But this time I have an excuse! It has been so quiet around here that posting a blog entry would just be adding to the boring! Here is my last photograph from September. It is one of the local hawks getting a pigeon ready for lunch.
A couple of hours later I went out and found the remains out by the back fence. We've all got to eat!
My birthday is at the beginning of October and we've been wanting to see more of the Los Angeles area SO we made a quick trip to LA. There was flooding on the small California highway that we usually use to get to the coast so we had to go through Las Vegas adding another hour to the usual 5 hour drive. Of course when we got to the Cajon Summit we hit a slowdown that had us doing stop and go on I-15 all the way down the hill! Grrrr! It is only 4 or 5 miles but it seemed to take forever.
We are thinking of taking a cruise that leaves from the Port of Los Angeles so we decided to stay in that area: San Pedro. My wife got us a suite at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. It was weird to say the least! It is a nice looking place and the people seemed very nice but it is still very odd. The ice machines on all 10 floors of the hotel are all empty. If you want ice you have to go down to the restaurant/bar. Also there is no note paper, no pen, no ads for their restaurant, nothing. They had a room safe but it didn't work. Grrr! It DID have free parking in the basement so that was nice. This is a photo of the 'sitting room', it was almost 40' long!
And then the bedroom which was only about 25' long. (Did I mention we are messy sleepers?)
I've lived in smaller apartments! Anyway, there were lots of windows and that was the fun part. Here is some of the port area.
There were cranes and shipping containers all over the place! We were just up the street from the Los Angeles Maritime Museum but unfortunately we didn't find the time to visit it. At night the view was pretty spectacular though and the almost full moon didn't hurt any.
We did manage to visit a small portion of the USS Iowa which is docked near the hotel.
We talked about touring the ship but with my wife's ankle acting up we just couldn't make the walking much less climbing! We did have lunch at a small cafe on the stern of the ship but that was it.
On Monday we drove up the coastal road towards Palos Verdes, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach. It was a very pretty drive. Yes, there are beaches in California!
And by a weekday in October they are pretty empty! The hills, however, are not empty.
Look at all those houses! OMG! And each one is probably worth something between $2 million and $5 million. I don't know how they do it. There was one section of the road that was exceptionally rough. They had signs saying that the area was in constant motion and urging people to be extra careful. It was certainly rough enough and had been patched and patched again.
Anyway, Tuesday we woke early so took advantage to leave the hotel sometime before 05:00 a.m. Yep, and the roads were just as full as at any time during the day except there were probably more semi-trucks! Which brings me to California drivers.... Talk about crappy drivers! We were passed by people doing at least 20 mph over the speed limit. We were passed on the right. We had people change lanes directly in front of us and directly behind us. We saw many cars driving without lights at night. Staying one lane was definitely an option for some people, including semi-trucks. If I never had to drive in the Los Angeles area again I would be a happy camper.
However, we did make it out of there. We had a quiet drive back home on the I-15 and picked up Gus from his dog kennel. He seems to have had an ok stay. The owner of the kennel liked him and he seems to have liked the guy in return. Of course, the guy feeding him does have some advantages over just anyone. So there you go. Our first road trip since my wife broke her ankle in May.
Thanks for stopping by. Keep washing those hands!
