HUNTINGTON BEACH
Huntington Beach is an upscale ocean side community that looks on the map as if it is part of Los Angeles but is actually 30 miles away on a five lane each way freeway. Many of the houses are huge and they all are squeezed into small lots with six foot walls in between for privacy, many with a pool.
Julie and I went out to breakfast at a Crema Cafe and Artisan Bakery and then walked out the Huntingdon Beach pier. She explained that east coast piers get washed away in hurricanes while west coast piers are better protected. The water was 65 degrees and the waves were filled with children surfing on body boards and the white sand was covered with sunbathers. There was a class in water safety for teenagers going on with one of the exercises being jumping from the 40 foot high pier into the water. It seemed awfully high up. One by one, to the encouragement of those already in the water, they would leap until one boy clinging to a lamp pole was left with the woman trainer at his side encouraging him to step out. He screwed up his face and couldn’t do it. Finally he stepped out to cheers and flew through the air into a great splash and then they all swam to shore.
After the beach we toured the Sportsheets warehouse, the business that Julie owns. What impressed me the most was the way she greeted each of the 35 workers, sometimes in English, but mostly in Spanish. It seemed to be more a family than a business.
In the evening we ate dinner beside a harbor of moored boats, a little like Greece months ago, in the west coast version of an open air Himalayan restaurant with prayer flags as a California decoration. The food was delicious and the day was great fun.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 