South Bay | Life of Wry

South Bay Day

March 21, 2025

Man, was I looking forward to a great chill day in the South Bay. And if I didn’t need to venture any further than Palos Verdes: hog heaven.

Whatta shot. Wish the resolution was better, but you get the idea.

Janet and I started the day with an Esplanade walk, and coffee at a different cafe, the Hi-Fi on Catalina. Lovely. Then ambled around the village and wandered into a boutique called Fringes, where it turns out the proprietor knows Chris (that was a fun discovery), and I chatted up an artist whose bracelet I decided I should have (one of many that were on display).

We then headed to the Plaza to meet Dave and Alicia for lunch followed by a tour of their massive home renovation project (they acquired Dave’s parents’ old house on La Selva).

The pic doesn’t do justice to what was a pretty eye-popping home.

I took Janet on a tour of PV, trying to locate some of the monster houses at the top of the hill. We returned to our respective cottages for a bit before heading out on another walk, this one down to the pier. After that we sat on one of mom’s benches — I’ll just call all the benches along the Esplanade Mom’s Benches because she sat in them all, even as she preferred the one closest to Ave I — and watch the sun setting…

We ended up at a new restaurant (this was their fifth night of operation) called Il Posto, next to Turquoise. We had a glass of wine while waiting for Chris to show up:

Dinner was great. Will def go back.

Posted by Kari
Filed in Uncategorized
Tags: Palos Verdes, redondo, South Bay

South Bay Tour Day

March 19, 2025

Part of the reason for this trip is to go to Disneyland, and part of it is to show Janet some of my old haunts. Today was a chill day in the South Bay.

We met in the alley behind both of our places at 10:00 and hiked down the Esplanade to the Riviera Village for coffee at Offset.

I’d planned a walking adventure from Torrance beach to RAT to Malaga Cove to the Plaza to our old house and back… but that was not to be, as Janet’s back was acting up, so: shopping instead, then lunch at Turquoise (had a great Kaboudeh wrap).

We each chilled for a bit in our respective cottages then took a driving tour that included my old house, Via Campesina, the Plaza, Malaga Cove, the gazebo, the Neighborhood Church, Bluff Cove, PVHS, the E-ticket portion of PV Dr. West, and then a nice walk at Pt. Vicente

From the Pt. Vicente trail:

A nice view of Catalina.

We then headed to Chris’s. Betsy showed up and then Chris took us all on a great cliff-side walk. Definitely doing that walk again. He got to show me the trail to Indicator (a surf spot) that includes a gnarly hands & knees section that he named Kari’s Corner because it’s the most “alpine” part of the trail.. which he said reminds him of me. Flattered! He’s been wanting to show me that spot for years, so I was glad to see it (though the trail was steep and slippy and I didn’t want to go all the way down to the famous corner, LOL).

My finger’s not exactly pointing to the correct spot. Continue along the trail from where Chris is, then just beyond the spot where the trail seems to vanish is a ledge.. that ledge Kari’s Corner and you have to scooch down — probably on your butt — to rejoin the trail (not visible here). It’s quite a ways yet to the beach.