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I’ve tried a new trail! I want to get as many hikes done as possible to discover and get to know Palos Verdes and all it has to offer. I plan to do hikes with the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy in the future. They do a group hike about once a month. www.PVPLC.org . Today I went with a friend to the Trump Golf Course trails. It’s a pretty gorgeous trail overlooking Catalina island, but then again, it’s hard to find something not beautiful around here. Seems like I’m always talking about the views of Catalina island, but in PV you can really see the island from most ocean views, but this view was different, it felt closer to the island. I’m a bit obsessed with the island and dying to go visit it. At the moment they are doing a promotion that one can take the Catalina Express for free on your birthday. Unfortunately the promotion ends in April and my husband and I have our birthdays in May and my son in August.
Our hike was stunning. We hiked the trails for about 90 minutes. It was a definite alternative to my usual manicured trail of the Terranea Resort and Interpretive center, near the Golden Cove, Starbucks. It was gorgeous and wild. We stopped a few times to look through my new binoculars. I spied two kayaks, a finishing boat and a container ship but no whales today. We were amazed at the beauty that was around us, yet we still talked of the East Coast longing for the snow and hot cocoa after a big day of sledding. I guess the Christmas holidays approaching, we were feeling a bit nostalgic.
When we finished our hike we went back to the car. That is when we noticed there was an open house at the Trump Condos. To live there would be spectacular, or so we thought. We got to the main lobby. It smelled of rug freshener, an assisted living vibe lingered in the hall. We continued down to find this condo. It wasn’t easy to find. The place was eerily quiet, almost dead. We got to an open door where a real estate agent was waiting, with a box of disgusting Costco cookies to offer us. She seemed a bit surprised to see us especially with my friend’s baby in tow. She was waiting for brokers, not just passerby. We had an awkward introduction. I blurted out, “Hello we are new to the area, separate families, though.” She looked at me in an odd way. I think the fact that the fish dude from a few months ago thought that my friend and I were a lesbian couple, I was a bit sensitive to that, making it apparent that we had husbands and her 8 month old son, attached to her, via baby bjourn, was hers. We enter this tiny condo. The strongest smell of disgusting perfume just weighs heavy. I am not usually bothered by it, but it’s just unbearable. We are then greeted by two of the ugliest and fattest cats ever. I am a cat lover and have one of my own. But let’s be honest here, they were ugly almost as ugly as the condo and it’s decor. It was as if someone tried to make it as tacky and kitch as possible. So we continue to look, the condo is a 3-bedroom, 1,500 square feet. It looked like it was about 500 sq feet, to me. I don’t know if it was for the gaudy, tacky decorator that vomited knickknacks all over the place with its’ oversized floral furniture that made the place look small and awful. Granted a condo is not usually a massive place nor is it commonly hip, but this one was depressing. Mainly the price was depressing. For 750 grand this is the little piece of garbage you could get.
I have been watching a lot of HDTV with house hunters, so I know there are atrocities out there, no mater where you live. But this was seriously tragic. Even with the place empty the lingering smell of putrid vomit/cat/ elevator trap scent just would be ingrained in the cheap fibers of the “oh so popular” tan wall to wall carpet. My vision of a dream condo with a gorgeous view got squashed. The biggest disappointment was the 750,000 cost along with a thank you very much for cleaning the pool fee and spraying that lovely fresh spring linens scent on the rugs fee for 538 dollars a month. Not good. So with that we thanked her and quickly ran out of there quickly after signing our names and numbers. That was an unfortunate mistake because this real estate woman continued to call me, I mean constantly until I told her I just signed a year lease in our fabulous Villa Apartment.
Unfortunately, the scent followed me. It just stayed with me until we went to a Thai restaurant. Swan Thai. One of the best views in PV. It’s next to a Starbucks and a Subway. If only I liked Subway, but that is yet another bad “scent” the bread just smells like day old food coming out on an international flight’s food cart. Just as they open the tray the smells waft and the loud-speaker would say we are about to land in food hell. Enjoy the smell for the next few hours. Anyway, thankfully for our lunch. The Green curry dish that I got and the red curry dish that my friend got was delicious. They were pretty much the same in flavor, the only big difference was that one was green and one red. I supposed we were getting into the Christmas spirit.
Yet again our discussion leaned towards the differences between the East Coast and West Coast. A condo like that, as run down, dated and small as it was, minus the location would have only been about 50 grand on the East Coast. So we just decided that living at the Villas wasn’t so bad. We have a big apartment. A gorgeous view from my balcony of my favorite, Catalina Island, tennis courts, access to the trails and little beach of the Terranea resort… oh and a pool and gym. What more can you ask for?
Related articles
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- Whale Watching (lifeinpv.wordpress.com)
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