Tuesday February 1st

We left a little after 9:00 a.m. this morning to go to one of many "Swap Meet/Flea Markets" they have around here.  These are a bit different than what we have back home.

Here, they are mostly indoors and are not filled with the "good ol' brought from the garage" stuff.  These are vendors selling new, and usually cheap goods.

The first one we hit, contrary to their website, was closed.  The next was filled with about 100 vendors.  80 of them sold either shoes, clothing or jewelry.  The remainder was a mix of telephone and audio electronics, art?, and hair care.  We got a couple of items before heading home.

The best part of the day was the drive.  Since the swap meets were in L.A. we were facing a 2 hour freeway drive during the morning rush.  By the way, I believe the morning rush begins at midnight and ends around 2:00 p.m. when the evening rush begins.  The evening rush hour, of course, ends at midnight.

Anyway, we decided to take the PCH all the way in today.  We figured if we were going to be sitting in traffic for the next couple of hours, we may as well have a view to enjoy.

As it turns out, it took us about the same amount of time it would have taken on the freeways to get there and back.  But like I said, we had the pleasure of seeing the Pacific coast line for most of the drive.  And surprisingly, there were no traffic jams.  Everything kept moving at a steady pace.

As before on the PCH, we drove through Malibu, Santa Monica and Venice.  Traveling a bit further south than we have so far, we passed through the middle of Los Angeles International Airport, then through Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Long Beach before reaching our first destination in Stanton, about 20 miles south of Downtown L.A.  The second destination, mentioned above, was on our way back and nearer to L.A.

The return trip on the PCH was as the sun was beginning to set, and glistened off the ocean in the western sky.  With a view like that, who cares how long it takes.