Earlier in 2024, I discovered that there were cheap flights from Vancouver to Los Angeles and back that made for a perfect 24-hour visit to see my sister, who lives in Burbank. Last time we used the opportunity to drive to Palm Springs. This time we had our sights set north.
I was curious go to Ojai. My sister and my mother had visited a while ago, and it looked so lovely that I wanted to check it out. My sister, Dawn, and her trusty canine companion, Bear, picked me up at LAX and we immediately hit the road. Ojai is only about an hour and a half north of Los Angeles, but we a stop to make along the way.
Great Pumpkins
We stopped in Ventura at Great Pacific Pumpkins. A pumpkin patch run by 5th generation family farmers where you can go and buy your future jack-o-lanterns, or just wander around and take fun photos. The pumpkins are arranged in cute displays with bales of hay and seasonal decorations. It was delightful. We took a million photos and picked up a couple of small pumpkins for decoration.
(the one that looks like it B&W isn’t; it is just white pumpkins on grey stones)
Oh, hi, Ojai
We arrived in Ojai quickly. And it is charming. Ojai is a small city northwest of Los Angeles in the Ojai Valley. Population just under 10,000 people. Ojai is known for organic farming and spiritual practices and yoga and healthy living. It’s the sort of place where you would go and do a yoga retreat and live off organic vegan foods and buy expensive locally made crafts before going on a hike. I’m not into the spiritual side of things, but as a vegetarian, the healthy food side of it really appealed to me. I could imagine going there for a week of relaxation. (I’ll never do that though, as I seem allergic to relaxation, but I can imagine it.)
When we arrived, there was a farmers’ market on selling all the usual farmers’ market items. We both enjoy a small town farmers’ market. At the market, we saw Donald Glover AKA Childish Gambino, who apparently lives there part time and has a creative incubator in a citrus orchard on a farm he owns. I think Ojai has become kind of a popular place for some Los Angeles celebrities to live a quieter life. We wandered over to a vegan restaurant and had a bite to eat. We had coffee and wandered around some more. It’s a lovely town and a great day trip from Los Angeles.
I think the best thing about Ojai is Bart’s Books. I love bookstores and it is always interesting when they have done something sort of architecturally creative or thematically unusual. In this instance, Bart’s Books is unusual because it is entirely outdoors. It is behind a low wall of ivy, although there are books for sale on the outside of the fence, with a little sign that says just to leave some money if you take one. Inside, all the bookshelves are outdoors, with occasional awnings to protect you and the books from the sun. This gives you a sense of how good the weather is in Ojai. It was started in 1964 by Richard “Bart” Bartinsdale, whose collection of books was so expansive that he started selling books from outdoor bookshelves outside his home.
We browsed around and I picked up a book that I probably didn’t need, and we made our way back to Burbank. (We made a stop on the way back at the Ventura Cigar Lounge so I could pick up a few cigars.)
Evil Clowns in Burbank
Back in Burbank, it was evening, and we had another plan. As I have written about before, Burbank is home to lots of movie production studios, which means it’s home to a lot of movie people. They live in beautiful houses on perfectly manicured streets, and they go all out for the holidays. I’ve been there both at Christmas and Halloween previously and it’s incredible. At Halloween, the houses are all decorated. Some with modest conventional decorations but others are extreme. They have elaborate setups with animatronic figures, music, fog machines, and some have live actors. One even had a small ferris wheel. It’s amazing. And it is all free, although some of the bigger ones do take donations.
We didn’t stay up late enough to take in all of them, but we tried to hit some of the highlights. The best was the Burbank Clown House, which was incredibly decorated and also had some live evil clowns wandering around terrify you. Dawn and I, as lovers of horror movies and all things spooky, were in heaven.
Burbank really doesn’t get enough credit for being a fun city. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go there unless you have a reason to go there, but once you are there, there are things to do; and if you’re already in LA, at Halloween or Christmas, I think it’s worth going to Burbank to check out the decorations.
Morning on the Venice Canals
The next morning, my flight was at about 10:00am. Fortunately, both my Dawn and I are insane morning people. We got up before the sun and drove into Los Angeles, through Hollywood, and past all the landmark buildings. There wasn’t another car in sight.
Thankfully, at least one cafe was open (La La Land), and we stopped in and grabbed a coffee, before heading over to Santa Monica for another coffee (Dogtown) where one fellow was talking about skateboarding and another about rescue dogs, and then to Venice.
One of the things my sister likes to do is go paddleboarding in the Venice canals, but I had never seen them, so we parked the car and went for a walk.
The Venice Canal Historic District was built in 1905 as part of the planning for the city of Venice, as they wanted to make it feel more like the Venice of Italy. It doesn’t feel anything like the Venice of Italy, but it is splendid. The canals are entirely in a residential district and there are small footpaths on either side and then little bridges crossing. All of the houses are modest but beautiful and there are lovely plants and flowers along the way. The waters were calm at that time of the morning, and small boats and canoes were tide up along the shores. It was wonderful. So serene and beautiful; it is incredible to think that it is in Los Angeles. I loved just walking along it, but I look forward to going back one day and kayaking around the area.
And with that, it was time to go to the airport. It was almost exactly 24 hours since I arrived. As usual, when I told people I was going to Los Angeles for 24 hours I got the typical lecturing about how that isn’t enough time to go anywhere. But when I look at how much we were able to accomplish and how much fun we had in 24 hours, there’s no question that I am going to do it again.
