A first trip to Los Angeles without seeing the Pacific Ocean seemed like a waste, so on Sunday evening we drove from East Los Angeles over to Pacific Coast Highway and up to Malibu. This incidentally made watching Iron Man 2 a week later more fun as it was the quite plausible locale of Tony Stark's mansion. Our end point was the Solstice Canyon hike, after which we drove back to Santa Monica looking for food to recover our energy. A bit of smart phone searching for a Mexican restaurant found us the Border Grille. Given the name and Tex-Mex affiliation I was a bit worried that it would be a higher-end Chilis but happily it didn't have a generic vibe at all and instead was a bit experimental and more gourmet. (Kate adds: The variety of salsas presented as a freebie with chips was a nice touch.)
After dining we walked through Santa Monica and out to the Pacific Ocean. The final stretch had an eccentric mix of homeless people and a college student model/photographer pair doing a tea party on the stairs down. Once we crossed the last street, the trek out to the ocean itself was fairly unremarkable aside from the view of amusement park on a nearby pier. However, it was quite satisfying to get Kate to the Pacific Ocean for the first time (particularly after seeing Once Upon a Time in the West).
Finally we went back to the hotel and ventured into the garden at night. It was a bit darker than expected as the promenade dining with Christmas lights was not in use. However, there was certainly still enough light and we had it almost entirely to ourselves which was neat in a different way. If we come back and don't stay at the Kyoto Grand we'll have to visit to see them when the restaurants reopen.
Comments