I found myself with a three day weekend and decided to drive down the 1 to visit my good friend Jon in LA.

Day one was all driving and beautiful weather. The scenic route was a nine hour drive, but took me down the tangled highway through blue skies, small patches of fog and low clouds along the coast. It was about 11 p.m. when I arrived and met up with Jon who had just gotten out of class.

The next day we went to Santa Monica then went wandering around downtown. One thing I never did while I lived down there was hike to the Hollywood sign, so after dinner at Outback, that’s what we set out to do. After trying to hike up from Mulholland Drive unsuccessfully, we slipped up to Griffith Observatory as it was closing and parked while everyone drove away. We started the hike, but after attempting to cut off a switchback up a hill with a shortcut that was steeper than it looked, we decided to try it another night and head back. Not forty-five seconds after getting into my car and turning around, a tow truck came barreling up the road looking for stragglers like us. Mine was the only car left up there, and we were one rest break away from being towed and having to figure out another way to go home.

Fortunately, we were not towed, and were able to make out way to Diddy Reise, and I drove up the 5 to make my  way home the next day.