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| Fiesta and Tico lounging around |
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| Standing around |
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| Watching over their balls |
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| Hanging out |
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| Looking around |
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Running around
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Park:
El Segundo Dog Park
Address: McCarthy Court and Imperial Avenue, El Segundo, CA
Directions: Take the 105 West all the way, which turns to Imperial Highway, and keep going until you hit Main Street, make a first left on Imperial AVENUE, and the dog park will be a few hundred feet to your left.
The park is a long stretch of land, about 3-4 football fields long, and about 50 feet wide. It's a large dog park, where you can be on one end of the park, and not see the other dog owners halfway across the park. It has tons of mature trees which I love, so there's tons of shades especially during those hot summer nights. It's mostly dirt, but it's clean, no mud, and acorns are on the ground. There are two entrances to the large dog park, and there's a separate small dog park area as well. There are two water fountains, and free pooper scoopers and disposable bags. Parking is free on the street, and they are aplenty.
We met with Philippe (sp?) and his two-year old female dog Fiesta. Fiesta wanted to play with Tico, and hung out with him the entire time. Their similar mannerisms are uncanny, and that made for a great photoshoot.
There's a lookout "point" along the side of Imperial Avenue on the way to the dog park, with benches for people to sit on and watch airplanes fly out of LAX a few hundred feet away. You can see the planes fly out of the park as well, but the lookout area has greater vantage view. The dog park owners are predominantly older group because of the older, poshy neighborhood of Playa Del Rey/El Segundo/Playa Vista, with a few single people tossed in the mix.
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| Best rule by far! |
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| No dog trainers! |
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| Flowers outside park |
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| Fiesta asking for her ball back |
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| Plane flying out of LAX Airport |
Afterwards, we headed back on Main Street, made a left to go to
Downtown El Segundo, which is a typical Main Street of any town in the US. It has small, local restaurants, and shopping places the caters to the locals. There's a nice Peruvian place that we may try called Playa Blanca, and an Italian deli called Rinaldi's. There's a handful of sushi places, burgers, and cafe's as well as a BBQ place and Chinese restaurant. Shops cater more to the older, affluent locals; but ther's also surfing-related stores as well because of its close proximity to
El Porto, a popular surfing spot in the border of Manhattan Beach and El Segundo. Most of the shops and restaurants are closed on Sundays, but this place can get busy during the week because of the LMU students/surfers/locals/airport employees that live in the area.
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| Plant |
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| Looks like a good local Peruvian spot |
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| View from El Porto |
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| The Strand |
On our way back home, we took the Rosecrans Boulevard back to head east, to stop by the Bed Bath and Beyond on Hindry Avenue which is closer to the 405 freeway. But one of my favorite new spots is
Plaza El Segundo, which is off of Rosecrans and Sepulveda Boulevards. This place has Pet Smart, Cost Plus, Bebe, Banana Republic, Anthropologie, BCBG and even Whole Foods. For food, there's The Counter, Tender Greens, and Marmalade to name a few. This new shopping spot will definitely skyrocket the already-expensive El Segundo neighborhood; which commands a 2/1 house for $600K.
The city of El Segundo is a small, 17K population, mostly white community just south of the LAX airport. It's not the best place to live due to the airport noise, combined with the Chevron refinery. Dockweiler Beach park, though, is great during Fourth of July BBQ weekends. But because it's in West LA, in the beach area, and is walking distance at about 10 sq miles. Most of the shops and restaurants cater to the LAX airport employees, as well as hotels and big (Boeing, etc.) companies that laced Imperial Highway, Century Boulevard, and Sepulveda Boulevard.
The city also encourages more businesses and residentials to come to their town, so they have subsidies for the noise-reductions to attract these home and business owners. So if you don't mind the noise and sometimes plant smell, and get a piece of an already-booming real estate prime spot of 10 square miles that offers prime beach and surf living and close proximity to everything, living/working in El Segundo is something to consider.
"Twins" is a 1988 old movie with Arnold Scwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. One time that B and I saw The Governator at St. Monica's Church, and B was surprised how shorter he was (he's 6'2), but he always thought The Gov was this giant guy. He and his family are really nice. One of my favorite movies of his is the Kindergarten Cop. ("It's not a tumah!", lol). But I liked the setting in that movie, which took place in
Astoria, Oregon. I thought that was a really nice anytown USA. It's kind of like El Segundo is, albeit it's an overpriced anytown USA in the middle of West LA.
