It’s Friday morning and I wake up nice and early in my car parked at the usual place in Hollywood. I know what I’d like to do this morning, hike to Griffith Observatory. It’s a nice climb up the mountain through the park.
Fortunately I remember from years ago where the trail starts, so I find it easily on the map and drive there. It’s still dark when I start hiking and I enjoy being out here so early in the morning. Around sunrise, which is invisible again because of the clouds, I arrive at the observatory and I enjoy the view for a while. I don’t stay too long, because the wind is strong here and that makes it quite cold. The hike back to the car is nice and easy since it’s all downhill. When I’m at the car I decide to drive up the mountain and find a nice picknick place for breakfast. Then I drive further to the observatory and find out that you can park here for free until noon. That’s nice. In the past I came here in the afternoon when it’s usually packed with cars, but now it’s still quiet. I see another trail going even further op the mountain and I spontaneously decide to hike this one as well. It’s quite a climb again, but the views are beautiful. You can see the observatory and behind it the city of Los Angeles and on the left side there is the mountain with the Hollywood sign. The weather is nice now and I don’t mind that it’s a bit cloudy, because that makes it more comfortable to hike up the mountain. At the top of the mountain I sit down for a while to enjoy the view before I hike back down.
Back at the car I have a hard time deciding where to go. My plan was to go to Sequoia Tree and Yosemite National Parks this weekend, but a friend of mine who lives in Yosemite texted me that it’s snowing and raining there this weekend. I think that might be too much of a contrast with the nice warm weather here in Los Angeles and after some thinking I decide to follow the coast in the direction of Santa Barbara. There is a detour around Malibu, I think they’re still recovering that part of the coastal highway from the fires. After Malibu the drive goes along the coast again and it’s beautiful to drive by the Pacific Ocean. I drive without music on and spend the time thinking about where I want to go in the coming days. I’m not sure. I keep going until I’m in the city of Santa Barbara where I remembered a great sandwich place. There was a lot of traffic on the way, but I arrive just before they close and I sit down on the terrace to enjoy my late lunch.
While sitting there I come to the conclusion of something I was already thinking about while driving. I want to go back to LA. I know it doesn’t make much sense, but following the coast doesn’t excite me and going to Yosemite yet with the snow and rain there is not appealing either. In LA I know where to sleep tonight and there is always more to see there. So I change my direction and head back to the City of Angels. I arrive there in the evening, do some groceries for food and drive back to my neighborhood in Hollywood where I park the car for tonight. I might stay here for the weekend and take it a bit easy.
