I recently spent a 24 hour layover in Los Angeles to break up the 20+ hour flight from Australia to the US East Coast. I arrived at LAX at 6 AM and made my bleary-eyed way to Venice Beach, where I spent a warm sunny day wandering before catching a flight on to Boston the following morning. The sun was warm and bright but tempered by a cool breeze. It was a welcome departure from the endless string of cold grey Melbourne winter days I had left behind.
By mid-day the Venice Beach boardwalk was teeming with people... throngs of tourists pulsing through a gauntlet of hawkers' spreads. The neighborhood, like the rest of L.A., draws a fine line between grit and glamour. The homeless community on the boardwalk is vast and visible, but only blocks away the swank restaurants on Abbot Kinney Blvd are frequented by A-list elite (Michelle Obama was lunching there the day I passed through).
I walked up the boardwalk towards Santa Monica as the afternoon stretched into evening. The sunlight softened and so did the crowds. Families splashed in the surf as electric scooters zipped up the bike path running along the beach leading towards Santa Monica pier.
Things grew beautiful and still, as the sun dropped behind the hazy cascading hills to the north.
