Second day in LA. It's Tuesday, right? Sometimes I feel a little discombobulated about the day.
I made banana pancakes for myself and Joan this morning. She was delighted. She had blueberries to add, which just made them more authentic-tasting. (For those of you who don't know, this was my typical breakfast before I left GR, and I haven't had a banana pancake since. If the bananas are properly green, to the point where you have to slice them down the side with a knife and peel them around, rather than down, one banana plus one egg and a small pinch of salt, blended, produces something that is almost like the "real thing." It's also fun to add toasted coconut or chopped nuts.) Since Joan has some of her own digestive issues, she was very excited to learn another recipe that might be helpful.
After walking Remy and hanging around the house for a little while, I made my way to the post office with some findings from my travels to send to friends and family, as well as a thank you card for Phil. I had planned to walk to a post office on Alverado, but Joan said no. She thought I would like the community of Atwater better. The post office was pretty run down, but there were a lot of interesting shops on that street. I parked across the street from the post office and put a hour's worth of money in the meter, taking careful note of how much time I had.
After I posted, I walked along, feeling a bit hungry but not wanting to eat too much, as I had lunch plans with Alice. After a few blocks, I found a vegan juice bar and had a fabulous beet-kale-orange-ginger juice and a piece of vegan cheesecake. Then I backtracked to a resale shop, but it didn't have much. After I stopped into a really upscale shop and had a great chat with the young lady working there (her grandmother is from Grand Rapids!), I saw that the book store across the street had opened, and I had just enough time to go there and get back to my car in the time allotted.
I picked up a book with three Mickey Spillane novels in it (I, the Jury, My Gun is Quick, and Vengeance is Mine!) and a collection of short stories by Philip K. Dick. Then Remy and I strolled back to the car as the heat became increasingly hard and heavy.
We headed off to a Walgreen's, Google maps calling out the turns. After we'd gone maybe a mile, I looked -- I mean, really looked -- in the rearview mirror and realized that my bike was gone. It had been stolen while I shopped in the Atwater area. It was weird. I just accepted it. I didn't swear. I didn't admonish myself (too much). It was gone. And I knew that I could report it and spend the day waiting for the police and talking to the police, or I could let it go. I let it go. I figured someone had spotted it, checked to see that I had an hour on the meter, and realized that s/he had plenty of time to remove it from the rack and take it away.
Remy and I went on toward Alice's work on Wilshire, Blvd. We found a park called the Pan Pacific Park, but by the time we had parked and started to walk toward the entrance I got a text from Alice saying that we could come any time to go out for lunch.
I made banana pancakes for myself and Joan this morning. She was delighted. She had blueberries to add, which just made them more authentic-tasting. (For those of you who don't know, this was my typical breakfast before I left GR, and I haven't had a banana pancake since. If the bananas are properly green, to the point where you have to slice them down the side with a knife and peel them around, rather than down, one banana plus one egg and a small pinch of salt, blended, produces something that is almost like the "real thing." It's also fun to add toasted coconut or chopped nuts.) Since Joan has some of her own digestive issues, she was very excited to learn another recipe that might be helpful.
Joan's sweet dog, Dinah, checking out the visitors in the guest room.
After walking Remy and hanging around the house for a little while, I made my way to the post office with some findings from my travels to send to friends and family, as well as a thank you card for Phil. I had planned to walk to a post office on Alverado, but Joan said no. She thought I would like the community of Atwater better. The post office was pretty run down, but there were a lot of interesting shops on that street. I parked across the street from the post office and put a hour's worth of money in the meter, taking careful note of how much time I had.
After I posted, I walked along, feeling a bit hungry but not wanting to eat too much, as I had lunch plans with Alice. After a few blocks, I found a vegan juice bar and had a fabulous beet-kale-orange-ginger juice and a piece of vegan cheesecake. Then I backtracked to a resale shop, but it didn't have much. After I stopped into a really upscale shop and had a great chat with the young lady working there (her grandmother is from Grand Rapids!), I saw that the book store across the street had opened, and I had just enough time to go there and get back to my car in the time allotted.
I picked up a book with three Mickey Spillane novels in it (I, the Jury, My Gun is Quick, and Vengeance is Mine!) and a collection of short stories by Philip K. Dick. Then Remy and I strolled back to the car as the heat became increasingly hard and heavy.
We headed off to a Walgreen's, Google maps calling out the turns. After we'd gone maybe a mile, I looked -- I mean, really looked -- in the rearview mirror and realized that my bike was gone. It had been stolen while I shopped in the Atwater area. It was weird. I just accepted it. I didn't swear. I didn't admonish myself (too much). It was gone. And I knew that I could report it and spend the day waiting for the police and talking to the police, or I could let it go. I let it go. I figured someone had spotted it, checked to see that I had an hour on the meter, and realized that s/he had plenty of time to remove it from the rack and take it away.
Remy and I went on toward Alice's work on Wilshire, Blvd. We found a park called the Pan Pacific Park, but by the time we had parked and started to walk toward the entrance I got a text from Alice saying that we could come any time to go out for lunch.
Entrance to Pan Pacific Park.
Remy and I walked up the stairs to the office where Alice works. Alice met us in the stairwell. Her boss, Barbara, and my granddog, Harvey, were waiting for us. Harvey and Remy did not hit it off, probably because Remy was sniffing around Harvey's food in Harvey's space. So we said good-bye to Harvey and got out of there.
Lunch was nearby, easy walking distance. The choices were typical, but the realizations were not. I had a beet and goat cheese (hazelnut goat cheese!) salad with beef added. It was so beautiful, with mixed greens and this stack of slices of beet and other root vegetable with goat cheese in between. A truly delicious lunch! Then, Alice took me to a health food market called Lassens, also right near her office. I picked up a few items including -- I couldn't believe it! -- Emmy's Organic cookies, which are produced in Ithaca, New York. Prior to today, I've never seen these little gems anywhere but Ithaca. Of course I got some.
Three flavors of Emmy's Organic macaroons. Yum!
I thought about driving to Venice Beach, but it was so uncomfortably hot again that I opted to return to Joan's air conditioned abode and spend some time on craigslist, looking at used bikes. Quite a bit of time went by, and I texted Alice to see what was up with supper. She had fallen asleep when she got home from work, so we got kind of a late start going out for dinner. Since the place we were going was beyond her apartment, I drove to her this time, and then had her drive my car to the destination.
On the way to Alice's, I saw this poster.
Once again, Jess was able to meet us. We went to Sushi One in Koreatown. I had salmon sashimi and some specially prepared peppers (I wish I had written down the name). Very tasty. The three of us also shared two seaweed salads.
We said good-night to Jess but weren't quite ready to call it a night, so Alice drove me by the art museum where there is a cool display of old-fashioned street lamps. The following photos were all taken by Alice at the site of the street lamps.
It's hard to get a good picture of Remy. He usually either turns his back or tries to lick my face.
Since it was "on the way" back to Alice's apartment, we drove through the center of Hollywood where the Chinese Theatre is and lots of other brightly lit, sort of generic stuff. Everywhere else we had been in the evening was fairly quiet and subdued, and much of it was shutting down, but there in the heart of Hollywood, people were still out en masse, and the signs and store lights were bright.
When we drove up in front of Alice's building, there were people getting in to a car right in front. This never happens. We waited for them to leave, then pulled my car into the spot. I waited there while Alice went to get her car from a block or so away, and then pulled out so she could park there for the night. The flip side of this is that I have parked almost directly in front of Joan's Airbnb until tonight, but arriving back as late as I did, I had to park about a half mile away. And the walk back was excruciating because I had to go to the bathroom.
I guess it was a long, full day in LA. I hope to go to The Broad Museum on Thursday, maybe with Jess, and there's a Mapplethorpe exhibit here, too, that perhaps Alice and I will get a chance to see. We're talking about the beach for Friday, possibly some bike shopping over the weekend, if I don't find one on craigslist. Stay tuned to see what actually happens!
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