Il est encore moi mes amis “Me Again”

Tomorrow I start my trip back to Markham. 

It’s been a great 12 days in West Hollywood.  Spent time with my Daughter, Erinn and her hubby Jesse.   

 

Usually it's the guy who patiently waits while his wife shops for cloths

Walked the streets of West Hollywood, visited Sana Barbara and experienced that daily LA ritual called “gridlock”.  If you think Toronto’s traffic is bad just spend a day in LA’s bumper-to-bumper traffic going absolutely nowhere, no wonder California has the strictest auto pollution laws in the US, except for those Toyota pick-ups that the local handymen/gardeners drive.

The Best Bumper-to Bumper there is, and this isn't even rush hour.  No gaps between vehicles during rush hour.

LA Drivers are wild. Don't signal, and park wherever they please.

For all the “don’t want government involved in my life” that is sooo American, California has some of the strictest consumers protection laws in the country.  Where else would a car manufactures be required to warn buyers of all the contents of the car that might be harmful to their health?

 

On the diver's side window of a new Ford.

This really is the city of dreamers and broken dreams.  Met lots of interesting characters. Some dreamers, some sad, some just plain contented but all interesting.   

I was struck by the Webster's Dictionary.  Though she wouldn't give me her name and didn't want her face shown, she was quite OK with this photo. Seems she likes to discover the meaning of new words when reading, thus the Webster.

She loved to read and always wanted to know the meaning of words.

Interesting to stand back and watch how the average Joe public interacts with such persons.  Indifference would be a good word to describe most and yet you encounter those who take a moment of their time to stop and chat with those we tend to class as “weird”.  I found that most of the “weird” ones had very interesting stories to tell and welcomed your brief interest in them. None were aggressive, some just wanted to be left alone and others were real chatterboxes.

Santiago, certainly not "weird", came to the US from Mexico at the age of 13, went to school, got educated, held many different jobs and now works for himself.  Every day he stands outside of the local Home Depot along with others in the hope of getting some work. Very proud of who he is and what he has achieved and rightfully so.  Lovely guy to talk to, very articulate and friendly.  I asked if he had a business card and he held up his sign and told me to take a picture of it.

Santiago, advertising for work outside of Home Depot in LA

Santiago

Came across Luc doing a wall mural on the side of a  Chinese restaurant   Nice guy,  though in a hurry was willing to take time to talk to me and pose for a photo.

Luc creating his art

Went to Santa Barbara where I found Phil.  Philip does sand art in the hope that a few kind soles will leave something in his plastic bucket.

Phil and his lady love on the beach at Santa Barbara

Californians love to dine out and the abundance of interesting places to eat is unlimited.  Even the lowly pizza is presented as a gourmet delight.

Presentation is everything

One of LA's most famous and in-demand eateries is built around the lowly hot dog. Pink's is in its 75th year of continuous operation.

For the past 75 years they've come from all over LA to line up in the heat

Jesse and Erinn waiting in line at Pink's

Like a ballet they spin, swirl, duck and out comes the food

Then there are the more formal casual dining places.

Fine casual dining LA style

Nothing like having lunch with a few friends.

Friends joining in for lunch

Los Angeles really is the city of have and have not's and it's very obvious.  LA is also a city with more plastic surgeons, health stores, gyms, beautiful people and shrinks than just about anywhere else.  Thought this sign summed things up quite nicely.

So true

So much of LA is over the top.  Anyone care to figure out how a cell phone could actually produce images of this size. Or like so much of LA are these photos just facades.

Images made with iPhone 6 or so Apple claims

 A local LAer told me that there's a stretch of Route 66 where when you drive on the rumble strip it plays “America the Beautiful”.  I didn’t encounter this, though I ran across a lot of rumble strips. My question is this: if you are driving on R-66 in the reverse order, West to East, would you hear “America the Beautiful” playing in reverse?  Just wondering.  

I won’t get to find this out as I’m not going back along Route 66 but rather heading east to Palm Springs, CA then swinging North East to Jerome, AZ on to Flagstaff, AZ then north to Page, AZ back-tracking and upward to Mexican Hat, Utah, then Moab, UT and finally picking up the I-70 in Colorado and eastward on to Markham.   The trip back should take about 5 days but who knows…

I’ll try to blog on a regular basis but please forgive me if this doesn’t always happen. 

More to come…