Things We Still Love About LA
Southern California and Los Angeles have been taking a bad rap lately. Crime and grime, out-of-touch politicians with perfect hair, pontificating elites, drive-by shooters, homeless invasions, and that eternal Southern California bugaboo, traffic. For the first time in its history, refugees are fleeing faster than new arrivals can scale the walls along the southern border.
So as we prepare this week to travel from Boston to LA, we find ourselves quickly trying to recall all the things we still love about the city and county. And much as it might surprise our many Texan and Midwestern friends, it hasn’t been a difficult task. This week’s daily Odds & Ends have therefore been focused on the thrills, spills, and otherwise of el Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles.
And now, our weekly round-up of daily bits and pieces from our much-too-cluttered travel bin. Click on any title for a deeper dive.
1. Venice Beach
Venice might test your tolerance for crazy, but it’s still a place you can sit comfortably for hours and marvel at the antics people get up to.
2. Sunsets
When you're sitting on a beach in LA, sipping on your Cabernet Sauvignon, it's hard to escape the sense that the Lord has invited you personally to his or her favorite carnival.
3. Californios
For all its natural beauty and gifts, Los Angeles without its Mexican-American population would be insufferably DULL.
4. Hollywood in Spite of Itself
On and off, we've worked around the studios for 32 years. One thing we've learned along the way is that everyone has their favorite Hollywood story.
5. Temblors
Nothing suggests answers to all of the questions you might secretly harbor about your own character quite like an earthquake.
6. Catalina
We're not huge fans of chewing gum, but can't thank the masticators of America enough for enriching the Wrigley family, who bought and developed Santa Catalina Island into the paradise we know today.
7. Beach Life
We do suffer an occasional pang of nostalgia when we sit around and recall an existence that could only be summed up—without irony—by a long, happy sigh and the song lyric, "Just another day in paradise."
And lest we forget, there’s this week’s Travel Newsletter:
The Earth in the Palm of Your Hand
Getting There from Here for the Easily and Uneasily Confused