This may be brief. I’m a little worn out tonight.

Yesterday:

• Breakfast at another great coffee shop in Pasadena.
• Toured the Valley shooting lots of photos and videos.
• Visited Mildred Pierce’s house in Glendale.
• Lunch at Wienerschnitzel (finally).
• Found a great used bookstore in North Hollywood which also happened to be a magnet for cute geeky boys on a Saturday afternoon.
• Shawerma for dinner.
• More twilight photos and videos.
• Brief, ill-advised nightlife experiment.

Today:

• Tested my airport route for Tuesday morning.
• Visited the oldest operating McDonald’s in Downey.
• Came back into town via Slauson, Figueroa, and Broadway.
• West Adams, Pico-Union, downtown.
• Spent an hour or so walking around in in Westlake/MacArthur Park. That area makes me smile a lot.
• South on Crenshaw to Inglewood, with detours.
• Walked around Santa Monica for an hour or so.
• Back east via Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards.

Tomorrow, I’ll probably stay mostly around Pasadena being a pedestrian. I’m weary of all-day drives and a little worn out in general. Plus I hit a bit of a mood tonight in Santa Monica for several reasons which I shan’t detail right now. A low-key last day may be just the thing for me.

I think I’ve exercised considerable restraint, having taken only 570 pictures so far. It’s nice that the skies have actually been blue rather that that greenish-beige you often get in LA during the summer.

Today:

• Breakfast at a diner in Eagle Rock that had orange booths, Sputnik wallpaper, and a moderately space-age sign. I like to fantasize that it’s where Bill Gannon from Dragnet (he lived in Eagle Rock) ate breakfast every morning.
• Silver Lake, Sunset Boulevard, Venice, and Westwood
• Remembered the sunblock today.
• It was quite warm, but not as bad as at home, where it’s apparently still 90F at 9PM.

Tonight:

• Twilight neon photography in Hollywood.
• Dinner somewhere.
• Plans open for later.

Tomorrow: The Valley. And other stuff.

Today:

• Breakfast at Rudford’s in San Diego.
• Drove to Pasadena and checked into the mid-century motel of my dreams.
• Lunch at L&L Hawaiian Barbecue.
• Took a couple of first-day drives around the city to soak in the essential LA-ness of it all.
• I’m glad I still love it here.

Tomorrow: Who knows? There are many possibilities.

I think I decided this once before but I have to say that I find that San Diego–at least for me–is probably the most livable city in California. If I were offered a job that would allow me to live fairly well here (which is highly unlikely) I might actually consider it. That’s significant; I can’t really say that about any other city in California. More on that later, if I feel like it.

Today:

• Breakfast by the beach.
• Toured North Park, South Park, Normal Heights, downtown, and Linda Vista, among other areas..
• Excellent Indian buffet for lunch.
• Way too much sun.
• Several used bookstores.
• Fast food dinner snack.
• Shot many vintage Safeways.

Right now I’m sitting in the room watching TV and considering whether or not to venture back out. “Not” seems to be winning. Tomorrow it’s up to LA for five nights.