Hooray for Hollywood or Hipster in Hell-A

Hooray for Hollywood!
Or, they finish Route 66
July 8, 2006

This is our favorite picture - on the beach in Santa Monica

First, many thanks to my lovely friend Jen for letting us crash at her swanky pad in the hipster paradise of Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA (hereafter known as “Slake”). We arrived late late after hightailing it from Laguna, in the far south of the O.C. (apparently, no one calls it by that name there. Shame.). We woke up at a leisurely hour and walked around the corner to a funky organic café for brunch (that’s right – walked! In L.A.!) We saw several people sporting shirts featuring a picture of a wiener dog with the logo Team Bingo. Kelly loves wiener dogs, and wanted to learn more. Jen mentioned that these probably came from a couple of stores down, so after brunch we popped in and loved it! The store is “Pull my Daisy” and the owner greeted us with “Hey, Chicks” as we walked in. How L.A. Kelly asked about the “Bingo” shirts and we were summarily introduced to Bingo the Dachshund, who strutted out from behind the desk. As it turns out, the Team Bingo shirts were in support of Bingo’s appearance in the annual Wiener Dog races at an area horse track that night. This is done each year to raise money for local Pet Rescue. It was a cause we were happy to support and we loaded up on hipster t-shirt goodies.

Go Bingo!

After that, we hopped back in T. Snaab and backtracked a bit to pick up Route 66 outside of Pasadena. Jen was psyched to be in a proper California ready automobile, and while cruising with the top down seems to be the norm out there, it nearly gave Beth heat stroke, as it was wicked hot inland. We did detour a block to cruise Rodeo Drive, where we were hooted at by some guys asking why we had Mass. Plates. Kelly responded with a “Because I live in Massachusetts” in her best duh voice. Turns out the guy was from Quincy. Small world. The guy then proceeded to rev engines against another guy in an Astin Martin. How L.A.

Rodeo Drive, baby!

We got back in our habit of trying to follow poorly marked routes and eventually landed on Santa Monica Boulevard, which led us through Beverly Hills and straight to the ocean and the end of an important leg in our journey. We celebrated with a ride on the famed Santa Monica Pier Ferris wheel, enjoying lovely views down to Marina Del Mar and up to Malibu. Well Beth and Kelly enjoyed the view – Jen was too busy staring at the floor and gripping the pole like a Vegas showgirl.

The End of Route 66!

Jen is so brave...
Kelly is so smug.

Yay! We made it!

Santa Monica Pier at sunset

Come for a spin on the Santa Monica Pier Ferris Wheel!

Then we frolicked along the beach for a bit before heading to Echo Park for a fireworks display at the Lotus Festival. This was particularly key given our massive rip-off in Vegas. The fireworks were awesome over the palm trees – rather than a prolonged display, they basically mounted a ten-minute finale. Wicked. We hung out with some of Jen’s friends and their cats and then turned in.

Finally! Fireworks!

July 9, 2006
Los Angeles

Beth has her aura cleansed by Jen before we rejoin the road...

As does Kelly.

Happy now, Meg?

We woke in the morning to brunch again at the House of Pies (Beth was in her element!) and then Jen gave us a mini-tour of her old ‘hood, Los Feliz, home to Gwen Stefani and herinafter known as LoFi (Jen is trying to coin her own “SoHo” style neighborhood names. Spread the word). We drove up to Griffith Park, a huge mountainous park offering great views of most of the L.A. area, including the Hollywood sign. After that, it was time to say goodbye again, and pick up our next road, Route 1 – The Pacific Coast Highway.

House of Pies, y'all.

From Santa Monica, we headed north to Malibu. We closely examined passing bikers in hopes of snagging Brad Pitt (Kelly had been making sure to save a seat for him in the back), but no such luck. The drive north up the PCH was just gorgeous. We realized how much we love water after two weeks of driving through corn fields and deserts.


Best Place to be an Elephant Seal?

Yup, it looks like this. We were driving in a picture.

The Snaab just can't believe his fortune!

It only got better the further north we headed, culminating in Big Sur, for which there are no words. After Saturday’s heat stroke at 98 degrees, we were surprised to have to put the top up when the mid-day temperature dropped to 58. Too chilly! But still sunny and beautiful. Not much we can say, but if a picture’s worth a thousand words, here are a couple grand – because we’re still speechless. At one point, Beth told me she was seriously contemplating having me smack her, since she was overwhelmed nearly to the point of hysteria by the beauty – green mountains, crashing waves, blue blue water, and fog with personality skipping up the mountains. All with the intoxicating smell of eucalyptus trees. Luckily, perhaps, we turned off for San Jose before Kelly could bust out her smack down. Maybe next time…

Check out that fog - we're driving through clouds...



Watch for yourself!