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<\/a>The entrance to Palisades Village at the Grand Reopening. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n
And then, just a little over a year and a half ago, in January 2025, those evil LA fires destroyed most of that entire area. As I\u2019m sure many of you know, sooooo many homes and businesses were lost\u2014it was truly a tragedy.<\/p>\n
Since I\u2019m not a creepy lookie-lou, I\u2019ve never driven down there to witness the devastation in person, despite living just about fifteen minutes away from the area. It was just too sad. (Still is.)<\/p>\n
But, not thinking about it last Friday night, I took Sunset Boulevard down to the beach, and was shocked to see tons of houses along the way being rebuilt in Pacific Palisades. I had not thought about that situation in a while. As hopeful as that sight of the building frames was, it still broke my heart.<\/p>\n
And then I ventured to that exact same area the very next day for the reopening of the beautiful Palisades Village, which looked like it hadn\u2019t been changed one iota in all this time. And that\u2019s because the owner of that outdoor mall, billionaire Rick Caruso, had hired private firefighters to protect it back then. (I\u2019m assuming they\u2019re still on speed dial.) I read that it did<\/em> have a bit of smoke damage, although I still don\u2019t understand how that warranted the over-a-hundred-million-dollar restoration! But oh well\u2014not my business.<\/p>\n The Photo Booth pic of Roz Wolf and Karen Salkin. (They had no idea they were striking the same pose!)<\/p><\/div>\n The reopening was tons of fun. And generous. It actually went from the morning until late night, but my friend was antsy to leave after a couple of hours, so I had to be satisfied with whatever we had experienced by then. I would have opted to stay much longer, and check-out absolutely everything<\/em>. It\u2019s not like I needed<\/em> anything\u2014I just didn\u2019t want to miss something. (It was way too hot for me there, even with the occasional ocean breeze, and, because of my broken back it\u2019s hard for me to wait on lines, but I would have just taken little sitting down breaks in the shade, and stayed till the end.)<\/p>\n There had to be over a thousand people there, of every age. (And that doesn\u2019t even include all the dogs!) I\u2019m sure most visitors came for the fun, some just out of curiosity, many to offer their support of the area, and some for all the free stuff. And a few, (like my pal and I,) for all of the above! (But, actually, I did not have an inkling that it would be anything like it was\u2014because of the country\u2019s current economy, I did not expect any<\/em> freebies.) So that was a delightful surprise.<\/p>\n As soon as you walked onto the premises, (after leaving the parking structure, which was also free that day,) there was a cart with complimentary little bottles of water, (which, trust me, everyone needed that day!) Then you could choose a cute little \u201cPali\u201d signature patch and have them iron them onto your items right there! (You could put one on something you already own, as I did for the matching-by-accident baseball cap I was wearing, or you could buy a bag, hat, sweatshirt, etc., and have it ironed onto that.)<\/p>\n Some of the snacks. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n At the far end of the premises were several canopied carts, each offering a different snack for no charge. There was popcorn, cotton candy, (I felt like I was back in the circus, selling the stuff,) big pretzels with a side of honey mustard, lemonade, and agua fresca. Every worker (except for one) I met at those was absolutely lovely; they all seemed very happy to hook you up. And they were even genuinely apologetic when they ran out of something!<\/p>\n On top of all the food and patches, there was one adorable craft for us to do for ourselves. They gave us little gold-toned chains, and then we each got to pick out five charms to attach to it, and then use it as a purse charm chain. The choices were initials, a sea-themed one, and a few others that pertained to the Village. There were very helpful girls assisting us along the way. My friend made hers on the spot and attached it to her purse right away. (I have fake nails at the moment, so mine is gonna have to wait a few more weeks to get made.)<\/p>\n A shirt and cap from Mother. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n And then there was Mother, a yet-to-open store at the end of the property. Guests got to spin a wheel to decide which gift they would receive. There were T-shirts, long sleeve polo shirts, baseball caps, skull caps, and what I believe was the real winner-\u2013a pickleball kit with two paddles and a few balls! That place was mobbed, but all the people who worked there were as helpful as they could be.<\/p>\n And, of course, there was an obligatory Photo Booth. They emailed you the snap, and also gave everyone in your party a paper copy, which was nice of them.<\/p>\n The only person at the entire event who was not only unpleasant, but downright nasty! Can anyone identify her? Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Speaking of niceness, there was only that one very<\/em> unpleasant worker out of the entire day! The popsicles, (doled-out from a cute popsicle truck,) had melted, so the workers were waiting for the next batch. (That last word is almost the same as what that one woman was!) People were already lined-up in the heat because a giant cooler, full of new<\/em> popsicles, had appeared. It seemed like they were just waiting to put them into the truck, and then hand them out from there. But with so many people standing in the queue, directly in the sun, I asked the girls if they could please just start giving them to us right then. But that one girl was so nasty, not just to me<\/em>, but to everyone<\/em> who also beseeched them for the treats. She just kept telling us that \u201cit will be ten more minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n We all pointed-out that she had been saying that for well over a half hour, and that the rest of the bars were going to melt if they didn’t start just giving them to us. And she very nastily refused to do it. I honestly did not need a popsicle that badly, so I just got off the line and left. (If I knew her name, I’d definitely be sharing it here. She’s in the picture on the left. If you<\/em> know her, please feel free to out her to us in the Comments section below.)<\/p>\n The band. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Back to the fun now. A group of musicians played on a little round stage in front of the Bay movie theater; they kept the joint hopping all day. And there was one really interesting thing that I would have never noticed myself, even though a friend in New York taught me years ago to always look up to discover architecture and whatever else could be above our line of sight. I had forgotten that lesson on this<\/em> day, but the pal I was with called my attention to the roof above the theater, and lo and behold, there was a security guard with a gun on his hip! I could not figure out what that was about, (except that perhaps he was guarding the popsicles across the street!)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>