Secret Walks #34, Beach & Bluffs Walk, 3 miles.

Barbara and I hopped down to the ocean for a leisurely hike through Santa Monica's Palisades Park, a 1-1/2 mile stretch along Ocean Avenue from Montana to Colorado Streets. According to legend, in 1892 SM founders Colonel Robert S. Baker, his wife Arcadia, and Senator John P. Jones gifted the park land to the city. Easy decision—the precarious landscape and bluffs overlooking the ocean are prone to erosion and unfit for building. No matter. The park's scenery, view, and even the dog-walkers and joggers are well-kept and gorgeous. Strolling the path along Ocean Ave., we passed 19th century Victorians tucked between modern buildings, got our first view of the reconstructed California Incline, and passed the sleek, streamline moderne Shangri La Hotel, hip in 1939, still the cool kid on the block today. South of Santa Monica Blvd. at 1415 Ocean we saw the Georgian Hotel built in 1931 and home to one of LA's first speakeasies. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, among others, rendezvoused there, and rumor has it houses a ghost or two. At the south end of the park, a set of brick stairs took us down to a bridge across PCH for a stroll on the ocean bike path north to the Jonathan Club and a stairway back up to our starting point. A beautiful walk everybunny enjoyed.