California
Today was my first full day in California. Started off in San Diego, drove up to LA, with a small detour through Laguna Beach via the Pacific Coast Highway. I have to say that the Laguna Beach area was spectacular and would definitely qualify as a place I would consider living.
Saw Alik Ryhman and got some good old fashioned Russian cooking for Lunch and dinner, because I smuggled a few of the pies on the road with me. Then it was off to San Francisco, again with a detour on the Pacific Coast Highway and through Malibu, eventually on to 101 and then here, to my relatives house, where Im writing this from.
Malibu was interesting, its mostly just a mountain on one side, the highway and then houses on the other. You only see the backs of the houses because the fronts all face the beach and there is no break between them. Although the backs sometimes look shitty you know they are expensive because of the cars parked outside. Saw quite a few Ferraris, tons of Porsches, a Ford GT90, and 2 Murcis. There are a few areas for public access which are swarming with quite a few people, and the public beaches arent much. At least the ones I saw, where it was like 5 feet of sand and then the surf and you had to climb down rocks to get there. Either that or I didnt notice where the stairs were.
Driving further north eventually the houses end and then you have mountain cliffs on one side of you and then the water on the other, with some public access beaches or other times just cliffs. Definitely very beautiful and scenic especially at sunset when I was driving through it. Although I wouldnt mind catching the sights again on the way down South if I end up heading back to LA. Which I think I will have to. Just so I can at least try one Sushi restaurant and one Mexican spot.
Whats interesting about the freeways here is that although the motorists dont really always get out of the left lane to let you through, they usually switch lanes to the left if there is a merge onto the highway, to allow the merging cars ample access to the roadway to pickup speed and join the traffic. After spending probably 7-8 hours behind the wheel, I can again report that there were no decent drivers. Although Im starting to think that decent means aggressive a la New York style, but even so, for all of the nice and fast cars (I saw a very nice red 997 turbo on the road) no one really drives them the way they should be driven. But I guess thats true everywhere, but in NY you would definitely pick up at least one decent race driving for 7 hours. So maybe its a West Coast thing, I dunno. Maybe they arent stressed because of the wonderful weather?
Also I drove through a mountain to get from LA to Malibu, Topanga Canyon drive. Where interesting and it intersects Mulhulland drive. Overall CA is very interesting in the sense that you have very different climates just a few miles from each other. In LA it was hot and a bit humid, but in Malibu just 20 miles out it was breezy and cool. I guess that's the huge appeal of the area? That and the fact that there isnt much else that surrounds it as the South West is a rather desolate place broken up by a few urban centers which really dont hold a candle to New York.
Anyway time for some rest, gotta visit Dedushka Misha tomorrow. That and send an email.