Surfing USA

Time really flies, and no sooner had Harry turned 12 – ensuring he qualified for adult airline fares – than we were at BA’s new Terminal 5 and onto Los Angeles.

A long but trouble-free journey later, we picked up our rental car. We had chosen a “large” car to accommodate all our luggage. This turned out to be a Ford Crown Victoria – a vehicle designed in the era that style forgot. Quite astoundingly ugly. Why did Avis stock this model ? I imagine, in practical terms, if they didn’t buy them then no one would.

Nevertheless, it went forwards, backwards, left and right and after a while was comfortingly quiet and homely. We negotiated a head-on conflict between what our sat-nav said and what common sense and road-signs said, and found our beach-house with only minor amounts of wrong-way turns and no actual traffic offences.

The house – one street back from the main Santa Monica beach – was a bit haphazard in layout, but large and well appointed. Some of the contents were very popular – for example the working vintage pinball machine and the 60” plasma TV.

The owners had stocked the property up with pretty much everything one wants or needs, but some things American still puzzle me greatly. The nation that put a man on the moon does not seem to have grasped the usefulness of an electric kettle or – even more bizarrely – the electric toaster. A gas kettle is – to my mind – massively inferior to its electric cousin. And the peculiar toast-enabled table-top “oven” thingy was just ridiculous.

And why is it that the main appliances are always so big and clunky ? The oven, dishwasher and washing machines were clearly styled (like most American models it seems) by Fisher Price. Definitely Europe 1 – USA 0 in the style stakes.

Three Men and One Wheel

On the first full day, Matt, Harry and I took out some bikes. Well, after discussion, Harry and I set out on a tandem whilst Matt opted for a skateboard.

Matt held on to the tandem to get a tow, and I did most or all of the actual pedalling. Something was not quite right, though! After some process of elimination, the cause was found. The front wheel was so loose that it was on the point of actually falling off. A pit-stop later, we resumed on a one man/one bike basis and enjoyed the 5-mile bike path in the Malibu direction.

Later all four of us checked out the pier. We saw one person fishing and wondered if that was allowed. We proceeded further along and ran into a hundred fishermen. Clearly, yes. We opted to buy rather than catch, though, and dined at the Mexican restaurant at the end of the pier which featured decidedly Mexican rather than classically American levels of service!

Rather better service was to be found at Shoop’s – a “European” deli on our doorstep, which we visited several times for breakfast during our 1-week stay.

Seal the Real Deal

We persuaded two reluctant children to get in the car for an open-ended drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. After an hour or so, we pulled over in a non-descript layby. Fifty feet away was a hidden jewel – a beautiful small beach of beautiful sand, chunky exciting rocks and fabulous waves. And only 4 other people (plus 2 dogs !)

Harry crept closer and closer to the waves and soon was fully submerged and nearly 2 hours of wave-chasing began. Some way through we spotted one of the dogs, or something, in the sea. A second sighting confirmed the swimmer as a dolphin!

In fact, several dolphins. Later, we saw seals just a few feet from the shore. The final score: Dolphins 5 – Seals 4.

We had spent so long at the unscheduled beach party that we had to hurry back across town to make it to Burbank in time for the Warner Brothers studio tour. You’d have to give them 10/10 (or an Oscar) for organization and quality throughout.

The following day, from the sublime to the ridiculous. We were booked on an LA city tour, which looked good on paper but which went wrong in so many ways that it would be tedious to recount them all. We were glad when it ended, although the distance of time since makes it seem not quite so bad in hindsight!

One bad idea, in hindsight, was roller-blading. I am not sure it was harder than I expected because I expected it to be nearly impossible anyway. I could stand up so long as I didn’t move. Once moving, however, it was just a matter of time before I hit the ground hard. Matt and Harry persevered a little longer but in the end we all gave up!

On the last full day, Harry and I finally tried out the beach proper. Santa Monica beach, it turns out, is a real class act. Beautifully smooth sand underfoot all the way out and a shallow slope so that one can get miles out to try all the waves. The only downside was that I was knocked over by a one-two, and lost my hat and sunglasses. The hat came back, but the glasses were lost to the sea forever !

We bid farewell to Santa Monica and made our way via Long Beach to the Royal Caribbean cruise terminal for part 2 ....