For a proper A-Z city walk, you need a city that’s got a heart, and a history. You want that walkable core where the character has had a chance to manifest itself over decades. Not all of Orange County’s major cities lend themselves to this – they trend towards these disparate consumerist sprawls; dense but homogenized, connected by wide streets, giant parking lots, and rarely-used sidewalks.
But there are a few exceptions, and the first I thought to try was Laguna Beach. This little community of less than 10 square miles and 25,000 souls is a unique blend of posh and personality. Resorts line the cliffs over the sparkling beach, and you can do some of the most expensive patio dining in the county if you choose. But there are also charming single-owner storefronts catering to tastes of the most peculiar specificity, and the town’s historic affection for painters, who helped put the area on the map in the 1920’s, is visible in every direction. Dozens of galleries line Pacific Coast Highway – one has Dali on its walls, while another might have an ocean sunset that was painted last month less than a half-mile away. It’s not as immediate as posting a cell phone picture to Facebook, but something about it feels richer, more intimate.
The hand-made air comes through strongly in this A-Z walk, for which I bent a few rules. Normally I try to avoid taking more than one letter of the same style from the same location, but I wanted to be expedient – it was my first of these walks with company. My platonic brain-mate Lily, a recent transplant to Laguna (and so happily right a resident you’d think they were made for each other), not only acted as tour guide, but helped me keep track of what letters I still needed. The experience worked just as well with good company.
From The Cottage, a landmark local restaurant.
Since my habit is to try my best to isolate the letter from any other letters, we’ll just have to guess who J hearts.
Lily insisted on picking the “L”. How could a gentleman not oblige?
The first of three letters I took from this lovingly-designed deck rail at the end of a greenery-lined path you might miss if you walk by too quickly. This little bit of beauty was a reward for choosing to pursue a tangent.
I like to think that if I was here at sunset, this would glow.
Another cheat – this “O” was right next to the best “T” I got on the walk; but at least their lettering style is distinct from each other.
The brick wall along the path to that deck rail had a few of these amazing old stamped bricks mixed in.
The artist Wyland, famous for his “whaling wall” marine life murals, is a fixture in Laguna, with his own gallery, and his distinctive “W” seemed like it had to be the one for this series.
The last picture of the day, appropriately – from a deli that opened just two weeks ago within pajamas-and-slippers distance of Lily’s apartment. Now she’s discovered a new place for nourishment during study breaks. See what a little active looking can do for you?