I've started walking to the beach every few days with Ashley (the gal that lives in my apartment complex who moved here from MT) and the first few times we went walking we were still getting to know the area a bit. Our first trip to the beach took us down Loma St. straight to the beach. It was a little tricky because the side of the street we were on seemed to be very overgrown with plans and random construction projects - I'm not sure why we didn't just cross to the other side but it must have been because we were having good conversation and didn't think of it. We got to the beach and decided to head south on the beach path to the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier. We arrived at the pier and made our way out to the end dodging fish that were being pulled out of the sea and whipped over head - you must need that extra tug to get them over the rail, giant seagulls and what I assumed to be piles of fish guts that littered the walkway. The pictures of the pier in the link above look much nicer than its actual state at the time I visited it. I was also shocked to see a man relieving himself over the edge of the pier less than 5 feet from where a few kids were fishing - disgusting! We quickly left the pier and headed home.
On our second walk to the beach we decided to go north on the beach path and then walked back on the sand right next to the ocean. It was quite nice with the exception of all the litter we passed. I saw 4 shoes - none of them matched each other and various bottles, cups, cans and wrappers. It has potential to be a pretty nice beach if people would take better care of it.
Last wednesday Alma called as asked if I wanted to accompany her to the LA Fashion District. It sounded like a nice excursion from everyday life so I happily accepted the offer. We headed into LA and spent probably 3 hours roaming around a handful of the shops in the fashion district. I have never seen so much fabric! Some of it was priced very cheaply but for the most part it was priced very similarly to what you would expect to find at a JoAnne Fabrics or Michael's type store. We also walked through part of the garment district where you could buy just about anything related to the way you look -shoes, contacts, clothes, wigs and hair accessories; the possibilities were really endless. Alma was looking for white sequined fabric to finish her Cher costume for Halloween and we did eventually find what she was looking for. Once that happened we had to find our way back to our car which was located on rooftop parking. Neither of us had payed perfect attention to where we parked but between the two of us we were able to piece together where we thought the car was and eventually found it. Here are a few pictures from that day:
Fabric in one of the many shops we visited
The view from our parking spot into downtown LA
A building that caught my eye - Alma said it was a textile factory/sweat shop - I have no idea if she was right or wrong
We also drove through the Flower District - it smelled AMAZING!
After driving around downtown for a while we went to lunch at Philippe's which is "home of the french dip sandwich." It was pretty tasty - "Philippe's "French Dipped Sandwich" is the specialty of the house and consists of either roast beef, roast pork, leg of lamb, turkey or ham served on a lightly textured, freshly baked French roll which has been dipped in the natural gravy of the roasts." It is a place with a lot of history - saw dust on the floor reminded me of Moose's and the stories of Mobster murders happening in the dining hall made it that much more interesting to eat there. After lunch we took a ride to China Town. I have to say I was a little disappointed with this area because I expected it to be more alive than it actually was. There were very few people around and while there were plenty of shops they all seemed to be selling the same things. After China Town we decided we had better head back to Long Beach so Alma wouldn't be late to work. I am not 100% sure how we got to the Vincent Thomas Bridge but we did. This bridge is amazing. It goes over The Port of Los Angeles which appears to be a very busy port claiming to house almost $200 billion dollars of cargo.
If you look closely you can see the arc of the bridge in the distance
Driving up to the top of the bridge
Cargo containers - there were thousands of containers - imagine having to be the person in charge of keeping track of where everything was . . .
The view into long beach
We actually crossed two bridges, the big one went over the Port of L.A. and the second, smaller one when over the Port of Long Beach. I'd like to drive over the bridges at night some time, I hear they are lit up quite prettily.
After our day in L.A. I made plans to go that weekend up to Glendale to stay with my good friends Maggie and Lance. We got tickets to see a production of Shakespeare's 12th Night by a company named A Noise Within. We were a part of the first audience to see a show in their new theatre space and permanent home. Which happens to be a very nice $13.5 million dollar facility. It was a good show - not the best show I've seen but certainly entertaining. We spent the rest of the weekend eating too much good food and shopping for things we didn't really need. Maggie asked me to help her find some new clothes for auditions and an interview she had coming up with a possible new agent so we spent most of Sunday exploring the Glendale shopping center. At one point Maggie referred to it as the Disneyland for adults. Tons of stores, water fountains and a trolley. Shopping doesn't get much better. We ended that day by making breakfast for dinner. Biscuits and bacon gravy with roasted potatoes, onions and red peppers. Mmmmmmm good! Monday we went to Porto's Bakery for brunch. It happens to be a Cuban bakery that makes the most delicious potato balls and their display cases are full of very tasty looking pastries, cookies and cakes. After brunch and browse through a used book store I headed back to Long Beach. It wasn't too bad of a drive, only about 40 minutes for a 28 mile drive; we had so much fun we are talking about doing something again this weekend.
I got back to Long Beach, did some laundry and went grocery shopping because I needed things I could take for lunch this week. I was hired as an over-hire electrics crew person for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Today is the last day and I will be working 6pm - Midnight. We've been hanging lights for the SCR Theatre for Young Audiences production of "Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells." It has been hard work but good hard work. I have come home tired each day and am excited to go back for more. Yesterday we started putting christmas lights through the points of snowflakes on a painted back drip. This involves drilling holes through a luan type material, poking lights through it and then taping the lights so they don't fall out. A tedious job that I think is actually going to look quite nice once we are finished. Tonight we continue that project and will focus lights with the designer. Wish me luck! 26 more days (including today) until I will back in MONTANA!!!
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