Today was over 30 degrees. Perfect weather for convertible cruising!! This morning we drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to Pacific Palisades and Malibu which neither of us had done before. The Mustang has some grunt but the speed limit was 65 miles so I couldn't push it too much. There were lots of LAPD and Sheriff cars along the way.
Malibu surprised me. It isn't very pretty at all. There are hills/mountains which lots of houses are built into but they are covered with brown bushes and rocks. The water comes up very close to the row of houses along the beachfront but there weren't very many waves. There are also lots of very unattractive power lines running along side the road.
We drove up one road into the hills. It was very narrow and windy. We couldn't see any of the houses-just driveways and intercoms. Back on the ground level we saw some very ornate fences no doubt surrounding very luxurious properties. Privacy is well protected.
There were only 2 little shops selling t-shirts and souvenirs. We stopped and looked at both as I had left my cap in the hotel and the sun was really hot with the car roof down. They were pretty dodgy so we drove back up the PCH to Santa Monica. We knew there were tourists shops on the pier and I got a cap there.
Our next stop was Costco. Neither of us had been in one before and Robyn was keen to check it out. The store was in Los Feliz.There was a food shop at the side so we had lunch there before going in. We both had something called a Carne Asada Bake. It was similar to a pide but is a Mexican dish. It was filled with beef, cheese, pico de gallo and guacamole and cooked on a grill. It was really nice.
Costco was enormous inside. Before we went in we noticed that the trolleys were bigger than usual and the people coming out had huge bulk packets of toilet paper and water bottles.
Just inside the door were huge pallets of heaters, tvs, coffee makers etc. Next there was a cabinet with diamond jewellery - rings, bracelets, pendants etc. One ring was priced at over $22000. There were Raymond Weil and Tag Heuer watches. We wandered through most of the aisles - there was over 320. The store sells everything from garage doors to sunglasses, Levi jeans, toys, Christmas decorations, alcohol and pasta sauce. What stood out was the size of everything. A block of cheese was 2.27kgs, a bottle of mayonnaise that had to be lifted with 2 hands and the biggest tin of tuna I have ever seen. While it did seem cheap, you would have to have room to store the excess. Boxes of tissues have to be bought in a bundle of 10 boxes.
Our next stop was Walmart to pick up a couple of things for various kids. The traffic is always bad in and around LA so it takes a while to get around. It was after 6.30pm by the time we got back to sunset so we stopped for an early dinner at a chicken place we found last year on Santa Monica Boulevard. Then it was back to the hotel to do some last minute washing.
We have booked tickets to do a Warner Bros studio tour at 9am in the morning. That will be fun!