The trick is to forget L.A. unless you have a specific destination like L.A. Live or Disney Concert Hall in mind. From LAX, the South Bay beaches beckon, and they deliver the full blown dream without as much of a transportation challenge. You can also head east of Los Angeles and discover entirely different worlds.
We left our Redondo Beach home on Sunday morning to meet our son Jay at Mount Baldy, a ski area less than two hours from the beach. We actually bought the vouchers for a combination lift ride up the mountain with breakfast back in July, just before we unexpectedly sold our house and sent our schedules spinning temporarily out of control. We planned to use the vouchers a few times, but moving related items, other plans or forecasts of blazing weather for hiking deterred us. The next thing we knew, we arrived at Jay's birthday in late October and decided to celebrate on the mountain.
Mt. Baldy is closer to the freeway than other So Cal ski areas, but the snow is uneven at best. When it is good, Mt. Baldy has some of the best skiing in the area, according to my brother-in-law Brooks who grew up in nearby Pasadena. We were not coming to ski, but to hike. By taking the ski lift up the mountain, we could enjoy breakfast with a panoramic view at the top, followed by a scenic hike down.
A sign just before the parking lot proclaiming that the road ends in 400 feet could easily have discouraged us from following through to reach the ski area, especially because there is a lower parking lot that had lots of cars parked there, but fortunately we proceeded past that sign to the correct embarkation point.
I haven't been to Mt. Baldy in about thirty years. Brooks and my sister Darlene took me there for a fun day of skiing when I was going through my divorce from my first wife. I don't rememer the area looking bad, although of course snow can make everything look more magical, but I doubt that any renovations have taken place since then, and it looks rundown to say the least. The greeting Hut is a haphazardly stocked trailer with two blue outhouses nearby. The chair lift up was on the chilly side, especially because I wore shorts. I realized how spoiled we have become by gorgeous Big Sky, Montana, and chairlifts with bubbles to keep us warm. The restaurant, which had signs ironically calling it the Mt. Baldy Yacht Club in its bar, was a rather typical ski area buffet, albeit on the small and rundown side. The outdoor tables were rough rather than rustic, but the eggs, bacon and orange juice were good even if the hash browns and sausage were not. The coffee pots seemed to be in a constant state of empty or brewing. I'd objectively call it an uneven experience, but subjectively we enjoyed breakfast. I heard the pancakes were very good.
On this particular day, we dined above the clouds. The clouds obstructed the views but delivered a unique beauty. Hiking down, we never completely escaped the cloud cover, but it was pleasant. We did take the wrong fork in the road at one point, forcing us to backtrack up the hill to where we missed our turn, but that's the nature of excercise in nature.
If you're going on a cruise to Hawaii, the West Coast or the Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles this winter, perhaps you'll want to add a little mountain viewing or even skiing before or after your ocean voyage. Better service leads to better trips.
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