Roadtripping With Gina
Pacific Palisades
The Pacific Palisades, In My Opinion
Just look at those beach houses! To be that close to the Pacific Ocean, you’ve gotta have serious money, even for a beachfront shack. That’s a billion-dollar view if ever there was one. But being able to walk out the back door onto the beach is worth every penny. There’s fully 3,000 miles of cheaper and prettier beachfront property in the United States. You could have the same beach house on the gorgeous beaches of South Carolina. But you wouldn’t be in Los Angeles. You’d be in South Carolina, surrounded by neighbors who actually think Lindsey Graham is a good senator. So it’s not about having a house on the beach. This is about having a house on that beach, in the Palisades…in California, where the beach meets the mountains.
Exploring The Pacific Palisades
I’ve been hearing about the Palisades ever since I was a kid, watching Gidget and Moondoggie frolic at beach parties in those retarded 60’s surfer movies (that I truly loved and never missed). But I never really paid attention to the Palisades themselves…mostly because I never knew what a “palisade” was. The term comes from ancient times. A palisade, also known as a “stakewall” or “paling”, is a fence or defensive wall made out of iron or wooden stakes, or even tree trunks. It was used as a defensive structure or enclosure, usually to form a stockade. Which tells you everything you need to know about the Pacific Palisades. There’s a defensive wall made out of hard cold cash surrounding the neighborhood, that forms a stockade that protects rich folks from the Great Unwashed hoards of broke-ass looky-loos like me. It’s their own little private fiefdom, where they surround themselves with the best stores, the finest restaurants, and with other rich people who have as much (or even more) money than they do. The number one form of recreation for Palisades denizens is either buying, selling, or building the most beautiful estate in the neighborhood…and if possible, paying more for yours than your neighbors ever hope to afford, establishing yourself as one of the “have mores” in the nice, neat pecking order of self importance. It’s not the wealthiest city in California, or even Los Angeles. San Francisco is the richest city in Cali. Even so, you know you have truly “arrived” when you have a Palisades address.
Walk The Neighborhood
Move the mouse on top of the little gold man on the map. Hold down the left mouse button and you’ll see blue lines appear. Those lines are streets. Drag and drop the little man on top of the street you want and let go of the mouse button. The picture on the right will change to show you a view of that street along with the street name. Click the arrows on the street to “walk” around. Or you can double-click the street to walk if there’s an arrow under your cursor. Roll the middle mouse button to zoom in and out. That’s all there is to it. Now get out there and explore!