Blue skies (and scattered showers), palm trees and pelicans
So we made it to Southern California, bringing the rain with us, which I am told is a good thing, but also enough sunshine for it to have been unwise to visit the beach yesterday morning without any sunscreen. We’re not staying right on the coast (which is amazing if you look up – or out towards the ocean, but a bit depressing if you like your towns to be separated from each other by something other than a sign indicating the city limits) – but further in inland where, it turns out, despite the fact that our hotel is nestled in the bosom of the freeway, that right behind it is a bike path that runs along the creek, and would actually take us to the Historic Downtown (historic in that if there ever was a downtown, it’s now history).
The only problem is getting onto it
Top tip for bike path designers, fencing it off from most places (you can get on and off the freeway more frequently than you can this path) doesn’t exactly make for social safety, although at least this means that closing it at dusk is less of an inconvenience than it would otherwise be because there’s no way I’d use a path that’s fenced in like that after dark, especially given the very friendly but ever-so-slightly-sketchy looking people getting stoned under the bridge.
Still, it had its moments. And though the creek was no more than a concrete channel, also fenced off from the path, for some reason, there still was enough bird life* to make me wish I’d brought along my bird book and my binoculars for my post-breakfast constitutional. Or, indeed a bike.
And then we got into the car, and onto the freeway and went out to the park for a proper hike, like normal people.
Actually, that was pretty good too…
* Stilts, ibises, egrets, swallows, ducks, kildeer, and a couple of raptors, if you’re interested.
Town Mouse 