What really got me was seeing the beaches out here. Of course there are beaches in LA but the beaches up and along the coast were a completely different experience. These beaches weren’t crowded or overdeveloped so you could see what a beach was actually supposed to look like. The people out here weren’t here because they wanted to work on their tan or because they had nothing better to do. They came out here because they genuinely wanted to be out here and enjoy the place for what it was. People came down to take a relaxing stroll on what was essentially their own private beach. They took their kids or their dogs out to play in the waves and you could enjoy it here in a way you couldn’t in a city where the beach would be packed to the point where you’d lose track of who you were with in a matter of moments. Here though, you could relax and just take everything in. And that certainly wasn’t something I was used to seeing. But it wasn’t just people visiting the beach down here. People lived here too. There were people with incredibly expensive homes right on the water. And then there were people who had their campers pulled up to the side of the road and were obviously living out of them. It created an odd dynamic. Same view. Same area. The only difference was the sleeping arrangement. Who was really better off
though? The people who had to deal with the upkeep of their property and the same view everyday or the people who could just get up and leave and enjoy any number of views practically any day? I guess you could make a case either way, but you have to have a certain mentality to live out of a van…or a car for that matter. The cities outside of Los Angeles were different as well but not so different that you couldn’t see the influence of LA. They still had the same attitude and vibe. People from the city obviously made their way up to these places to escape the city but they didn’t want to be too far removed from that life so it creates this weird hybrid where everyone feels like they’re escaping the city without ever really leaving it. I wondered if people truly felt like they were getting away from it all when they came out here. I had to believe they really did think they were getting away, even though that was only logistically true. But between the surrounding mountains and the small time city feel, I suppose it was easy enough to convince yourself you were somewhere else entirely. It was all an illusion though because everywhere you looked you could see the mentality and money that lined LA out here. Everything from the architecture to the layout to the way people still walked with a kick in their step screamed that this whole place was just a way for people to get away from LA for a day or two when the reality is that you weren’t getting away from anything. Evidently that illusion was enough for most people. I guess it falls into the territory of a love-hate relationship. The