Merry Christmas... Alice and I flew out of the Cincinnati airport for beautiful Los Angeles and nine days of vacation, including the Rose Parade. It was our Christmas present to each other. We met up with friends Ted and Connie, her Mom, Brother and Sister-in-law at the Hollywood Casino just over the border into Indiana. They were having Christmas dinner and since they only live 14 miles from the airport, they offered to drop us off and park our car at their place. That saved us at least $80.00 in parking fees. Thanks Folks!
After touring the casino Ted dropped us off at the airport. It was really dead on Christmas day but we did find a Max and Erma's to grab a bite of food and a cold drink. The waitress hurried with our order and after finishing we walked straight to the boarding gate and onto the plane. No waiting. We lifted off for the four hour flight to LAX.
We met the stranger sitting next to us whose name was Ian. He was born in Scotland but is currently living in Bangkok. We talked while Alice read, then watched the free in flight Harry Potter movie, The Half Blooded Prince. Alice, having never had alcohol on an airplane, wanted a beer. I ordered one for each of us while Ian got a wine. The three of us toasted to Christmas. Later Ian got up and I thought went to the bathroom. He came back with three more drinks and said Merry Christmas.
We landed, grabbed the luggage and took a shuttle to the Hertz car rental. After acquiring our Mazda 6, we drove eight miles south to the Staybridge Suites and checked into a wonderful suite. We were tired and hungry but being Christmas evening, the pizza shop we called was closed. We gave up on food and just went to bed.
We were up at 5:20am California time or 8:20am our time. We went to the free breakfast buffet that the hotel provides every morning and stuffed our bellies with good food. Lots of foreign speaking people were staying around us and some of them were rude. We drove down to Redondo Beach and walked barefoot in the Pacific Ocean. We also gathered neat looking rocks and shells. I was worried about not paying for the parking meter but upon further checking I noticed it was out of order. Free parking! We milled around Redondo Beach Pier and saw the unopened shops. Too early.
We then went north to Hermosa Beach and saw lots of volleyball nets set up on the sand. Lots of people playing beach volleyball. The waves were higher here and four people were even out on surfboards. The weather was not very warm; maybe 65 degrees so the surfers wore wet suits. We walked the pier and just enjoyed the ocean. The sounds, the smells and the feel of the air in our faces. We stopped at a little bar, got two beers, for $9.00 and sat and watched volleyball. After a while we drove to the Red Car Brewing Company and had a locally brewed beer. You have to understand that I want to visit every local brewery that I possibly can and this was the first. After a couple beers it was off to the grocery store for supplies. Supper was Fresh Brothers pizza that we tried to get the night before, based on the front desk recommendation. It was very good. After food and drinks sitting in front of the TV, we soon fell asleep.
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