Los Angeles revisited
The city of Angels or Los Angeles as they say it and I can confirm that for me yes, it is a city of Angels. In my case Angels are Sarah and Matthew as they were so kind that they let me stay at their place and gave me their time. Time is after health the most precious thing we have and I value very much, that they took slice of their time from their busy schedule and shared it with me.
Well, firstly the journey was so unplanned that I bet, they were both surprised when I reached out to them and invite myself for short visit. Not that I had knocked on the door in the night, saying here I am with face expression like Jack Nicholson in the Shining, when they open door but prearranged to suit then and their lives. It was a spontaneous plan or idea to get there and also to San Diego, my favorite city of US, where family lives. From the day they said you are welcome to visit us, the idea lingered in my mind like scent lingers in your mind, especially if that scent is associated with some positive and pleasant memory. Sometimes, it is good to take leap of faith and especially if the opportunity offers itself and it is in line with vibration and frequency resonate positively with you.
Such a trip is not new to me as I used to get spontaneous trips, on the hunch or feeling that this could be great and even in this instance my gut feeling was correct. Travelling was pleasant and I cannot say without hiccups but hey, life is full of surprises. Landing in Houston to the storm so strong that you cannot see anything through those huge glass panels at the gate just distant lighting now and then, made my flight longer than I have anticipated. Seems like mood of fellow passengers was in the foul part of the mood meter as they rushed somewhere. That reminded me of Little Prince book, where they discuss why people rushing from one place to another. The storm take some time to clear so after hours of delay we were on our way and thankfully Jean was kind enough to open door when I rang doorbell in the middle of the night, even if he needed to wake up in the morning.
Well you cannot choose family they say but I’m lucky to have the Marcela and Jean as family and not to mention all extended family from this side. Feel so blessed with them that it is sometime s surreal to think how lucky I am.
However the San Diego has to wait as I have Hollywood to see first, so next morning, after nice shower and light breakfast Marcela dropped me on the Santa Fe depot to catch the Pacific Coastline train. The depot aka station is nice reminder of the artistic era when the buildings were not functional but also beautiful to look at and spent time in them. Kind of like museum that is in use for daily transportation needs. With a literally minutes to departure, my time of admiring this building was cut short to get ticket and run to the train.
The weekend was here and they called the Friday ride meet new friend travel as they repeatedly said please sat whenever with whoever as we are full. Funny like the US is the fear country, even in the train, where people really rather pass the empty seat beside stranger and stand up, then sat down and strike a conversation. So I was alone most of the journey to L.A. if I do not count the fellow passenger in front of me who barely stopped talking, all the way from San Diego to Los Angeles. I just felt sorry for the lady sitting next to him as she barely made sound of ‘uhm, yeah, really’ in the three hours, it took to complete this journey. However I learned all his life story and it is some story, I can tell but that would be too long for this article.
View of the beach on some section of the tracs was a little bit closer that I would like. I saw the construction going on at one part on strengthening the side wall not more than fifteen feet away from train tracks, I realized that next time it could be called surf train. Hopefully work will complete and the train will be saved from surfing on the beach.
Train ride is great way to see a bit of country side, especially those holiday towns near Pacific coast where all the people were walking on the beach, sipping drinks or just played beach volleyball but no one dares to enter “warm” waters of Pacific.
Arriving in L.A. was kind of like in the movie as the Central Station is the same I saw in some movies and even the palm trees front of it, just this time the grass was decorated with some tents where the not so lucky residents lived. Even this is the side of City of Angels where Angels are really needed I guess.
Since I was moving to Pasadena I have spent only few moments walking around the streets close to Centra Station and then hopped on the tram what is my favorite ways of travel in new places after walking. This part of L.A was green everywhere I look, trees, bushes, lawns, hiding the houses like Cinderella. I have not seen much from LA this time but from what I saw, the Pasadena is my kind of part. Funky, vibrant with lot of character. Dining in the Taiwan restaurant was like being back in Taiwan itself, hustle, bustle and great food with fast turnover.
It is nice to meet people who are on the same page as I am, who like early dinner and early bed so we were early risers and what a wake up in the morning . The view from my bed through French doors of glass from ceiling to the floor, facing the trees in the garden and as backdrop the mountains was so mesmerising that I just got the blanket and sat for another hour on the balcony, admiring the view and squirrels running their morning jog and jumps.
With a plan for hike I was already in the mood to see those mountains close up and do some hiking on trial surrounded by smell of pine trees, sound of shuffling dry leaves under our foots and gurgling of the stream flowing downwards. What a treat !!! If I ever get back to L.A. I’m for sure staying in Pasadena and do more hiking there.
After hike on empty tank we needed to fuel up and I heard about Fox’s Restaurant but I was not prepared for such a treat, The food was tasty, delicious and in right amount for normal human, no supersize me thing here. Definitely recommend the restaurant if you are near the place. Also the Planet Jiu-Jitsu is across street so I can imagine living there, mountains for hiking BJJ for training and great food just across the street.
Not forgetting to mention the ultimate goal of this trip and that was culture fix of galleries, theatres, etc etc as I missed that and as they say we always miss the things we don’t have. SO they miss beach, diving, and I have all that but missing the culture.
Galleries, Theatre, very tasty dining options, so over all the L.A fit the bill and actually surprised me, how different it was from what it general knowledge and understanding of L.A.
I’m so grateful to Matthew and Sarah and I hope, that I was not too much inconvenience for your guys. I fell in love with Pasadena and the L.A. you shared with me.
