Sunday 30th July: The end of my drive down Highway 1 and the start of "concrete freewayville"

Hideaway Cafe - looking towards Zuma Beach
Pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
10" x 8"

Mel Gibson got caught speeding on Highway 1 in Malibu on 28th July and was arrested for drink-driving. I came through on the 30th July with no such excitement but there again I was observing the speed limit and it was daylight.......... I even had sun for the first time in what seemed like a long time!

By now I was really tired from all the driving and just wanted to get back to San Diego. Unfortunately, first of all I had to negotiate the mammoth concrete freeways of Los Angeles which was not something I was looking forward to!

I prepared for the onslaught by stopping at the Hideaway Cafe in Malibu for brunch. For such an out of the way place (it was up a very steep drive) I was really disappointed that there were not more stars to collect autographs from ;) and was about to sniff with disappointment when the couple next door sent a small child off to collect an autograph. I know not who it was from or indeed whether it was for the child or the Dad - but I suspected the latter!

I sat on the outside deck and first of all sat one side of the table and drew the scene out to sea and then swopped around and drew the view inland. I can't look at these sketches without hearing the sound of Harley Davidsons which would periodically roar down the highway - indeed the first sketch records that I eat Eggs Benedict to the sound of Harleys - par for the course on Sunday morning I guess!

Hideaway Cafe - looking inland
Pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
10" x 8"

Malibu was really weird. There were no real stopping places and the houses were jammed up together right at the ocean's edge - it was basically just one long strip. I kept wondering what would happen if they had a really high tide. But there again, I was passing through a state where many people live on or near a place where two major tectonic plates collide so I guess my overall conclusion was that Californians have a built-in aversion to worrying about where they live.

I then proceeded to drive very many miles on concrete freeway (with all the associated noise) and hated every minute - especially the bit where they created a diversion that didn't have very good signposting and I had to navigate and keep up with the traffic with a map on my lap..........

And so I arrived back in San Diego - to the news that the weather had not picked up at all and that Louise and her dearly beloved had been under cloud all week!

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