Attention: The original post only included one photo from the day. Here in November 2022, I’m updating things with an extra 14 images of the day that better represent just what we did.

We brought no clock or watch and slept in without a wake-up call. It is daylight but seemingly early as we leave the key in our room for a quick checkout. So close to the ocean, we must have a glimpse of the morning sky over the Pacific from the Santa Monica Pier.

Note: notice that cell phones weren’t yet performing these duties.

From there, we head south to Venice Beach before turning East on city streets towards downtown Los Angeles for breakfast at the historic Original Pantry Cafe.

Afterward, we spot a movie crew a few blocks away. They are setting up a location shoot for what appears to be a sci-fi or war film, so we stop to check out the action. There is no action yet, only the pestering staff who insists we don’t take photos of the set. Lights are blazing, the fake steam is pouring from the piled-up rubble, and a tank sits around the corner, ready to roar into duty. We get bored soon and leave.

Note from 2022: We came to understand it was for the Transformers movie.

Keeping with our avoidance of the freeways, our trek takes us through the old arts district of Los Angeles, where some nutty developers are trying to transform the rundown ruins of a derelict industrial area into overpriced lofts.

Right, buy a $1.3 million loft today, and in 15 years, the streets might be safe, the bums gone, and broken trash-strewn sidewalks repaired. The location is cool, though, and if it does work out, it actually would be sweet to have one of these places; check out these Biscuit Company Lofts.

Over hill and dale and up the road to the Angeles Crest Mountains, we pass a staging area where 40 or 50 Ferraris and Lamborghinis are getting ready for the drive up the same mountain pass we and our lowly Hyundai are about to climb. Thirty million dollars of Italian sportscars jam up behind us on this narrow mountain road; at the first pull-out, we take a moment to let these guys open the throttle, and engines scream as yellow and red blurs streak by.

Back down on earth, we visited the Descanso Gardens for a couple of hours.

I think they are called Naked Ladies, but at least we know they are lilies.

Dahlias, but don’t go getting the idea I know my flowers very well. Here in 2022, Microsoft’s Visual Search has been dropping knowledge in my lap to make me look smart.

This fine specimen of praying mantis just finished a nice little snack, thanks to her mate; I’ll wager you know what I’m getting at.

In those mountains in the background, we just had our Italian sportscar and Testosterone encounter.

The next stop was another Asian area of Los Angeles, near San Gabriel and Valley Boulevard. This is the San Gabriel Nursery – a Caroline favorite.

My choice for shopping was Five Star Laser, where I picked up the DVD of Takeshi Kitano’s latest film, Blood and Bones.

Finally, we grabbed a quick lunch at Shakey’s Pizza over in West Covina.

And then some donuts at the landmark Donut Hole in La Puente, California, before driving back to lackluster Phoenix, Arizona.