Bad Camera Karma And A Bad Movie

     The day following our aborted mission to hike  up to the Hollywood sign  (see yesterday's post) Tom, Tommy and I  decided to take another try at scaling the Los Angeles terrain; however this time we decided to stick to our own turf on this side of The Freeway.
     I suggested we hike the hills of Rancho Palos Verdes,  a beautiful elevated coastal city about 45 minutes from Manhattan Beach with a  trail that offers breathtaking views of the Pacific.

     I didn't take the above pictures.  I didn't take any pictures that day of the panoramic vistas we saw along the Rancho Palos Verdes trail. 

    I also didn't take these photos of Hof's Hut, the cute, homey little restaurant in Torrance  where we stopped for lunch on our way home from Rancho Palos Verdes,





...and where there was a vast display case of the most beautiful, luscious-looking pies and pastries which, by the way, I totally resisted.

      I didn't take any photos of our trip that day because I left the house without my camera.  I guess, in retrospect, this almost unheard-of lapse on my part should have tipped me off that I'd stepped in   some bad camera karma, which came to full fruition when I lost  my camera on the day we left Los Angeles  (see posts from  4/7/2016 and 4/8/2016).
     But that inauspicious event was still several days away, and I was, fortunately, a weence more mindful in the interim,  

... so that I was at least able to capture some shots of lunch on Thursday at our oft-patronized eatery of choice, The Kettle in Manhattan Beach,

...where Tom had eggs, home-fries and an order of the restaurant's to-die-for jumbo blueberry muffins.

     Tommy opted for the over-stuffed chicken salad sandwich on raisin bread (which combination, he declared, worked really well),

...while I had a most juicy, rare, and delicious burger topped with bleu cheese and a superlative aioli sauce with a generous side of awesome fries.

     After lunch Tom dropped Tommy and I off at the Arclight Cinema, an upscale movie theater,

...with a pretty courtyard where one is welcome to bide  whilst waiting for their movie to start,

...and where we paid the matinee discount price of $30 for two tickets to see "10 Cloverfield Lane", which I found truly dreadful - though Tommy found it less dreadful than I did - except for the last 60 seconds, which, Tommy and I both agreed, was the best part of the movie. We likewise agreed that  if they'd started the movie with the ending and built the story from there it might have been a far better story.
      In fact, on our walk home from the theater while I snapped photos of the landscape,

....Tommy and I re-wrote the movie from the start, figuring out the changes in plot, story-line and characterization that would have greatly improved the film.
    On the other hand, "10 Cloverfield Lane"  is so bad as it is that it will probably win an academy award.