Currently: Encinidas, CA, at last check

I'm on the train to San Diego currently, what while the LA portion of my trip was busy and anazing and will warrant its own post, getting to the second part of my California trip has not been smooth sailing.

But, I whined about it enough and instead I'm going to talk about one of the great, little parts of LA.

I was pretty massively scheduled, and there was so much I wanted to do that I couldn't fit in. I was spending Sunday at Disneyland, but I had jet lag, which meant I was up earlier than I needed to. So I decided to use the time before my friends picked me up to drive to Long Beach.

I spent most of my time in LA living in an old apartment in that city, and it was barely legal. I had a bedroom made of styrofoam and we passed down the apartment from person to person so that people ended up being completely left off leases and the rental company got away with doing shady things because of it. But I loved it. I loved the area, and while I'm not one to lay out on a beach for hours, I spent a lot of time driving to the beach to sit and get away for a while. When my parents went through their divorce I'd put on my headphones and angrily walk the twenty minutes to the beach, walk in the water some, and then I'd be madder at the hill of stairs by the end than I could be at any person. I went back there now, when it was overcast and cool, parked in front of one of the houses I always wanted to live in and walked down the stairs.

I love the city. But the beach is filthy. It's covered in trash, and it's a little scary to walk barefoot, but I went up to the water, kicked off my flip flops, and walked in the water for a little bit. Just a few minutes, since I had to get back to the hotel for my pickup, and took pictures before heading back up the giant stairs.

I got in my rental car and said aloud, "It smells like gross beach in here."

It didn't stop me from going to my favorite coffee shop, too. It's called Portfolio, on 4th and Junipero, and I spent a lot of time there when the Internet would be down. I got a Mexican hot chocolate, loved how so many of the pastries are vegan now, and saw that the clientele now is largely white-haired people at 7 am on a Sunday morning.

I got back to my hotel with just enough time to step into the shower to scrub the beach smell off my feet before my friends showed up. Totally worth it.