365 Photo Project - Day 181

Taken: June 30, 2010, approx. 7 p.m.
Location: Los Angeles, Ca.

I have a friend in LA who isn't from here but has embraced it as few others have.  Her love of LA is contagious and true and in stark contrast to many of my LA friends who seemed to adopt the condescending view of "I live here but I don't love it here." I admit to not always understanding LA and to disliking some of its more obvious qualities, but I have always adored the city, discovering early on that I related to its rhythms, felt at home in its particular embrace. I will always love LA in all its good, bad and ugly. It will always be a big part of the home I keep in my heart.

My friend and her husband take advantage of everything LA has to offer and I love this about them. They live in an almost forgotten jewel in the middle of the city called Village Green, which is a beautiful green park-like post-war community that is an oasis in the middle of Baldwin Hills -- a place I find few people I know have heard about, even confirmed Los Angelenos. Nearby the city just finished a remarkable little park called the Baldwin Hills Overlook which is a hiking trail that goes straight up to a view that overlooks the entire LA basin, in every direction including downtown on clear days, west to the Pacific Ocean.

We went up that trail today and though we had far from a clear day -- the last of June gloom was holding the city in its bright white vice grip -- it was a spectacular view. I lugged my camera up just so I could capture it. This is a view of the LA skyline through that misty shroud of gloomy overcast skies. I love how the buildings disappear into the heavens like ghosts.

I thank my friend for turning me on to places like these. Makes me love LA even more.