But the traffic outside San Pedro is awful. Housing is expensive, even on a military base. Loved pic.

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