Consider it walked

January 17th, 2010 · No Comments

Mt. Washington

We began exploring Los Angeles through the book Walking L.A.: 36 Walking Tours Exploring Stairways, Streets and Buildings You Never Knew Existed back in late 2006, hoping to tackle all 36 walks over the next year or so. It has taken us a little longer than that; we’ve moved twice, the book has come out in a second edition, and we’ve also spent time trying to conquer all 60 Hikes within 60 Miles, but now, just over three years later, we finally finished.

We spent the morning in Mt. Washington, on the very short walk #36 through Elyria Canyon Park, after driving up some of the narrowest, windiest streets I’ve been on anywhere.

Mt. Washington

A few more photos from the walk here.

After the brief walk (which was more like a hike, whereas the 60 Hikes Mt. Washington “hike” was much more like a walk – chew on that one….), we headed back downtown for our last walk of the book, around the Financial District. We’d been saving this walk for a day when we could combine it with some time poking around the Central Library and lunch at the Library Bar, but for whatever reason – maybe it’s the fact that the library doesn’t open until 1:00pm on Sundays, and the Library Bar isn’t open at all during the day on Sunday – we never got around to it.

We started outside the Biltmore Hotel, where a skating rink was set up for the winter, filled with people who seemed never to have skated before, hugging the railing and walking cautiously around the perimeter while wearing skates.

Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles

We walked around the old Edison building, the YMCA building, and various towering banks and hotels, and ended up back at the Biltmore, where we took in the opulent lobby and tried to figure out how we could spend a night there someday. A room in the hotel, that is, not just the lobby.

Check out the brand-new, bright-white running shoes, which I’m trying to break in before our 20-mile run next Saturday. We did 18 yesterday (which I did in my old shoes), and it was fine, if a little tough over the last two miles.

Downtown Los Angeles

We finished the morning with lunch at Wurstküche, which was busier than ever and tasty as always. And speaking of tasty, we had dinner at Nook, not too far from our house, last night, and even though we felt out of place with the early birds at 5:30, the food was great, and the strip mall chic setting was great. I saw Crazy Heart at the Aero afterwards, and enjoyed a great Q & A with Jeff Bridges after the film. Too bad it was already 11:00 by the time they were going to start Lebowski; I’ve never seen it in a theater. Another day…

So, it’s time for a new L.A. guidebook to lead us to some more hidden neighborhoods. And we’ve still got those 40 hikes left…

Photos from every Walking L.A. walk here, and previous blog entries about the walks here.

Tags: Los Angeles · Travel ·