Venice Trip – Echo Mountain Hike
Did the long drive to SoCal last weekend to see Kelly. Good buddies Marie and Ron were watching the dogs for us, so we dropped the little varmints off around 10:30 Friday morning and were on the road shortly thereafter. Cruised out (way out, actually to the end of) 580 until it merged with 5 south, then put on the cruise control. Traffic was flying almost all the way. As we were coming down the Grapevine and into the L.A. basin, we called Kelly and let her know we were close and that traffic was moving. She checked something on her computer and told us that traffic will come to a dead stop in about two miles. Sure enough, two miles later we were smack dab in the middle of L.A. rush hour traffic. Kelly texted us..”Welcome to L.A.!!”
Checked into our hotel and got to Kelly’s place at dinner time. She has a really great apartment on Venice Blvd about two miles from the beach. Nice big, spacey two bedroom, 3rd (top) floor corner unit that she shares with Heather. These girls are def living the good life in Socal. Not only did we get to see both Kelly and Heather, their buddy (and former Cal State water polo team mate) Katie was there for the weekend. It was like water polo reunion weekend! EAST BAY WHAT??!! Nice to see all these girls doing well for themselves. Makes me happy!
What really made me happy was the GREAT dinner the Kelly made for us. Fish tacos, chips and guacamole, ice cold corona. All good. So good to see that not only can our Kelly cook, she is cooking good, fresh, healthy food! And not just for us, all the time!! Did I mention how great Kelly looks? Southern California life is suiting her well. We spent the remainder of the night just catching up and talking about old times.
Saturday was hike day. Kelly had planned on taking us on the hike that she had done when she lived in Pasadena. The Echo Mountain hike via the Sam Merrill trail. We arrived there mid morning. The place must be popular because all there is is street parking and we had to park waaaaayyy down the street. We started our hike at the gates of the old Merrill estate and made our way down, across a dry creek bed, then steadily up up up endless (seemed like it at the time) single track switchbacks. As we made the first few switchbacks up the hill, you could look up, WAY UP, and see people WAY up there on the trail. They looked so small! Like I said, it was a single track dirt trail that was basically just cut into the side of the hill. As we went further up, the look down became a little more exciting. If you have vertigo, this hike isn’t for you. We did our normal Mission Peak type pace. Not slow, not fast. We were passed by some. We passed some people too. There was even a group of mountain bikers making their way up.
It was pretty cool when we finally got to the top. There are ruins of an old resort hotel that thrived there from 1896 to 1936. Beautiful sweeping views of the L.A. basin from Long Beach to Santa Monica. Check out the video here! We took a nice break up top. Glad to share a great hike on a beautiful sunny day with Kelly.
On the hike back down we were already talking about where we were going to eat lunch. On the way out, and while driving through Pasadena, we saw plenty of places that looked promising. But when I saw “The Hat – World famous Pastrami”, I knew what I wanted. The Hat was great!! Between the three of us we ordered two “pastrami dip”, one turkey sandwich, one fries, one onion rings. Turned out to be too much food. We ended up sharing everything and in the end had a whole bunch of food left! But it was oh so good. Maybe best pastrami sandwich ever!!
We dropped Kelly off at her place then we went back to our hotel to get a nice shower and take a rest. Back to Kelly’s for take out Thai food and San Jose Sharks (they were playing LA Kings) on TV. Great dinner and Sharks win!!
Sunday – Happy Easter – was get a way day. Up early to pack, check out and pick up Kelly at 9am for breakfast out. Down to Venice beach for great breakfast at the SideWalk cafe. Enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast as we watched early morning Venice Beach come to life. After breakfast we did a short walk up and down the beach walk, bought some souvenirs and then got ready to say goodbye. Dropped Kelly back at her place and hit the road for home.
Got a stupid flat tire on the way home. About ten mile north of Buttonwillow (which is about 15 miles from the middle of nowhere) we noticed something was wrong. I told Barb to call AAA, but they didn’t even know where Buttonwillow was!!! I actually did a 20 minute tire change and ended up riding the last 200 miles home on the donut spare!
When we stopped in Pleasanton to pick up the dogs, Ron and Marie had prepared us a great dinner of cannelloni and king crab legs! Talk about a perfect way to end a perfect weekend!
