Back on the coast.
We left Pomona this a.m. with a quick-ish stop at San Dimas. What a little gem this outlying LA suburb is. It’s very old world in, with wide streets, houses with gardens, and the shops are quaint. A little bit of car part shopping – which proved successful and then we found the freeway heading south and drove to Santa Monica, basically we completed our journey as we’d driven through Santa Monica six weeks earlier. This time however, we found a carpark we didn’t need to pay $7.00 for and Neil and Anzhela went and dipped their toes into the Pacific – at least this side of the Pacific Ocean. It was a tad chilly!
The sand was perfectly white, perfectly groomed, with no seaweed or bits of rubbish. There were two big sand moving machines doing their thing, making it perfect for the rich and famous that live in the area.
Instead of going back along the freeway, we headed through sidestreets along the coast and drove through Venice beach, and South Venice. The beach was shrouded by tatty apartments and only by going through really narrow alleys could we get to it. However, it was a also a bit seedy so we decided to keep going. The south part of the beach however, was very very upmarket with exclusive homes and fancy apartments, and a boat marina that housed thousands of boats that much cost at least a couple of hundred thousand each!
We could see planes coming in to land above and so knew we were close to our motel 6 where our journey started what seems to be a life time ago! A quick flick on the freeway and hey presto we were back in town.
We’ve repacked, and repacked, and yes we’re overloaded, but hey it was fun getting to this stage. We’ve done a bit more trawling, looking for gifts and now, we’re ready and rearing to go again.
Time to go home.
So what do we think of this land?
Some thoughts from me, and sorry if they’re repeated from our journey blog.
This land is HUGE. HUGE. HUGE. It is only as you travel it that you realise the size, you realise the mass of land and population. But when it comes down to it, people are people and pretty much the same, we live, we breathe, we work and play and no matter what land we live in, we usually want the same things. Whereever we go, we’ve been welcomed.
LA roads need a bit of resurfacing.
Drivers need to slow down , learn to indicate, and not be so impatient at intersections.
You can eat well, and cheaply here, you just have to look. Also food is cheap, gas is cheap, people don’t really know how lucky they are!
Impressions from my 17 year old teen- Anzhela – Food servings are huge – too big. Clothes are cheap
Neil’s impressions – What you can actually buy off the shelf is awesome. Life is big, and fast.
Yana – Disneyland was cool.
And so that brings us to the night before we fly out. I hope you’ve enjoyed our journey. We have. We’ve got several thousand photos, have travelled just on 7000 miles! We made it!
Happy days everyone, come check me out on my web site... http://www.janebeckenham.com/
Jane and family.
We left Pomona this a.m. with a quick-ish stop at San Dimas. What a little gem this outlying LA suburb is. It’s very old world in, with wide streets, houses with gardens, and the shops are quaint. A little bit of car part shopping – which proved successful and then we found the freeway heading south and drove to Santa Monica, basically we completed our journey as we’d driven through Santa Monica six weeks earlier. This time however, we found a carpark we didn’t need to pay $7.00 for and Neil and Anzhela went and dipped their toes into the Pacific – at least this side of the Pacific Ocean. It was a tad chilly!
The sand was perfectly white, perfectly groomed, with no seaweed or bits of rubbish. There were two big sand moving machines doing their thing, making it perfect for the rich and famous that live in the area.
Instead of going back along the freeway, we headed through sidestreets along the coast and drove through Venice beach, and South Venice. The beach was shrouded by tatty apartments and only by going through really narrow alleys could we get to it. However, it was a also a bit seedy so we decided to keep going. The south part of the beach however, was very very upmarket with exclusive homes and fancy apartments, and a boat marina that housed thousands of boats that much cost at least a couple of hundred thousand each!
We could see planes coming in to land above and so knew we were close to our motel 6 where our journey started what seems to be a life time ago! A quick flick on the freeway and hey presto we were back in town.
We’ve repacked, and repacked, and yes we’re overloaded, but hey it was fun getting to this stage. We’ve done a bit more trawling, looking for gifts and now, we’re ready and rearing to go again.
Time to go home.
So what do we think of this land?
Some thoughts from me, and sorry if they’re repeated from our journey blog.
This land is HUGE. HUGE. HUGE. It is only as you travel it that you realise the size, you realise the mass of land and population. But when it comes down to it, people are people and pretty much the same, we live, we breathe, we work and play and no matter what land we live in, we usually want the same things. Whereever we go, we’ve been welcomed.
LA roads need a bit of resurfacing.
Drivers need to slow down , learn to indicate, and not be so impatient at intersections.
You can eat well, and cheaply here, you just have to look. Also food is cheap, gas is cheap, people don’t really know how lucky they are!
Impressions from my 17 year old teen- Anzhela – Food servings are huge – too big. Clothes are cheap
Neil’s impressions – What you can actually buy off the shelf is awesome. Life is big, and fast.
Yana – Disneyland was cool.
And so that brings us to the night before we fly out. I hope you’ve enjoyed our journey. We have. We’ve got several thousand photos, have travelled just on 7000 miles! We made it!
Happy days everyone, come check me out on my web site... http://www.janebeckenham.com/
Jane and family.
I just want to say thank you, Jane. I have read every post you've made on your journey, and looked forward to your pictures. You saw a lot of ground in such a short amount of time, and it was wonderful to see it through your eyes.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you will be glad to go home. There is nothing quite like your own bed, and relaxing. Hopefully, your travels gave you lots of ideas for more books!