I write with drooping eyelids, which I hope goes some way towards providing an excuse for the lame blog title. But I’d like to amend the title anyway. It is much more a case of ‘snakes and mice and bears, oh fuck’. This was pretty much the family’s anthem as we braved a deserted forest … Continue reading
Tagged with California …
On Top Of The History Of The World
There’s no substitute for getting out of a car and sitting in the raw relative ‘cool’ of 88 degrees F and contemplating the awe-inspiring (in the true sense of the term) scenery of Death Valley National Park. Above is Rainbow Canyon in the Darwin Falls Wilderness area of the park. The evident and colorful stratification … Continue reading
Hola La Jolla
La Jolla beach After a final pineapple juice-soaked carb-high session of late night poker, we left Surf City on a high note and headed still farther south to San Diego via La Jolla. We couldn’t miss La Jolla since a close friend spent a couple of expat years there with his family after considerable extensive … Continue reading
Spreading Ashes
So yesterday we were travelling South, from Huntington Beach to San Diego. Just north of San Diego is the less known enclave called La Jolla. It’s pronounced La Hoya. I’d heard of it because one of my oldest and best friends had spent a 2 year, yes 2 year, ‘sabbatical’ there, 5 years ago. It … Continue reading
Surf City
We have landed in Huntington Beach. Aka Surf City. Immediately on arrival we abandoned the Chevy with all its air-conditioned comforts for an afternoon scrabbling on miniature towels on the beach. This is a bigger deal than it sounds. We Kempners don’t do beaches very well. Well, we like the idea of them as an … Continue reading
A Spiritual Side to Beverly Hills
The Caffe del Arte, Beverly Hills There are a couple of tried-and-tested ways to get under the skin of a place when you have relatively limited time available. Our favoured approach is to do all the stuff we do at home as much as possible: except do it in the unfamiliar/exotic location. A good starting … Continue reading
On US size: geography and food
LA was big. The scale of it is almost beyond comprehension. We touched the surface in our 4 days there before moving onto one of the South. LA beaches, Huntington, which is where we are now, and will be for the next 2 days.. It was easier once we realized that there was simply no … Continue reading
Street Walking Beverly Hills
The only pedestrians down and out in BH mid-morning were of the Kempner variety Couldn’t see the seven dwarves anywhere The only jogger in town at that hour I’m very non-discriminatory in my obsessive interest in suburban edgelands. An ultra-wealthy enclave is just as worthy of close examination as a light industrial estate or the … Continue reading
Beverly Hills Fantasy-Reality
We’re now in LA. A very big (BIG) place. So BIG that no-one is to be seen walking at all. It’s not the heat so much, though it IS quite hot, more the immense scale. Rodeo Drive is a short drive….but for us a 20 minute walk…… from the Beverley Hilton (where Whitney Houston died) … Continue reading
The “Real-ness” of Santa Barbara
An enticing glimpse over the hotel balcony into the hidden alleyway opposite Classic promenade view Travel always feels to me like a search for the real. Distinguishable from mere holidays, of course, which are a search for hedonistic pleasure. I’m generalizing, of course. It’s a bit of an intellectually arrogant distinction with a kernel of … Continue reading
A Chevy for Six, Please 