A Wednesday in Santa Monica

May in Santa Monica reminds me of a decade ago, living on the westside, just out of college, living with my girlfriend and her sister, a three's company type arrangement.  Locals call this time of year the "June Gloom" because most days are covered in a thick coastal fog with light winds that make this season some of the worst weather of the year. 

I'm down here this week for work, staying at a quasi chic hotel, the Huntley, just off 3rd street promenade.  I love LA for being itself, plenty of gorgeous people who partly are so because they care so much to be so.  The farmer's market on Wednesday's & Saturday's, all the people living the California dream.  I always wonder how many of these people are actually from California?  When I was living down here, I couldn't remember meeting anybody who was truly from the west coast - come to think of it the same is true for Northern California, I'm usually the only one in any business meeting who grew up on the 'Left Coast'. 

I had a big break between a morning meeting and this evening's dinner, so I took the opportunity to take a run along ocean avenue in Santa Monica.  I ran up to the Palisades and back down past Santa Monica Ave.  It's a beautiful place, I think I love it more on a 'June Gloom' day than in the heart of the summer or winter, there is something soothing about the Pacific...I only wish the development had been better managed so it doesn't feel like an urban sprawl and instead LA was a more traditional city with a dense downtown, constrained suburbs and large protected areas for the millions of people to enjoy the natural habitat (and protect development against the looming coastal erosion that takes place a little bit each and every year). 

I'm not one of those Northern Californians who say SoCal sucks, no, I have a deep appreciation for LA and have come to keep a deep reservoir of memories for my time here.  What I love about California is its diversity, in people, opportunities, geology, towns, cosmetic surgery preferences and politics.  This is a state that would be the 6th largest economy, and presumably country, in the world if it were on its own.  It offers everything you'd want in the world, I just feel fortunate to call this home and to have a family that more than six generations ago wisely setup shop in California and never left.