After celebrating a belated New Year’s Eve last night, now that Aimee and I are both in the same place, we woke up this morning resolved to tackle our hikes with gusto again, having lagged a bit with travel, house-hunting, and holidays in recent months. After discovering, reporting, filing, and otherwise dealing with a smashed window and stolen radio in Aimee’s car, we headed to Laurel Canyon for a short hike in an apparently very popular spot: Fryman Canyon in Wilacre Park.
The parking lot was pretty packed, but there was a certain justice in seeing a very illegally parked car with the license plate “PRETNSH” getting a ticket:
The hike was pleasant, with a nice incline to start us off and make us feel a little pain. Perhaps, as Aimee thought, it was all of those newly-resolved fitness buffs getting out on a nice Sunday morning, but the place was packed with all kinds: families, mountain bikers, dog-walkers, and so on.
In the middle of our walk, we came upon the TreePeople / S. Mark Taper Amphitheatre. a little gem of a performance space (with seating for 99) in the middle of the woods. We made a vow to see something there next summer, when the season starts again.
On our way out, we walked through a neighborhood to get back to the parking lot, and came upon a house for sale whose ugliness and scale we marveled at. We took guesses as to how much we though it was listed for; sadly, we were each about $7 million off: Sotheby’s lists the house for a hair under $10 million. Wow.
As our thoughts turned to lunch, Aimee and I were on the same page, and we decided to stroll through the Famer’s Market (no Ed Begley this time) to the amazing Artisan Cheese Gallery, where we ate once after a walk a few years back. I had a very tasty fried egg BLT with gruyere, and Aimee had a mozzarella and pesto sandwich. Tasty, as always. Now it’s back to work for both of us, and no more vacation in sight for many months. And so it goes… Here’s to 2009!
