We finally went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market yesterday, a once a month event in the parking lot surrounding “the most famous stadium in the world,” as someone said as we were walking in. We picked up Brian and had breakfast at Mike & Anne’s, delicious once again – and we saw two middle-aged identical twins dressed in the same exact outfits, head to toe, which was frightening – and headed to the Bowl by 10 am, just in time to beat the rush and enjoy the cool morning temps.
I picked up an old Sears, Roebuck twin lens reflex camera, and otherwise just enjoyed strolling around, looking at the amazing variety of stuff for sale. I was pleased at the amount of interesting old stuff, as opposed to the tables of crap which one usually finds at flea markets. Not to say there weren’t tables of crap, as well, but there were enough old cameras, record players, furniture, photos, and other stuff too keep me interested. Plus, when else do you get the chance to walk home with a stuffed hyena head?
We also enjoyed the opportunity to look around inside the Bowl itself, where I’d been before for UCLA games, but it was fun to look around when the place was empty and quiet, and actually seemed a little small.
Going inside the Bowl also afforded us a great view of the whole sprawling flea market, which is tough to get on the ground – it just keeps going, and going, and going. I enjoyed the morning, but we don’t need to go back for awhile.
On Saturday morning, I tackled the Malibu Creek Trail Challenge again, the 14 mile trail race I did last year and should have vowed not to do again… A year is just enough time to forget how tough it was, but I’m glad I did it. Miles two through six are pretty much straight uphill, from 500 to 2000 feet in elevation, and every corner seems to bring another hill on the horizon. I wasn’t holding out much hope as I hobbled up the last hill, but I did manage to shave a few minutes off my time from last year, which always feels good. It was a beautiful, cool morning, a great time to run, and seeing the course again made me wish I could slow down and enjoy the scenery. We’ll have to turn the route into a hike one of these days.
