Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Traffic in Los Angeles is a small price to pay


for this western view. Keep looking and you might see the ocean, glistening, seven miles away.**



Those of you who think we still have smog out here in Los Angeles need to get with the program. During the winter months especially, the air is so clear, it's nearly unbearable, and I almost had an accident last night exclaiming over the colors as I drove my kids home from school at 5:15. Their noses buried in books and iPods, they appeared oblivious to my screams of pleasure -- oh, my god, boys! Look at the colors! but then they did look and we all ooh'd and aah'd until the oranges faded to pink then purple then blue and then it was all can we get donuts after we drop Noah off? and can I have a cupcake before dinner?

**The ocean is seven miles away from where I live, but you can't really see it unless, perhaps, you were to climb up to the top of those very skinny palms. And because of traffic, those seven miles would take you more than twenty minutes to travel and maybe even more. But it's the same sky, baby.

8 comments:

  1. It's so beautiful! The sun hides behind our mountains before we can see it kiss the ground...or ocean. We have to watch the sunrise to get that view.

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  2. Just yesterday I told Noah, the things I miss most about the west are the views and the sunsets.

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  3. Family lore says that I, upon hearing parental exclamations regarding beautiful rolling hills in Norther Calif., said, "I've seen green hills before." Youth is wasted on the young. Beautiful sky shot, E.

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  4. When I first visited family in LA, in 1983, I could barely see the Hollywood sign because of all the smog. On some days it was altogether invisible, my relatives told me. When I went back in 2004, I was so impressed at how much cleaner the air had become!

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  5. Sunset at 5:15 pm, I'm jealous! It's posts like this that make me question my desire to live in a northern latitude (but it's lovely in the summer, I swear!)

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  6. You surely wouldn't trade all that for all that cold, white Swiss snow, would you? :)

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  7. On a clear day, my kids are treated to a view of the sun rising over the lake and Mount Rainier's snowy peak. Occasionally we see a bald eagle perched on the sculpture as we cross the lake, but they are so inured to it all that they only look if I point it out. It makes me happy that, occasionally, adults are given to fits of wonder more often than the young because I always thought it was the opposite.

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