Hike time

I took my first hike this week (this is American speak for "going for a walk". Hike sounds more dramatic I guess). I decided it was time to get out of the gym. As much fun as it is (hmmm), I wanted to get out into the hills and mountains that surround this fine city. You don't have to leave LA County to be in beautiful countryside. Within half an hour (which included several wrong turns up some windy, windy roads) we found ourselves looking out over vast expanses of forestland.

Two things are strictly forbidden on this particular stretch of trails. One is smoking - for obvious reasons. Los Angeles gets about 10 days of rain a year (we've had three of them so far). This forest would go up like Michael Jackson's hair at a soda commercial shoot.  The other is photography. I kept asking my friend Alex why. I was like a 5 year old kid. But why... Why... why??

Later we came round a bend which opened up over a spectacular valley. Embedded in the hills were three stunning homes. Perhaps this was why - privacy. I half expected to see Lindsay Lohan throwing her clothes over her balcony and giving her best primal scream while on another balcony on another home, I'd see Julia Robert doing an elegant downward dog between hits off her bong.

My point is, these were exclusive Hollywood home. They'd paid a premium for these properties and even made an architect dig a chunk out of mountain so they could slip their home into it. The least we could do is respect the effort to achieve privacy.

The views were stunning, the few people we encountered were pleasant and despite being minutes from West Hollywood, the air was deliciously clean.

It was good to get out and above the madness for a while. I tried to take a serious picture, below is the best I could come up with... but you can still see it's a nice place.