City of Angels Pictures

Hey yo -

Well, so finally I'm getting around to the very last leg of our west coast trip. Oh, and just to reiterate, for those who have not been paying attention, we're back home now. No longer out west. Yep, just makin' sure ya got it, we're back in MI. Back here, in the lovely, spring-ifying Mid West. (Hope "springs" eternal....there is a black pessimist inside that says "hey man, this is MI......it could definitely still snow again....")

I'm telling him to shut the hell up and get sweet. The pessimist that is.

So, here we are, back in LA. There is a museum in LA that was built using money from the will of J. Paul Getty. It's called The Getty. Imagine that. Eponymous. Hee. the museum is an absolute must-see if you end up in LA for more than one or two days. It is an astounding edifice. Karen, Bill and me went there one evening, and spent the first hour or so just checking out the landscape and surroundings. Wow.

Here's a view of LA from the hill on which the Getty is built.



Just north of LA is a pretty town called Malibu. One day, we took a drive-around, and found this little gull posing for us:



Right to my right as I was looking at Mr. Gull was this great rock in the surf. After a few less than successful shots, I got it!



One of our first nights in LA, our friend Bill took us around to a well-known mall called "The Grove". Cuz it never rains in LA (or hardly ever), they had made this an outdoor mall. Guess what it was doing the night we were there? :-/



That fountain was really pretty cool. They were playing Frank Sinatra and other Ratpack tunes and it would make its patterns to the music. No kidding. :-)

Karen, imitating Jackie O at the Grove:



Later in our week there, we went driving down south of LA proper to Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and other "________ Beach" places whose names I cannot remember at the moment. Whilst we were down there, we found another waterfowl who wanted to pose for us:



We stopped for lunch at an indoor market in a very, very snooty part of Palos Verdes. Being the end of the trip, I was getting concerned about how much money we were going to drop at this joint, but not to fear. It was remarkably affordable. And, the service was nice! How cool. Anyways, out front, there was a fountain depicting the ancient god Neptune:



And his, er, consorts...



Nice choice for fountain placement, that...

Here's Palos Verdes. Man, what a lovely day that was, and what a fantastic place to be rich and shameless!



There were opportunities to make like a billy goat and climb down the sheer face of the cliff to the ocean below. I went a little ways until the path petered out...man, talk about adrenaline rush. I thought I was goin' over for sure. On the way back up, Bill found me pulling a "Governator":



Bill's camera was pretty cool. It has this feature that allows you to take multiple pictures of a panorama, line them up, and "voila", instant panorama:



And he paid way less for his than I did for mine... :-(

Another panorama here, this time of Redondo Beach on our way back up the coast to LA proper:



There ya have it, the completion of our trip...from Vancouver BC by car up to Whistler and back to Vancouver, then by bus and ferry to Victoria, by ferry to Seattle, by ferry to Vashon Island, by car to Thorp WA, by car back to Seattle, by car down to San Francisco, by car down to LA, some 1400 odd miles.

Along the way we met some great people. Friends new and old, family, even complete strangers took care of us in many ways. We are so fortunate...a friendly film maker by "accident" in Vancouver, Andy Park in Langley BC, Bill and Katie Burr, Melissa Burr and her fiance Nate, Terry Butler, the most encouraging-est guy on the planet, Bill Ranta, Richard and Shelley and their cute kids, Ron Burr, Brad Bailey, Dan Davis Jr., and on the list goes.

You know, finally, after all this time, my brain is just starting to clear. The trip was a good first step away from "life as usual" and the move also had to happen of course...but it has been a long strange trip for the past six years, in many of the different senses in which you can take that phrase.

I think it's possible that things are finally coming together. Let's hope so anyway.

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.