A Walk I Wouldn't Necessarily Recommend

There must be some puritanical element to my DNA because every time I end up leaving my car overnight due to over consumption of alcohol, I force myself to either take the bus or walk the next morning to pick it up.

Last night I left the car near Beverly and Curson. I live on Lucile and Sunset in Silverlake.


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I decided to walk for a variety of factors: too lazy/embarrassed to ask for a ride, taking the bus would require a transfer, I had the time, nice overcast weather, and I wanted some exercise.

I began my stroll down Lucile and hit Virgil. I crossed west on Clinton over to Vermont, avoiding the Virgil underpass that doubles as a housing complex for homeless people. Went south on Vermont (unpleasant) until I hit Beverly and then walked along Beverly all the way to my car.

Along Beverly there is a pretty mucky stretch of cheapo Mexican stores and restaurants. But a lot of people are outside walking around, catching buses, buying bbq corn off street vendors, shopping. A large portion of East LA has a similar feel, where Spanish is the primary language and it bears more resemblance to a large Central American city than a North American city. But along Beverly this is a relatively short stretch that is bordered by a small Asian district, a little off shoot from Koreatown to the South east. They too were BBQing outside an Asian market, but with a much different sugary smell. I guessed it was pork, but didn't make it close enough to find out. Shortly after that, Beverly turns into a fairly nice residential area right before the big golf course hidden behind the wall.

The sidewalk literally ends on the north side of the street and I had to make a mad dash across the two-laned 45mph section. After the golf course you hit the north end of Larchmont Village, the eastern most bastion of young, upper class, Los Angeles mothers strollering and shopping and sipping Peet's. At this point I was famished and dehydrated (remember - drinking last night), so I plopped into Koo Koo Roo chicken and tried one of their meals. I was swayed by the fact they carried Pepsi (increasingly rare at chain restaurants).

By the way...a total side note...Pepsi used to own a company that owned Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Koo Koo Roo, and a series of other second tier fast food chains. Is it weird that the reason these restaurant chains exist is to sell soda pop? I suppose it's not all that different from movie theaters operating to sell popcorn, but still...

...nonetheless, I ate my Koo Koo Roo and moved on into the Orthadox Jewish neighborhood where there were also a lot of people milling about and not working as it is Saturday. The last change along Beverly before Curson is signaled by fancy furniture stores and Starbucks, but whose essence is BLD, a fancy restaurant where they could shoot a scene from Entourage...and where incidentally I had a salad last night.

Finally reached my car and in perfect LA fashion, had a parking ticket.