Day 2: Rest Day
Welcome
Yesterday we had a rest day in Los Angeles.
I took my rest day seriously, lying in bed until the sun was high in the sky and only rising out of choice, not due to any obligations or scheduling. In the elevator I ran into Jon and Liz who were also slowly beginning their days and making their way towards their chosen activities. Jon had several large pieces of foam tucked under his arm and he was headed to the storage unit to do further tinkering on the in-ear-monitor rig. I’m told that a large portion of this tinkering involved trying to download an application from the Apple app store that is geo-locked and therefore struggles with a New Zealand cell phone that is operating on a United States cellular network. Another much more satisfying task that was carried out by this man who loves to wield a craft knife was the creation of protective foam casings for several smaller pieces of equipment that will travel loose inside our flight cases.
The in-ear-monitor rig undergoing rigorous testing.
Liz was on her way to do bouldering. There was a bouldering gym close to the hotel and apparently it was a space for serious climbers with a serious vibe. Liz went on the elliptical first, like you are supposed to, and then climbed the rocky walls until her forearms were burning with the fire of great accomplishment and her hands carried the scuffs of hard work.
I went for a run and it was about as unsatisfying as I expected in this busy, metropolitan area of Los Angeles, the crosswalks and heavy traffic breaking up any sense of rhythm I might have enjoyed. It was still nice to explore a new part of the city, however, and I struck out east along Wilshire Boulevard until I reached MacArthur Park, stopping there to admire the trees, the lake, the paths, and the fine welcome signs erected by the city at the entrances to this recreational space.
These signs are a masterclass in typeface implementation beginning with the park’s name, MACARTHUR PARK, all caps, strong and serifed, triple or even quadruple bold, painted in a timeless white that is high contrast against the background. A fun and curly script font is used for the follow up line to give a human quality to its message, and the double spaced ellipses provide clear optimism about this place of leisure. Finally, a pleasantly geometric Sans Serif is used for the bottom line, all caps for compact readability but small and plain enough that it doesn’t steal the limelight from its two more important preceding lines. All three lines of text are floating, a natural drop shadow occurring and rotating with the passage of the sun. The board of the sign itself is textured in a hand-carved style, perhaps imitating the trunk of a palm tree or a log cabin.
My breakfast wasn’t until the early afternoon. I headed to a spot across from the hotel called EggTuck and had their Sweet Egg sandwich on a house-made ultra-premium brioche bun, fresh eggs, chives, signature egg sauce, and house sriracha aioli. On the side I had a large coffee, black, no cream and no sugar.
I enjoyed a long walk for the greater part of the afternoon and although in the scale of things I didn’t cross very much of Los Angeles I did see what I consider to be many of the great sights of the city. I walked along historic footpaths, many of which seemed to be approached their centenary if the contractor stencils are to be believed; Los Angeles is a city that knows how to make good concrete.
I saw palm trees of different varieties. There were the tall, gangly Mexican Fan Palms with their impossibly long trunks, the grand Phoenix Palms from the Canary Islands, looking like an exploding firework, and then the California Palms with their blonde beards, the only species native to southern California.
I saw the 101, the Hollywood Freeway, the finest road in the city which stretches out endlessly to the west and to the east. Westbound the traffic was free flowing and light and eastbound it was heavier, thousands of drivers enjoying their late afternoon crawl.
I saw the Sunset Auto Spa, an iconic hand car wash in Echo Park, proudly dressed in its Cyan and Oxblood colour scheme. According to Jonathan Grubb, a user on the website foursquare.com you can enjoy a $1 massage chair while you wait (as of March 28 2010). According to foursquare user Diesel Pfingsten you should bring a book as the carwash is understaffed and slow (as of January 10 2012).
I walked around Echo Park Lake where the fountain was a’spurting, the swan boats were a’pedalling, and the fisherman were a’fishing, making the most of this fine afternoon.
That evening we went out for a Korean meal with Gabe who had just flown in from Melbourne. The restaurant felt like a dive bar, wooden walls covered with carvings and scrawls, but the fare was delicious, the beer was crisp, and plates of food just kept arriving at our table before we could eat enough to clear the space for them. We were four fifths of a team and things were starting to feel good. It would be one more sleep before we would join our final member.
