Los Angeles, California III: Another Day in La La Land

We spent the day doing what Angelenos do--driving around. Wow, it is some kind of sprawl. As Nancy's son says, "Everything is 20 minutes away." The entrance ramp metering lights for the freeways are even active on Sundays and the traffic is not much different than weekdays in Portland, except the speed is 10-15 MPH greater and horns are freely used.

We ended up in Venice (we did spy one of the remaining canals left from when they tried to make Venice Venezia), Venice Beach (where The Dude lived) and Santa Monica. We tracked down Chez Jay where, rumor has it, Daniel Ellsberg handed over the Pentagon Papers to a NY Times reporter and where Henry Kissinger used to take his girl friends. It wasn't open for lunch when we got there, so we had to take a pass and head for Trastevere, which is a pretty authentic Italian restaurant.

After lunch, we strolled along the park above the beach where I snapped a picture of these gnarly trunks. On the way back to the car we came across a sign coming down from a storefront--letters in a pile on the street.