Zoocap

The city of Los Angeles is a sprawling metropolis.  To fly into the city at night, you will find a sea of street lights and buildings just outside your airplane window, that never seems to end.  I moved to LA in the summer of 1999, just one week before my birthday and as luck would have it, we drove through the desert of Arizona and California during the hottest part of the day, only to end up on the 101, at the beginning of rush hour traffic.  Six lanes of traffic heading West through the Valley, and six lanes heading East.  It is a different kind of city when you are moving there, as opposed to spending a few nights in a best Los Angeles hotel, being driven around by the hotel chauffeurs.

When I found myself stopped in the madness that is the 101, and the endless sea of not city lights, but the sun reflecting off of the roofs of hundreds and hundreds of cars, I questioned my decision to move to this city.  But we finally reached our new place, unloaded the U-Haul, and I feel directly to sleep.  The next morning, I knew that if I headed out from the Vally, and just drove to the coast, I would be standing on the sand of one of the most incredible stretches of coastline in the Western part of the United States.

I took off on the windy road through Topanga Canyon, and after about half an hour, I turned a curve and saw the blue of the Pacific Ocean in the distance.  My heart started to pound a bit, as I drew nearer to the fresh saltwater scented air.  During the next two years, the beaches along the coast were my home.  From the calm and elegant Malibu, to the funky and energetic boardwalk of Venice.  Any excuse I had to go from one side of town to the other by driving along the Pacific Coast Highway, I took, as even though it was out of the way, it was a great way, a breezy Southern California way, with the top down and the tunes of Moby playing loudly from the stereo.