#148: Sullivan Canyon Hike

Our friend Arthur frequently takes his dog walking in Sullivan Canyon. Brad and I decided to join him this weekend, and we instantly fell in love with this gorgeous shady hike. Although you don't get a panoramic view, the golden leaves and the twisting streams that frequently cross your path make it feel like you've escaped the city.

The Sullivan Canyon hike starts at the end of Queensferry Road in Brentwood. From Sunset, turn north on Mandeville Canyon, right at Westridge Road, left on Bayliss Road and veer left on Queensferry. Park for free on Bayliss or Queensferry Road. It's a 10 mile loop, but we decided to just turn back around since the sun was setting and none of us wanted to do a serious hike.

There weren't very many people around, and most of those who were there were either with dogs or on bikes. The path was flat and wide. The only "tricky" part was the giant concrete "waffles" on the ground near certain parts of the stream. (They were actually only tricky for Brad--for some reason he kept tripping on them. :P)

This setting brought out the little kid in me. I think it was all the stream crossings. I ended up running/skipping/galloping most of the way and jumping over each crossing. It was really easy to run since it was shady and flat, so I would love to come back here for more exercise.

Who lives here?

On our way back, we saw a beautiful house on the top of a cleared hill. It looked like a painting. Does anyone know who lives there?

Sullivan Canyon

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#147: Float Lab--Sensory Deprivation Float Tank

photo from www.floatlab.com

The idea of sealing yourself up in a pitch black chamber and floating in salt water for an hour and a half might not appeal to everyone, but the adventurous at heart will love their experience at Float Lab. Located in Venice just off the Speedway, Float Lab offers a unique and relaxing sensory deprivation experience for just $40 cash.

I called the float lab a couple of days earlier and the only times they had available were 8:30 am and 6:30 pm, so we took the 6:30 pm slot. We made sure to hydrate and eat a snack so that we weren't hungry or thirsty for those 90 minutes.

Once we got there, the owner let us try these Turbo Sonic machines that vibrate your body at various frequencies to accelerate healing and exercise your muscles without you moving. It felt like I was standing on top of a washing machine, only ten times more intense. My sides started hurting after a few minutes, so I stopped, but Brad lasted the whole session.

Then he showed us the two chambers. The whole lab is just one big room divided into a waiting area and two areas consisting of the flotation chambers and showers. He instructed us to take a shower first, put in our earplugs then go into the flotation chamber. He told us that we could stay as long as we wanted.

When I stepped into the chamber, I was surprised how thick the water felt. Lying down, I closed my eyes, then opened my eyes, and could sense no difference in the two. The water was warm, and only 10 inches deep, and the whole chamber was like a giant bathtub. It took no effort to float due to the large amount of Epsom salt dissolved in the water, but my neck started hurting a bit so I put my hands behind my neck for support.

Before we got to the lab, I joked with Brad that this was gonna be an extreme form of meditation. With nothing in there to distract me from my thoughts, I thought I would either be bored or anxious. I was actually neither.

The only thing I didn't enjoy about my experience was how sore my neck and shoulders felt at some points even with my hands behind my head. Your experience may be different though--I have a weak neck. I kept alternating between a sitting and lying position to alleviate the discomfort. Once I was out of the chamber, however, I felt great and it didn't bother me anymore.

Once out, I also noticed that my skin was super soft. We felt really mellow for the rest of the night into the next day, and I slept like a baby. This was a great way to relax, "detox" and meditate.... like a mini-vacation. Check it out!

Float Lab

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#146: Road Trip to Cambria and San Simeon

Cambria and San Simeon are coastal towns five minutes away from each other and about four hours north of Los Angeles by car. Most visitors stop to take a tour of Hearst Castle, but there are many other attractions here to check out.

Nitt Witt Ridge

Nitt Witt Ridge: An artist and interesting personality named Art built the antithesis of the Hearst Castle. Nitt Witt Ridge is a castle made of junk! Art was a garbage man who literally brought his work home with him. Abalone shells, beer cans and toilet bowl seats are just some of the items used in his house's construction. Art passed away at the age of 96, but tours of his home are still given. You must make a reservation. It took multiple phone calls for us to get a hold of someone, but someone did in fact return our call eventually and we set up a time. Our tour guide was great, and we even saw a video of Art talking about his home. Tours are $10 per person. Don't be late!

This elephant seal hasn't started his new year's resolution yet.

Elephant Seals in San Simeon: Wow, these guys have it made. There are hundreds of these blubbery creatures sunning on the beach, and it seems like they don't have a care in the world. I would feel really self conscious if flocks of tourists stared at me throughout the day, but they just ignored us. Sleeping seemed to be their top priority at 2 pm. Sweet.

Scallops and bacon wrapped pheasant at Black Cat Bistro

Black Cat Bistro: This is the perfect place to take you and your special someone for a romantic dinner. Fine dining in Cambria? Yes! Fresh from the farm produce is served in a house-turned-restaurant. I was blown away. But don't just take my word for it--it has a 4.5/5 rating on Yelp!

Star Gazing: Out of all the things we did on this road trip, my favorite didn't cost a penny. Living in L.A., you forget that there are stars in the night sky. Sometimes if you squint, you can make out three or four, but most of the time our skies are only lit with the warm halo of light pollution. Both nights we were in San Simeon, we pulled to the side of a dark road, opened the sunroof in Brad's car, reclined our seats and stared in awe. I found the perfect song on our playlist for our star gazing, and we just listened to that song on repeat. Magical.

If anyone knows a great place closer to L.A. to see stars, please let me know!

A roof with a view

Abalone staircase

His and Hers toilets in the outhouse

Toilet seat picture frames

Ladies' room. It saddened me to learn that the event which motivated Art to build Nitt Witt Ridge was when a girlfriend of his cheated on him and left him. Some might say it made him a little crazy. Art then built Nitt Witt with "his and hers" rooms, toilets, etc, but he never did find a girlfriend or wife. :(

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#145: Road Trip-Hearst Castle

Brad and I ended 2010 with a trip to Hearst Castle in San Simeon, which is a four hour drive from L.A.. Armed with 5 hours of mix CDs, sushi, tangerines and three types of coconut water, we drove past rolling green hills dotted with cows, windmills and trees. The scenery just left me in awe the entire way there.

Hearst Castle is San Simeon's main attraction. The little town of Cambria just five minutes south of it is filled with tourists who have come to see the castle. I had seen pictures of the place, but I had no idea how large it really was--250,000 acres!

William Hearst was a newspaper magnate, politician, and inspiration for the film Citizen Kane. Hearst Castle was just one of his many dwellings around the world, and he called it "the Ranch". Charlie Chaplin, the Marx brothers, Franklin Roosevelt and Joan Crawford are just some of the famous people who have stayed at the Ranch.

The dining hall inspired the design of Hogwart's dining hall

We booked the Experience Tour, which lasted about 1.5 hours. The tour starts with a short bus ride from the visitors center up to the castle. A group of about 25 of us were led by a docent who showed us the two pools, one guest house, the dining hall, main hall and outdoor sculptures. Everything was over the top, as you can imagine--from the carved ceiling of the dining hall to the real gold tiles in the pool room.

Ceiling of the dining hall

Tours cost $24 for adults and $12 for children. Included in the price is an IMAX screening of a short documentary about William Hearst. The documentary was quite entertaining, although Brad (true to form) fell asleep halfway through. Something about dark crowded rooms...

Hearst Castle

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#144: The Grotto Hike in Malibu

Number 144 comes to us from the beautiful mountains of Malibu. Last weekend our hiking gang travelled north on PCH and then 5 miles east on the car-sickness-inducing maze known as Yerba Buena Road to get to Circle X Ranch's Grotto Hike. The Grotto hike is only 3.5 miles roundtrip, but it took us about two hours because of the rock scrambling and exploring we did.

The car-sick hiking gang at the trail head

The first part of the hike is straightforward. Just park for free in the Circle X Ranch parking lot and head to the left toward the trail head sign. Follow the dirt path through some gorgeous mountains until you reach a dead end at a stream.

When you reach the dead end, head to the right towards these rocks

Next, head toward the right where you see a bunch of rocks. From here, you must rock scramble downward to reach the grotto. Rock scrambling reminded me of being a kid again. It was really fun, but a little tricky to get down there, so wear good shoes. After a short distance, you will see a crevice in the rocks. Slide down the big rock and you will have reached your destination!

To reach the grotto, you must slide down this rock

Brad standing inside the Grotto. The ceiling is one BIG boulder balancing on smaller boulders!

The Grotto is stunning. It's amazing that these huge (I mean HUGE) boulders fell on each other "just right" so that it created this giant cave with water in it. The whole ceiling of the grotto is one gigantic boulder that is balancing on smaller rocks. When I was in there, I had a frightening vision of an earthquake shaking all of the rocks loose. We had also seen the amazing movie 127 Hours a couple of weeks ago, so I had scary boulder scenes running through my mind from that movie as well. Anyway... I'm not trying to scare you away! Go see the Grotto--it's breath taking.

The Grotto Hike

Near the grotto

Kelly and me!

If you continue below the grotto, you will see this area.

Look at the size of them rocks! This is a pond below the grotto.

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#143: Solstice Canyon Hike

Brad mentioned that he loves hiking, but he hates how hot it can be when there's no shade on a hike. I googled "shady Los Angeles hiking" and found the Solstice Canyon hike in Malibu. On Thanksgiving weekend, Brad and I drove out to Malibu to hike to the waterfalls and see the ruins of once-beautiful mansions in the Malibu mountains. The hike took about 1.5 hours (we were walking slowly).

the skeleton of a house

Solstice Canyon Park is on Corral Canyon Road just off PCH. There are two parking lots. One is very small at the base of the road, and the second larger lot is .2 miles in. Parking is free. Dogs are allowed, but I believe that bikes are not. The hike itself is absolutely gorgeous, semi-shady, and the perfect length for a hiking rookie like myself. It's an easy hike (Brad did it in flip flops), and we saw many people, dogs and families along the way.

the fork in the trail

On the way to the falls, you will encounter a fork in the trail. The left fork goes up and the right one goes down. They meet up, but if you take the lower path, you have to cross a stream two times.

Of all the hikes I've been on in L.A., this is one of my favorites.

Solstice Canyon Hike

ruins from fire

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#142: Binocular Building

Frank Gehry's colossal black Binocular Building on Main Street in Venice oddly blends into the surroundings---so much so that I drove past this building many times without even noticing it!

On Thanksgiving, we made a trip to see this striking building up close. It is huge (see me in the above picture for scale). Cars can drive through the binoculars into a garage. I read somewhere that this building used to be an advertising agency. I have no idea what it is now though.

Venice, true to character, has a lot of unique structures. Across the street on the corner of Rose and Main is the famous clown ballet dancer.

Frank Gehry's Binocular Building

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