The Hill Country of Los Angeles

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​The Hill Country of Los Angeles

     Before my first visit to Los Angeles after my daughter moved there, my mental image of L.A. was of a glamourous place: Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Malibu, swimming pools, movie stars, and mayhaps some fortunate Hillbillies, well known to those of us of a certain age.

      I knew that in Los Angeles there were blue skies and palm trees,

...an ocean that the Beach Boys used to sing about surfing in, 

...and traffic to beat the band.

     What I wasn't prepared for was how hilly the place is.

      Of course I’d heard of the Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills. However, I’d never thought of these places as being actual hills. But they are. Los Angeles is definitely rugged hill country, all the way down to its shoreline.

     I sometimes think about the explorers - and of hearty stock they must have been - who first discovered the South Bay area, as this section of the West Coast is known.
       Here is the street view from in front of the house where we stayed.

       And here's the view a block in the other direction.

     And I wonder, as those early adventurers trudged up one steep (as yet unpaved) incline,

...and down another,

...how they didn't just write off this land as being more trouble to get from one plateau to the next than it was worth. 

     I also wonder about the early settlers, what they saw in this mountainous, deserty area that enticed them to stay. Maybe it was the nice, dry weather. Or maybe they liked the beach. 
​      I read that once upon a time Hollywood was a small, quiet, rural town until the early 20th century when the film industry, which had been based in New York, looked west in search of a new location with good weather and cheap, plentiful land and came across obscure, hilly little Hollywood, California, where there were almost no  rainy days to sabotage a film shoot.
      And in time Hollywood grew and became part of Los Angeles and the people arrived and the hills were paved over and the movie studios and houses and buildings sprung up and highways proliferated and Los Angeles grew to what it is today.
       But beneath all the asphalt L.A. is still essentially rugged hill country whose inhabitants tend to be fit, outdoorsy types who, when they're not in their cars, take in stride walking,

...running,

...and biking up and down the hills.

      And so I guess it's no wonder if L.A. folks seem more occupied with physical fitness and healthy eating than us Midwesterners are. They have to stay in shape to tackle all those hills.