Manhattan Beach

Finally, we made it to the Strand. Just driving towards the pier was exciting on an early Monday evening a few days back. I didn’t expect any crowds and boy was I wrong. Bicycles whizzed past as did roller skaters, skateboarders and a few runners. But most people walked and chatted incessantly, some to a nearby friend or relation and some on the phone with those things in their ears.
Babies galore too got pushed around in various buggies and strollers and many dogs accompanied their owners quite gleefully. These were not just ordinary dog walkers with 5 leashes trying to control a herd of canines. These were the tired or upbeat owners of these animals that were doing this walk slowly or fast with their own pets.
I heard snippets of conversations briefly as we walked by others also chatting rather loudly over the din of the crowd and the sea.
We waited for the sunset and hoped that some of the people would disperse but few did. However, the sunset was stunning and it was wonderful to pass by some of our favorite houses, some looking more derelict than ever as they sat on their obscenely expensive lots waiting for the right moment to fling it up onto the market for sale. Many of these buildings had been there my whole life and more. Some were fixed up slightly but still quite tatty and others needed to be torn down since they were beyond help. The occasional newer monstrosities looked totally out of place but aside from being too large and too modern, some had lovely gardens while the older houses had very little vegetation or even pots in their frontage.
My husband managed to turn left at the entrance to the pier so we followed him even though our best houses were always to the right. Since he was finally out with us, we thought better of telling him to turn around. He was, for once in a long while, enjoying himself, outside in the warm and rather sultry California air that had a slight nip to it. The skies were also dramatic even though cloudy. My photos reminded me of how casually beautiful California is, especially along the coastline.
With only about a week left on our trip, we are attempting to fill in some of the days and nights with short excursions. We will miss so much of this and are trying to fill up our tanks for the months that we’ll be back in New Zealand. But although the scenery is quite lovely, it’s the family connections that are much more important. They are simply irreplaceable.