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| Billie Silvey |
| August 2007 |
| Malibu--The city of Malibu is a 27-mile strip of south-facing beaches along Pacific Coast Highway. Blessed with a Mediterranean climate, it is under frequent attack from fires, floods and mudslides. |
| Malibu is the beach city our family spent the most time in. While the new Pepperdine University campus was under construction there, Norvel and Helen Young lived in the Adamson family beach house, which is now a museum. Often, when they were away, we were able to spend a few days at the house, which was lavishly decorated with tiles (see faux tile rug) from Malibu Potteries. The tiles are a distinctive hybrid of Moorish and Arts and Crafts designs. The beach house was the site of some of our children’s most memorable times. |
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| Another Malibu site which figured greatly in our children’s lives was the Pepperdine campus. For many years, we’d move onto campus for five days so I could staff a booth at the Lectureship. We’d move into a dorm or apartment and share the space with Christians from all over. For a time, I taught public relations writing classes on the Malibu campus, and our daughter Kathy graduated there. |
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| We loved to visit the Getty Villa (actually located just outside Malibu in Pacific Palisades), which recently reopened after having been closed for eight years for remodeling and to settle litigation. J. Paul Getty, who conceived and financed the reconstruction of the 1st century Roman country villa, spent most of his time in England and never visited the completed project. |
| The reconstruction, by architects Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti, features Greek, Etruscan and Roman artifacts (some still in dispute) in a lavish setting of marble, terrazzo, mosaics and paintings. The villa has four gardens, the inner and outer peristyle gardens arranged around reflecting pools, an herb garden and the walled east garden with a colorful mosaic fountain. |
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| Santa Monica--As you head along the coast from Malibu toward Los Angeles, one of the first landmarks you see is the ferris wheel on the Santa Monica pier, which was built in 1909. It’s located near the Looff Hippodrome (carousel), a National Historic Landmark. Santa Monica is the largest and most urban of the beach cities. Known for its healthful lifestyle, environmental emphasis and pedestrian-friendly atmosphere, Santa Monica boasts an excellent public transportation system with its ubiquitous Big Blue Bus system. |
| Hermosa Beach--Hermosa Beach was a funky beach town until it became gentrified recently. Important sites included Either/Or Bookstore, which spilled in steps down Pier Avenue, and the 80-year-old Bijou art theater, which recently became a contemporary art gallery. Next door to the Bijou on the left was the goth store, where Robert liked to shop and his friend K.C. worked. Kathy and Robert shared an apartment in Hermosa for a time, on a street just off Pier and in walking distance of the beach. |
| Redondo Beach--Much of the action of the novel occurs in and around King Harbor, especially near the Portofino Hotel and Yacht Club. I enjoyed a pleasant day with my writing friend Melissa Moore as we scouted locations. When my animal-lover sister visited, we took her to the Portofino to see-- and hear the barks of--the colony of sea lions, as well as the pelicans which frequent the ship channel between the hotel and the breakwater. |
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| Manhattan Beach--Manhattan Village was the mall nearest our house when we lived in the South Bay. Kathy and Andy married in the garden of the lovely Belamar Hotel in Manhattan Beach. |
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| When my sister Barbara visited recently, we stopped for dinner on our way home from Getty Villa at Lobster at the entrance to the pier. It was one of the highlights of her trip. Frank met us there, taking the bus from his office in downtown Los Angeles. |
| Two blocks inland, on 2nd Street, is Tudor House, a British tearoom where I love to lunch. Santa Monica has a large population of British and Irish expatriates, as well as a number of pubs. In the shop at the entrance to the tearoom, they sell tea accessories, British groceries, baked goods and gift boxes. It’s where I bought my teapot and supplies for a tea I hosted for single women at Culver Palms just after we returned from our trip to England. One of Kathy’s friends hosted a bridal shower for her there. |
| Another block away is Third Street Promenade, the outdoor pedestrian district between Wilshire and Broadway. It boasts shops from high-end to the funky. One of the largest Farmers Markets in California is located on Arizona between 2nd and 4th Streets on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. |
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| Across 4th Street is St. Augustine’s by-the-Sea, the Episcopal Church where Frank’s chorus, the Mansfield Chamber Singers, often performs. Santa Monica High School has an excellent music program, and several of our friends have sung or played in concerts there. |
| Hermosa Beach was where I located the office of the seedy detective in my novel, The Lady and the Gumshoe, which was set in Hermosa, Redondo Beach and Catalina Island. |
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| Kathy, Andy, and Katyana now live in Redondo. Once again, she's in walking distance of the beach. In addition to visiting the kids, for the past two years, we've gone down for the fireworks display over the ocean on the 4th of July. |
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| Santa Monica Bay is the section of the Pacific Ocean that lies inside a line that stretches from Malibu to Palos Verdes Peninsula. It lies west of Los Angeles and north of Long Beach, with a series of beach cities strung, like pearls, along its coast. |
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| Memories of Beach Cities |