Glad to be back to Burbank visiting my brother and family after too long. Last time I was here in early 2020, the pandemic was just starting. We still wore masks on our flight to LAX but are less worried about Covid. (Knock wood).
We tried to take the flyaway bus from the airport but there wasn’t one readily available (40 minute wait) so we took an Uber. $86 and 1.5 hours since we arrived during rush hour. (thanks to a one hour flight delay.) unfortunately we didn’t have the Lyft app downloaded, which were told could have saved us $20 or so. (It’s now downloaded.)
At The Commissary, a beautiful server we guessed is an aspiring actor served us coffee and a delicious morning bun, a curly mound of croissant dough with a crispy cinnamon sugar crust. Lunch was excellent salads at açaí jungle. Then we visited the resale shop It’s a wrap (which sells clothing worn on various shows that film in the area) and nearby vintage and interesting gift shops in what’s know as Magnolia Park.
Last stop, the famous Cuban bakery Porto’s where several staff told me “ I like your shirt!” ( I was wearing my cheerful Harris-Walz tee) and a woman visiting from Arizona asked if she could give me a hug. She and her party are also Harris-Walz supporters. They are cautiously optimistic about the tickets chances in Arizona.
We were the only hikers and on a narrow trail high above Burbank, where we could see the silhouette of downtown LA in the distance, a little further off than the downtown Chicago silhouette from our apartment. Although the mountain bikers were in on the secret, which wasn’t that big a deal. (It’s off skyline drive.) we also drove on a narrow canyon road past a lovely pink Spanish style stucco house with terraced gardens that was the club house of a long gone country club.
An art exhibit I was dying to see in DC turned out to be in LA this trip, hence our first trip to LACMA, which was a great option on a chilly Sunday. The show, about the interplay between untrained and trained artists, was fascinating and as I suspected, one of my favorite Kansas sights, The Garden of Eden in the small rural town of Lucas got a prominent nod in the exhibit (“Outliers and American Vanguard Art.”)
Baby Benji — my cousin’s so sweet four-month-old son- was the highlight of (and reason for) my trip to Venice but I was reminded of how cool and pretty and pricey this seaside community is. I loved strolling along the narrow pedestrian-only lanes of the Places, “walk streets” each lined with usually small (but sometimes large) houses, some old bungalows and cottages (my favorite) or sleek flat-faced modern newcomers, most with gorgeous overgrown foliage and lush colorful flowers. (Nowita, Marco, Amoroso Places)
I had a delicious (but almost $20) Niçoise salad and green apple lemonade ($4 but u was relieved to learn, after-the-fact that the refill was free) at trendy Superba Bar and Grill. I drove around until I found Rose Street, which I decided was the emerging area I visited a few years ago. It appeared to still be emerging.
I also wandered a little along Abbott Kinney, window shopping and people watching and since I happened to park around the block from the superb ice cream shop Salt & Straw, I decided it was a sign from above and had a large (almost $5) scoop of “freckled woodblock chocolate,” which was delicious although I didn’t really understand the name. (I choose it in part because it was the rare chocolate flavor without salt as a touted ingredient.)
“Mister Ed” fans take note: you can see Mr. Ed’s descendants up close and personal, in the small backyards of the Rancho area of Burbank, where residents (and day trippers) on horseback are so common along the wise suburban streets leading to Griffith Park’s more rugged Cowboy-esque terrain that some of the buttons to push at the crosswalks are high enough for riders to reach.
TakeBetsywithyou 