Off to Los Angeles...

Some friends I hadn't seen in a few years were heading to LA for an extended weekend, so I flew south to join them. We didn't have much of a plan besides "rent a car, hike a bunch, and see at least one national park, and have fun!" I think we hit it on every count! The first day started with a leisurely breakfast near our VRBO in Pasadena, and then we headed towards Santa Monica for a hike...

We battled mid-day Thursday traffic towards Highway 1 (the (in)famous Pacific Coast Highway) and Santa Monica. After grabbing something to eat and SPF 50 sunscreen at the nearest Von's, we crove up to the end of one of many roads which trace shoulders of the Santa Monica Mountains between multi-million dollar homes. We sweated our way up the East Topanga Fire Road to the top of the Parker Mesa Overlook, and it was worth the effort! A sea breeze countered the spring sunshine and gave us an amazing view out to the Pacific and central LA.

 We foolishly made the decision to take the Pac Hwy "home", via Long Beach... which was a lot farther away than it looked on the map, and even further away thanks to 5pm traffic! Around the time we started getting hangry and fed up with teh traffic, there was a sign that said "Beach 1," and we figured that beaches usually had food... So we took a right turn and wound up at a brand new pub on Hermosa Beach. The owner let us change out of our sweaty hiking clothes and then let us leave our food at the table so we could run out to the beach to catch the sunset, and what a sunset it was!

We drove home that night with tired legs and the first hints of sunburns on our ears and the backs of our arms. Everyone said 'goodnight' early, since we had agreed to meet at 8:15 the next morning to leave on our road trip to Joshua Tree National Park...