Just 48 hrs after we got out of bed in Townsville we’d had around 6 hours sleep. So the question was what will we do today? “How about a drive” said I, “it will be fun.” Next time I say that someone shoot me!
Actually it was an enjoyable day. It was almost noon when we decided to head to the famous Santa Monica Pier for lunch. Even though I was starting to get the hang of driving on the right I will never get used to LA traffic. At least with the freeways traffic isn’t that slow. We got to SM Beach in time for a leisurely stroll along the beach to the pier then the full length of the jetty. Today was the absolute opposite of our last walk here 11 years ago. Then it was deserted. Today it was chockers. There were people everywhere. There was even a wayward seal swimming off the end of the wharf collecting scraps from the fishermen.
After a quick lunch we got back into the car and headed north to another well known spot, Malibu Beach. Again bumper to bumper traffic but at least it flowed smoothly. In desperate need of a restroom we stopped at Malibu Country Mart. This is a lovely spot but you need a deep, deep pockets to spend up here. It is, afterall the home of celebs and movie stars. As you can see in the picture Shane took as I drove up the coast the houses are squeezed between the highway and the beach. There are some pretty impressive pieces of real estate here. None more impressive than “Getty Villa”. While here we did have 2 of the best milk shakes we have had in a long time but for $15 USD the had to be good.
From Malibu we turned nor’ east with the intention of driving through the San Fernando Valley however by now it was peak hour Friday so traffic was typically ‘LA thick’ and at some times we were at a stand still. This forced our hand and so we reset the GPS for home.
Too tired to be bothered cooking we got a huge pizza and I sat down with this blog. I’ll continue tomorrow night.