(September 26 – written by Dave)

Just a quick post.  We’ve had a good couple days in Manhattan Beach.  Two days off, maybe that’s a weekend, for normal people.  For us it often means chores and planning.  Most of the chores got done but the planning, well, it never really finishes.

Baja and Mexico are only a week away and for some members of our team, it feels like we are peering over into an abyss.  In case you’ve not figured it out by now, Nancy is our planner.  She spent most of the last two days reading everything she can about Mexico, its hotels, its roads, its mobile phone network and just about everything else that you can read about before entering a new country (Senior editor’s note –perhaps this research could have been done by the junior editor in the last two years while I was working and he was not…I’m just saying…).  I was busy with chores of course, just not perhaps such forward looking ones.

We managed to get out and spend some time in the Manhattan Beach neighbourhood – we like it.  The place next to our AirB&B is on the market for a cool $3.65M (USD).  Our place is just about a tear down – probably still worth a pretty penny in land value alone.  Suffice it to say, our stays in Manhattan Beach will always be of the short-term kind.  We are not rich or beautiful enough to live on an LA Beach – c’est la vie.

While property is expensive, looking around is free.  I really fell in love with the Manhattan Beach Pier – thus the title of today’s post.  It has so many different looks depending on time of day, the light and how many people are out and about.  I snapped the few shots below – they came out ok but really, anyone could take nice pictures of such a pleasing subject.

Tomorrow we head to Dana Point and another Warmshowers host.  We are finding it hard to camp on the California coast as the parks are a bit rough and those close to towns are unfortunately taken up by the homeless folks.  Hotels and B&Bs are pretty expensive down here so we’ll be putting a few chits in our “we’ll host more people when we get home” bucket.  The Warmshowers hosts always have a way of lifting your spirits, which is what we need as we get close to the border.

We have another stop planned in Carlsbad, and then it’s on to San Diego to stay with friends of the family for a couple of days before we head east to Jamul (to our Mexico expert’s house) and then ultimately across the border at Tecate.

Morning

Mid-day

Evening

SUP

Sun going down at the pier

Dusk

With grass and volleyball courts

Ghost pier in the morning

Good-night from the Manhattan Pier