 |
| "...but they can' take away... OUR FREEDOM!" |
 |
| "My name is Patches...and I CAN see you" |
 |
| Side of park facing parking lot |
 |
| Down the road is the soccer field |
 |
| Side of park facing small dog park |
 |
| Lynn and her GR |
 |
 |
| To his left is the freeway |
 |
| Small dog park |
 |
| This pitbull is 4 months old |
Park: Griffith Dog Park
Address: North End of John Ferraro Soccer Field on North Zoo Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90189
Directions: Take the 5 Freeway North, and exit on Zoo Drive. You'll see a clear sign to make a left to the dog park, and take that road all the way past the soccer field. The dog park will be to your left.
Parking: free, about 2 dozen stalls for the dog park alone. You can also park on the side of the road, if needed.
Traffic: There's about 10+ dogs on any given moment. For about an hour and a half that we were there; cars have come and gone, but then again, we were there in the mid-morning to noon on a Saturday.
This place is tucked between the greater Los Feliz and Burbank area. It's about 1 and 1/2 acres in size, and it has a small dog park area as well as the large dog park. The small dog park area is rarely used; so you will see most of the small dogs go over to the large area to play. Bryan really enjoyed the locals here. He said for once, the locals had personality. This park, just like most any park we've seen, have had a lot of Golden Retrievers. Lynn, one of the local, has a GR that has the softest coat I've ever touched. She said she try not to bathe him as much, to make sure his coat does not lose its natural oils. We bathe Tico about once every two months or less, so his hair is a little on the bristle side; but he lives on the couch, so personal space in the house is zip, and so being non-stinky is very critical in our household.
The large dog park has ample benches and lawn chairs, and one water fountain. The 134 freeway is visible from the dog park, but the fences are pretty high, so you don't have anything to worry about. The lot is mostly dirt, and a few grass spots here and there. It rained, so you'll see a few puddles, which the locals have placed lawn chairs over so that the dogs don't play near them. When you enter the dog park, the freeway is in front of you, the small dog park is to your right, and the side of the soccer field and the road is to your left. Behind you is the parking lot, behind the parking lot is some kind of fenced industrial building.
The dogs here are fun - we have seen a min-pin who trotted around like a little reindeer, and a 4 yo little mutt that ran around jumping on everyone, and playing with just about every human and dogs in the park. Dogs of any type and size will not hesitate to jump on you, so never wear your Sunday best whenever you go to this park, or any park for that matter, anyway.
Griffith Park has ample dog parks that you and your pooch can enjoy. Griffith park itself, is about 4K acres in size, and it houses the Griffith Observatory, the LA Zoo, the Greek Theater, and the Hollywood Sign. There's also golf courses, baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts, and swimming pool. And the hiking areas in this park is unlimited. The park is open from 6am to 10pm. So if you want to enjoy a nice day out with or without your pooch, there's something for everyone in this park.
We started leaving the park once the hail started. Hail! I've never actually seen an actual hail in LA until this morning. It was brief, but it was really cool to touch a small bead of ice. We have gotten more hail later that night when we were leaving the house - - - our front porch was covered with white pellets of ice.
 |
| Goats and ducks and sheeps - oh, my! |
 |
| The band - - and the chandelier |
 |
| Organic, fresh produce, anyone? |
 |
| Behold: the gate to shoe heaven |
 |
| No dogs allowed in the farmers market |
After the park, we jumped on the 134 Freeway and stopped by Glendale to check out Americana at Brand, which is a 3yo shopping mall in Glendale. When I moved to LA, having come from a small rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I thought the Glendale Galleria was impressive. This one was pretty. It looks exactly like The Grove in Beverly Hills, because it's owned by the same company. But the shops here are nicer in my opinion, but the dining selections can be better. Some of the shops are Stuart Weitzman, Tiffany, Ed Hardy, and True Religion. Of course, there's Guess, AX, AE, B&N, and Anthropologie. There's a BevMo just outside the mall. For food, there's Deluca, Cheesecake Factory, Katsuya, and Frida, as well as some italian restaurant called Amici.
If you have kids, there's a petting zoo and a pony ride area today, and the mall itself has a permanent playground area. There's a train ride, and the shops offer family and kid-friendly activities as well.
Today, the Brand had a small farmer's market, which was eerily empty because of the rain. The selections were also bleh, but I found a produce stand that offered fresh cauliflower the size of my head for $2 a piece. I later made veggie stir-fry with it, and along with some cabbages and celery, and enjoyed it with some leftover steamed rice. My home-made sauce was a little sticky, because I've put too much cornstarch, so I'll learn to ease up on the starch the next time. Otherwise, the stir-fry was good.
In the middle of the empty farmer's market is a live band, which was placed under the residential building's driveway because of the rain. I got to enjoy their rendition of Eagle's "Love Will Keep Us Alive". The band was about the Eagle band's age range, but they can sing and play very well. This one song just stuck to me, because 1)I love the band and their songs, 2)The lyrics to this song pretty much speak to me in a personal level.
The Brand offers free 2 hour parking with validation, as well as there are street parking all around the mall for $1 and hour. The street parking takes coins and cards. We parked in the street parking because of the dog, and I took this moment to take a photo of B's shiny new decal on his car.
B is now a proud Herbalife distributor, and so far, B has lost 16 pounds in a little over a month. So far, I've really enjoyed the snack bar and the Total Control energy pill, but we both enjoyed the French Vanilla shake, which is about $34 for a bottle that last about a month per person.
Jim Cramer of Mad Money interviewed the Herbalife (HLF) CEO a few days ago because it's growing a minimum of 15% year over year in any market it has been on, mainly because of its distributors, which is any average joe with a drive to earn money on the side or full-time, and make it work for them by hiring someone else to help distribute, and so forth. HLF does not advertise, but their distributors are given the tools to advertise heavy or light, depending on their sales drive. It's like Avon, but it's health-focused, which is recession proof. The distributors have a 50% retention rate, and its profit has increased from 50%, bringing its stock price from $40 to $77 in the past year. It's a $3 billion company, with a $300 million profit. So B and I are excited with the possiblities to be a part of this company's worldwide success.
If you want to know more about its products and being a sales leader, contact us. We can't wait for the company to start making dog-related products, since they have already ventured into women's health (PMS, hot flashes), kids, personal products such as shampoo, fragrances, eye creams and body scrubs - - this company's not stopping its growth train. And we want to be on board.
No comments:
Post a Comment