L.A for the Day

This time I decided to escape the central valley heat and dust by heading West. Reaching Tejon pass on the motorcycle I was thoroughly enjoying the cooler air when I smelled smoke. I spotted a fire helicopter flying overhead and figured they were already at work fighting fires in the area. Continuing on to Santa Clarita I saw a column of thick smoke rising from a nearby hillside.

img_0682-x2 I pulled over to take a picture and while I was doing this a Sheriffs vehicle came flying up the road with lights and sirens, He pulled over long enough to ask if I saw any houses in danger then continued on up the hill to check for himself. Shortly afterwards a whole cadre of Highway patrol, fire trucks and fire crews began arriving. I decided to clear out and avoid being in their way so I was heading towards L.A again.

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I took surface streets down towards North Hollywood and by then I was getting pretty hungry so I pulled over at Joe’s Felafels in Universal City.

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I love the fact they had a pita oven behind the counter so you can watch the fresh pita being pulled out before its brought to your table. Mmmm.

I continued on surface streets over to Sunset then headed West through Beverly hills and on to Venice Beach. Here the traffic was thick so I parked several blocks back from the beach and enjoyed the walk. img_0720-x2

Venice Beach walking along the shops

Grafitti, Venice Beach

I hung out at the beach for a couple hours then I decided to head South. I found a hill overlooking the south side of LAX which gave an excellent vantage for plane watching I hung out for a little while watching the planes take off and land.