Monday, October 17, 2005 - California dreaming

One of the  many reasons I write this blog is to give the casual observer an insight into places to visit in Southern California.

Yesterday was my son's birthday party, which he had almost a week after his actual birthday , the reason was that he shared the party with his freind Jennifer who also turned 2 recently. Getting back to my original point, the party was held at  freinds house in Hermosa beach, which is about 15 miles south of where we live in Santa Monica.

Jennifer's Mom and Dad are also English, I 've only met her Dad, (who has a kick ass job at EA the video game company) a couple of times but Elina is very freindly with Jo, who is Jennifer's Mom .

 I haven't been to Hermosa Beach and it's neighboring city Manhattan Beach in some time;

http://www.hermosabch.org/

http://www.ci.manhattan-beach.ca.us/home/visitor_info.html

The two cities are just like the American beach cities that you see in the movies, unlike Santa Monica which have lots of tourists and a mixed population demographic.

 Hermosa and Manhattan beach are almost exclusively white, it's  like the 'Stepford wives by the sea' or a real-life Baywatch as the two cities seems to be exclusively inhabited by the beautiful people of California, lots of girls with blonde hair and surfer dudes. Beach volleyball in the summer is played by guys with  muscular bodies and washboard abs( bastards) and  tanned girls with manes of silky blonde hair, long lean legs and  more than ample breasts.

There are lots of little boutiques, burger and beer shacks and quite a number of surfer stores, you can just feel the remnants of the surf culture of the 60's, if you close your eyes you can hear the Jan & Dean and Beach Boys music playing from the Woody's driving past.

 These two adjoining cities are just how I imagined all California would be before I moved here.

Of course it's incredibly expensive to buy there, but I can dream can't I?................ quite a few visits to a good Beverley Hills plastic surgeon would be required before I took residence with the other beautiful people of the Golden State.