Santa Monica

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Michael and I took a trip to Santa Monica, CA, to see an old friend - old, only in the sense that we have known him for a long time. His name is Stephen Grosscup, and he lives on the top floor of the Pacific Plaza, the twin-towered building on the right in the photo above. (Click on photos for a larger image)

Stephen and doggie friend in front of Pacific Plaza

We arrived very early Saturday morning, and took a taxi to our hotel, The Georgian, the turquoise building to the left of the Pacific Plaza, where we enjoyed breakfast on the ocean view terrace.

Breakfast view

Pigeons on the terrace

Later that day, we took a walk out onto the famous Santa Monica Pier. The pier, and views from it, below.

Below is the view from Stephen's apartment. This was taken on Sunday morning, when the sun was out. It's looking north, up the coast to Pacific Palisades and Malibu.

From the 16th floor

Earlier that morning, we had gone for a stroll along that green space to the left of Ocean Boulevard, Palisades Park. The plant life is spectacular, and so is the view. Below the palisades (those steep cliffs) runs State Route 1, the Pacific Coast Highway.

Palisades Park

Eucalyptus trees

Looking north toward Malibu

Looking south toward Los Angeles


Hanging on for dear life


Looking west

Michael and the giant jade plant

Gnarly!

The only souvenirs we brought home were wonderful memories of a great time with Stephen, and some eucalyptus seed pods which we gathered from the ground in the park, although on Saturday we had walked into the Santa Monica shopping district to see if we could find any small Christmas gifts. We wandered inside a store called Kitson. It was full of (high-priced) eclectic, cutesy, trendy stuff, but nothing we wanted for stocking stuffers, and we left empty handed.

It was only when we returned home that I realized how derrière la garde we were not to have purchased something from the store. According to an article in the November 30th Wall Street Journal, Kitson is the store where Britney Spears bought baby clothes! And to think that we could have come home with pair of $395 Diddy Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, whatever that is, and didn't!

I guess we'll just have to go back.