Secret Stairs #41: Pacific Palisades—Castellammare, 3.2 miles, 518 steps

When Barbara and I faced the Pacific Ocean from the corner of Sunset Boulevard and PCH at 8:30 this morning, my brain did a "Wha-huh?" The sun, which should have been rising behind us in the east, rose to my left, over the ocean. ??? We were at the part of PCH curving west to Malibu, putting the ocean south, and...never mind. It was funny in the moment. We walked up the ocean to the PCH overpass that took us high into the bluffs. The homes and views, magnificent. The day, gorgeous. The history, delicious. Second photo, the building that was once actress Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe on PCH—a real live roadhouse speakeasy in the 1930s, and also the fictional café parking lot where Philip Marlowe parked his car in Farewell My Lovely, Chapter 8, before he climbed the 280 step staircase I'm sitting on in the third pic. Most of the public staircases threading these bluffs were built circa 1927, some remain usable, others overgrown and damaged by landslides. Photo 4 is Barbara looking at a staircase to...nowhere. Photo 5, Villa de Leon, a nine bedroom, eleven bath, Italianate mansion built for a wool magnate Leon Kauffman in 1928. It's days and hikes like this one that make me feel lucky to live in SoCal. Happy New Year, everyone!