Caroline and I left Phoenix last night for a special event being held in downtown L.A. tomorrow that she needs to be here for. So today, we are starting the day with breakfast at The Original Pantry Cafe and will bum around the city doing stuff.

Off to Arcadia and The Arboretum where the two of us have never visited together. I visited 40 some odd years ago during a field trip that took us here and to the San Gabriel Mission, but my memories are weak, so this visit was certainly in order to refresh things.

These intensely beautiful southern California days make visiting and dealing with the traffic all the easier. Add some art, good food, and the ocean; life is perfect.

Although this part of the state has its fair share of drought-related issues, it never fails to amaze us how lush everything is. Of course, our perspective is likely skewed due to our arrival in L.A. from the desert well east of here. The Arboretum is great, but Descanso and The Huntington are maybe a notch above.

I’m convinced a giant used these matches and that they may be responsible for one of California’s notorious fires.

We needed some German stuff, and so off to Alpine Village in Torrance we went. Lunch was had in their German-themed restaurant, and the cheesy factor of the entire place was not lost on us. Sadly, it seems that the attraction of places like Alpine Village is waning. I’ll bet in its heyday, this place was packed.

Update: in March 2023, Alpine Village was permanently closed.

Twenty minutes away over in Palos Verde, we set our sights on the Point Vicente Lighthouse as somewhere else we’d never been, and so we had to pay a visit. The island in the distance is Catalina.

Spent some hours here walking around the peninsula; where else should we go that might be more beautiful than where we are right now?

Stayed through sunset, I think you can understand why.