Dear readers: Please read the note at the bottom of this blog for some exciting news!
HERMOSA BEACH
We left Seattle in mid-January to continue our Senior Nomad odyssey, but first, we stopped for a much-anticipated visit with the California Campbell’s. It was nice to have a leisurely two weeks in Hermosa Beach - a sort of quintessential “happy place” on the coast of L.A. where the beaches are broad, the bodies are buff, most food is served in bowls (a California trend if ever there was one), and tear-downs start at two million.
Our first few days were spent looking after the kids, Spencer 12 and Lucy 14 while Jenny and Alistair were out of town. They didn’t need much in the way of supervision, but they did need to be fed and I was ready to provide heaps of “Grandmotherly" goodness. I just didn’t serve it in a bowl. Unless it was soup. I made applesauce (Spencer's favorite) brownies, pie, cookies, muffins, spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, tacos, grilled things, baked things including potatoes (and skins), chicken noodle and roasted tomato soups and gooey grilled cheese sandwiches. Since I rarely have such a luxury kitchen - and most of the time just my easy-going husband to feed, I was in heaven.
Michael was in charge of watching multiple sports on the big screen with Spencer and setting up family games. We played some old favorites like Apples to Apples, backgammon, and a card game we all love called Contract. And we learned a few new ones like Speed 7 - a card game guaranteed to raise your heart rate, and a more contemplative board game called Ticket to Ride.
We also attended a couple of Spencer’s many soccer matches. He plays on three teams! Lucy did quite a bit of painting on clothing including a slew of animated characters on a cool black denim jacket she found while we did some thrifting. She also switched her hair color from bright blue to hot pink - because why not? But mostly they were both up to their ears in homework!
After five nights with the kids, we moved down the road to a cozy Airbnb with a courtyard and a sunny kitchen tucked behind a coffee shop in the center of town. It was small, but very comfortable and had a partial view of the ocean. And the good news (because of all the calories I was churning out) it was a solid mile walk along the beach promenade, known as The Strand, too and from the Campbell Juniors.
Our nightly walk back to our Airbnb often featured a glorious sunset.
Hermosa Beach is a rare part of Southern California where you could actually survive without a car. It’s very walkable with great shops and restaurants, including a Trader Joe’s, and using the city bus system is easy. And If you own a bike, all the better, because you can ride from beach town to beach town for miles along the coast.
The colors of Hermosa Beach
The Campbell’s have lived in L.A. for 4 years now and we’ve spent plenty of time on freeways and rolled past endless strip malls on previous visits. We’ve seen the grittier side of the city in search of the best taco trucks and volunteered at a non-profit soup kitchen. We also attended the 2016 Airbnb Open right in the heart of downtown, so we fully understand that Hermosa Beach is a bit of fantasy land compared to the rest of this sprawling city.
However, with two weeks to spend and our day time hours to ourselves we thought we ought to explore further. It was easy enough to walk a few miles one way to Manhattan Beach (and enjoy their fabulous library) and do the same in the opposite direction to enjoy seafood at Redondo Pier. But we also wanted to get out of the “beach town bubble”.
Looking back at Hermosa Beach from the Manhattan Beach Pier.
Getting further out into Los Angeles without a car was harder to do. But we love the challenges that come with using public transportation so we took two buses into Downtown L.A. to visit The Broad Modern Art Museum. It was about an hour and a half there and an hour back (on a comfortable commuter bus) - so no worse than the average commute by car for most of the people who live in SoCal. Bus tickets both ways for the two of us totaled $6.00 - you can’t beat that. And we didn’t have to park!
The Broad was a great destination. Not only is admission free, but there are free guided tours, 3 different audio guides by artists, and constantly changing world class exhibits. All of the modern art on display was outstanding - but only represented a fraction of what is stored in the buildings “vault” all of which belong to Mr. and Mrs. Broad (rhymes with road). Through their generosity, they built an architectural wonder to house their collection and opened it to the public with free admission. You just have to book your ticket online before your visit.
You can peek through a small window in the stairwell to see inside “the vault” where all of the art that is not currently on display is stored.
The highlight was our 45 seconds in Yayoi Kusama’s Mirrored Light Room. You need a separate ticket for this for this exhibit - it is also free, just limited by time slots so best to go in off-peak times of day.
The museum sits next to the Walt Disney Performance Hall, a curving, silver diva designed by Frank Getty, and is near the iconic Los Angeles Central Library - a building that was consumed by fire in 1986. Michael read. The Library Book by Susan Orlean. It was a gripping account of the fire and it’s aftermath so he wanted to have a look inside. In the lobby, I found a fascinating kiosk that offered one minute or three-minute stories for adults and children. You just pushed a button and out came a long strip of paper printed with the story of the day. What a great idea.
The kiosk at the Los Angeles downtown library that prints out one and three minute stories!
Other outings included an afternoon and early evening in the L.A. Arts district with Alistair and Jenny. We shopped in some stores that were so hip that if we hadn’t been with “the kids” the staff would have been concerned that Michael and I were very lost. That would have been especially true at Bodega - a concept store hidden behind thick plastic flaps used to keep in the cold air at an old produce warehouse. We found some great murals tucked here and there and dined on gourmet sausages at Wurstkuche and finished the day with slabs of pie from Pie Hole.
But the best outing of the visit was yet to come. Our delightful daughter-in-law Jenny and her good friend Jen had tickets to hear CNN’s Anderson Cooper speak as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California. I am sure at great expense and with some arm-twisting, they were able to procure an impossible-to-get third ticket and invited me to join them.
That’s Jenny on the right. What a fabulous evening out in such wonderful company. And Anderson Cooper didn’t disappoint. He was a great speaker and very entertaining! I downloaded his audiobook The Rainbow Comes and Goes to learn more about life with his eccentric mother, and just to hear his voice.
So not only did I get a tour of the swanky end of town in Jenny’s Tesla, I was also treated to movie star status dining at The Rooftop by JG restaurant on top of the Waldorf Astoria hotel. The food and the view were amazing - and it was Grammy Awards night so many guests at the restaurant seemed dressed to attend glamorous after-parties. Or maybe that’s just what Sunday night looks like in Beverly Hills!
Moving on down the coast! We are now in Puerto Vallarta waking up to this view for the next month!
Since leaving Hermosa on February 1st we’ve settled into a beautiful Airbnb in Peurto Vallarta, Mexico. A new destination for us, and the first time we will stay in one place for a month. From here we will visit San Miguel de Allende for the third time, also for a month. I have to say, it’s nice being in the sun!
Thanks for following along,
Debbie and Michael
The Senior Nomads
NOTE: Last week I sent a blog titled “Join us in Beautiful Baja”. I was excited to share the news that Michael and I will be Guest Faculty for a week at The Modern Elder Academy on June 7 - 14. It looks like the post may have ended up in your Promotions inbox instead of Primary. If you didn’t receive it as you normally would, check your Promotions and/or Social inbox and move it to your main inbox so you don’t miss another post. Thank you!
