Sid and Kamiah Navigate LA and End Up Buying Oranges

Oesa had to go to the base today to check in. I’m almost certain that there’s a more technical, acronym-filled Air Force term for that, but I don’t remember it right now. The only acronyms I’ve got down are PCS and FBI, and only one of those actually applies to this trip.

So Oesa was gone, leaving Sid and me alone with Romeo, a map of LA—actually multiple maps of LA; this is a very large city—and several hours to fill.

Sid, the ever practical Sid, had made an appointment for the cable and Interweb man to come this afternoon. Oesa and Sid may not have furniture or soap in all of the bathrooms yet, but they can watch TV and use Skype. Well, the TV is still on the moving truck somewhere between Melbourne, FL, and San Pedro, CA, so I guess they can’t watch TV.

But the cable guy wasn’t coming until 1:00 (or 1300 hours, in military-speak—look at me trying to blend in!). At 11:00, I said, “I want to go to the Redondo Beach Farmers’ Market.”

Yesterday when we checked into TLF—hey, there’s another acronym I know!—Sid and I, between the two of us, picked up every brochure they had in the lobby. I grabbed info on studio tours we could take, the Catalina Express, where to go in Hollywood, and this one brochure called “The OC: Forever Summer.” I’m not sure, but I don’t think they’re talking about the TV show.

Sid had picked up a brochure on Redondo Beach, so really, it’s as if he led me to declaring, just two hours before the cable man was to come, that I wanted to go look through vegetable and fruit stalls. There were also supposed to be gorgeous, just-picked-this-morning flowers.

I consulted several maps, and all of them led me to the same conclusion: we could definitely make it from their house in San Pedro to the Farmers’ Market and back again before 1:00.

It was just a 30-minute drive, which I believe in LA counts as “in your neighborhood.” Along the way, Sid and I noticed that practically every mini-mall has these stores: a donut shop (not a Dunkin’ Donuts; these are all local donut shops such as Granny’s Donuts), a nail place, and a store related to pet things (grooming them, buying them, etc.). It’s possible that there’s a section of the city code that dictates these mini-mall elements; that’s how universal that store selection was.

I’ve never been to a Farmers’ Market along the beach. The Farmers’ Market in my town is held next to the train tracks, so a view like this made me feel so organic and Californian as I looked through stalls that had many vegetables I’d never even heard of. Clearly, we’re in the land of produce here.

Here are some other pictures from the Farmers’ Market, including shots of Sid picking out oranges. Vitamin C, here we come.


And yes, we made it back in time for the cable guy. We pulled into the driveway at 12:49, and shockingly, the cable guy was already there. These are the people who say, “We’ll be there sometime between 1:00 and 3:00,” and then you carefully plan your day around that window. But there he was at 12:49, ready to get Oesa and Sid connected to the real world (technically, I guess it’s connected to the virtual world).

Amazing.