June 23

This morning Evie and I did Walk 18 from Walking L.A. in an area of Hollywood adjacent to the Hollywood Bowl. Many of the homes in this little neighbourhood are only accessible by stairway or by this private elevator tower ("High Tower", for which the area is known).

Later, Lauren performed in two dance shows at the beautiful Pepperdine University at Malibu, a matinee and an evening performance. Josh dropped her there for the matinee, then we both went back to share a picnic dinner with her then stay for the evening show.

We deposited her back at the stage door at 6, and had a couple of hours to kill. Her five minutes of fame wasn't going to happen till after intermission, so, rather than sit through several hours of bad amateur dance by a bunch of kids we didn't know or care about, we decided to go down the hill and find somewhere to enjoy a drink and watch the ocean till then.

Ha. Not so simple on a summer Saturday night. Half of LA was trying to do the same thing. Getting served at a beachfront bar or restaurant was NOT going to happen in our time frame. We even tried Malibu Seafood but standing in line for half an hour to buy a soda wasn't very appealing. So we grabbed some water from the car, found a bench seat at a nearby trail head, and Josh read aloud to me from Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire while I did the sketch below.

How ironic. Surrounded by all the beauty of Pepperdine and Malibu, and I end up drawing a trash can.