Driving home from surfing this morning I took the long route around the Pennisula to get back home. My hair felt oddly dirty from the saltwater, not as much dirty as just not clean and light like it normally feels. Like a tooth that hurts I kept rubbing my hair as I drove. Once I was up on the hill on the coast side there were the Mc Mansions that were put in about 5 years ago. There was a really interesting story about them in the New Yorker, it spoke about how they had a hard time making them seem big enough and grand enough since they were basically building a terraced sub division right along the water, it was just that the houses were supposed to feel huge and regal. There is a sub division in Issaquah on the way up the 90 East that every time I pass I can't figure out how any ones lives there, stacked on top of each other, the mcmansions are sort of like that, but in a 6 million dollar way, and I'm sure if you walked into one they would be impressive, the photos I saw certainly were. Past that on the left side of the the road was the church I grew up going to. It's well designed and oddly comforting. Behind the church there is another sub development. It used to be a big dry filed, Kurt Strenk taught me how to catch lizards by creating a lasso type thing out of grass. We spend hours between Sunday Scool and church and after church let out and before my mom would leave back there chasing after lizards. The shopping lot a bit North of the church has also had a huge makeover. My father used to wait there when he took us to church. He would always sit and read, sometimes I would skip out early and he would get pastries for us or let us play pac man in one of the stores.
Further down the coast I passed where MarineLand used to be, it was the greatest place. Just like Sea World, but close to home. They are building something new there, more McMansions? Then there is the Wayfarers Chapel, built by Frank Lloyd Wright. I drove by it today, I've seen it enough times, but you can still catch a peak. Going in land there is a park I used to play at on the way home from church. I remember it having a huge, life size ship, it was metal and it was amazing to play on. I've see that one since and it wasn't very big, but either way it's been replaced by a small plastic ship that is really not impressive.
Further down the coast I passes along another stretch where I used to go almost nightly to watch the sunset when I lived in Torrance. I was pretty frustrated with people at that time, working at the magazine, feeling alienated from life, and so I hid out alot at home, and then would try to make myself go out, but the only place I wanted to go was the ocean. I wasn't back to surfing at that point, still too deep into skating, but I would sit and watch the water and sun, and let my mind wander. There were a ton of trails to get tot eh water and a lot of places along the way to stop and sit, or you could makke your way down to the water, it was all rocky, lots of mediocre tide pools, every now and then you would find something neat. A little but past there it turns into San Pedro, there is a beautiful Pagoda type building that houses a bell from Korea, it's a beautiful place, lots of grass and flowers and it's on a bluff overlooking the ocean. There also sits one of the best basketball courts ever. The courts are designed with these amazing cement arched basket suppoerts and the view is amazing.
Beyond that it's just coast, lots of it untouched except for houses perched high above. It's hard to not by into the dream of chasing after one of these houses, I would love to live up here, it's a beautiful mix of the country, one of my Moms neighbors has horses, there are trails at the end of her driveway, and city, with LA just 30 minutes away, and the ocean a quick, but scenic 20 minutes away. I'm sitting on the porch again, staring out at the LA basin. I can see Hollywood sign, the ocean, LAX, and on and on.
I got home about noon, mom made me sandwich and some tea. Sometimes it's good to be home. While I was out she bough tonic too for an evening Gin and Tonic.