Urban Walkabout

This is a quick note on a couple of walks I did using Tom's model of walks/treks where ending each evening at places having lodging (vs camping). I did the San Francisco to Half-Moon Bay walk described in Tom's "Walkabout Northern California" and loved it, as I described in a Forum post last year.

In February of this year (2016) my wife was meeting a friend for a week in Palm Desert. I decided I'd do a walk in So. Cal while she was visiting and meet up with her at the end. Since I grew up in Los Angeles, I decided I'd do a variation of Tom's Malibu walk that included visiting parts of Los Angeles I knew in my younger years. So, I took the Amtrak Coast Starlight train from Sacramento, where I live, to Los Angeles' Union Station. I stayed in the Little Tokyo District near Union Station that night then began my walk. I basically walked to Santa Monica in 2 days. From Santa Monica I began to follow Tom's coastal walk from Santa Monica to San Pedro. So it was a combination of urban sites for this first 2 days and enjoying the coast for the next 2. Along the way from downtown LA to Santa Monica I came across a number of sites including the Disney Concert Hall, Farmer's Market near Wilshire and Fairfax, the Chinese Consulate where a dozen protestors in front complained about its treatment of political prisoners, Rodeo Drive with its expensive shops, ending the first day's walk near the LA County Museum of Comtemporary Art, where I spent a couple of hours.

I have lots more to say about this trek. Enjoyed it very much. If there are others who would find this walk of interest I have more to say.

Oh. I also did a 2 day "Urban Walk" in, of all places, Bakersfield. Two great finds for me was Buck Owen's Crystal Palace with great country music and line dancing. I'm not into country music but it make for a fun evening. The other find was the Kern County Outdoor Museum having reconstructed a community of homes and business of early days and a great exhibit on more than you want to know about oil. Did you know that this area produces 10% of the USA's oil production? Oil drilling started in the 1890's and ramped up to 30% of USA production in the 1920's. 

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