Treading Happily Along

Sometimes you have good days, EVEN during a midlife crisis. Amazing isn't it?
Yesterday I got an email from Yelp giving me tips of good outdoor places to walk in Los Angeles. In the spirit of trying new things and in an attempt to put myself before cleaning the house, after I dropped off the kids I went straight to a little known place called the Baldwin Hills Outlook for a walk up some stairs. Now those were some serious stairs.  It was a climb of 715 feet up 281 stairs, which I amazingly enough didn't count as I went up which is curious as I have a pension for counting things- like when I slice something I count as I slice, or on small flights of stairs I will count as I climb- I sometimes even count when I brush my teeth- which in and of itself sounds psycho because it actually serves no purpose other then to busy my mind.  What made these stairs even more incredible was the size of the riser on each one- some of them had to be up to 16" high-
Serious workout.
I am really out of shape so this was sort of a funny thing for me to do.  I am always up for a challenge, however, and happily began my hike to get to the stairs themselves.  I was going at a decent clip up the mountainside thinking to myself- "So easy! I am in better shape then I ever imagined!"  About a minute and a half later I am struggling to breathe and I haven't even gotten to the steps which are about 5 minutes up the steep path.. When I get to the steps I look up. Seriously it was a real look UP. I have never seen anything like it. This place has been dubbed the great wall of Culver City. These stairs are literally built into the mountain side and go at a strikingly vertical angle.  As far as building codes go these are NOT to code. They were definitely not at one foot per 12 feet incline. These stairs are some serious shit.  It isn't Wudung Mountain in China, but I felt that there must be some sort of enlightenment at the top and this was about as close as I was going to get to it. How cool would it be to really go there?

It was a beautiful day and the wild flowers are JUST starting to show their little happy faces.  The hillside, or should I say mountainside, was covered in Euphorbia. You hear about native plants but sometimes it just seems like the only place to get these so called "natives" is at a nursery.  Here the $8 a pot plants were growing EVERYWHERE. It took all my self control to not pick a few little ones to bring home with me.  I kept thinking "just one or two...no one would even notice" but if everyone did it then....well there would be no flowers there.But damn they'd look good in my garden.
I managed to wheeze myself to the top with a couple of breaks.  At the top there is a 360 degree view of pretty much everything- the ocean, downtown, the Hollywood sign.  It made me realize how big and small LA is. Standing up there at the top I put my arms in the air and embraced the world. All I needed was "Eye of the Tiger" streaming from some mystery place up there.  Yeah, I was the crazy lady standing up on the top of the mountain pretending to be at the top of the world- I might have looked a little more normal had I made an attempt to tame my hair which was particularly curly and out of control- nothing like impending rain to make the locks loco.  But I was happy so who the fuck cares right?
The idea of stomping my way down the stairs made my spine hurt just thinking about it. Going up a 10-16" riser is a helluva lot different then going down it. I opted for the mile hike down a steep and winding trail.
Another thing I loved about these stairs was that it was populated with real people. I was so thrilled to not be doing stairs with Barbie and her best friends Porsche and Madison. The famous Fourth street stairs of Santa Monica is definitely not where a frumpy mom going through a midlife crisis wants to hang out. I was very happy here with the real folks and I did feel a little enlightened, I guess...or just really winded.  I am excited to go back and see what flowers will bloom in the coming months. A really nice time to be there.

On this hikey walky exercise jaunt, I managed to earn some "weight watcher points"(6) and I was delighted to spend them on a yogurt/granola parfait at a little french cafe that I passed on my way to the stairs.  With a name like L'Epicerie how could I NOT go in and check it out? This place was my second great find of the day. It was also a market and sold french cheeses, bread, misc. food items and wine which was oddly, mostly domestic. I was excited to see that I could buy my daughter a $14 canister of Banania, her favorite beverage that has the most politically incorrect container ever.  $14 is a little steep for chocolate milk but if I can spend the same on a bottle of wine then I should be able to spend it on her drink of choice. Gotta be fair.

So a great morning it was.  I am actually going to make an attempt to do these stairs again on Saturday morning early early before my Weight Watchers weigh in. Lets see how sore I am tomorrow! eeks. Midlife crisis can be a good thing. Today was good. I took care of myself.