Santa Monica Canyon

Long before Santa Monica Canyon became prime real estate for successful Angelenos, it served as a serene resting place for some of the area's early and prominent landowners. In the late 1840s, Francisco Marquez, the Mexican co-holder of the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica land grant given by his government, established a burial ground on the canyon's wide-open upper mesa.

Training for stair-climbing events isn't easy without stairs, which is why people in L.A. are at a disadvantage compared with those who live in 60-story apartment buildings in Manhattan. According to Chris Solarz, who last year set a Guinness World Record with 33,000 feet of stairs climbed in 12 hours and was ranked sixth in the world in 2010, you need at least 30 continuous floors for good training. That's roughly 650 steps. You'll probably have to settle for fewer in L.A. The Aon building opens three times a week for climbers in the three months before the Fight for Air Climb in March, and the YMCA event, this year on Sept.

Gerald McCabe, a furniture designer whose passion for woodworking and love of music led to the creation of the Santa Monica folk music institution McCabe's Guitar Shop, died Sunday in Eugene, Ore., two days after suffering a heart attack. He was 82. McCabe left his namesake operation before it became celebrated for the intimate concerts that have been held there for decades, but in its earliest days the store, on Pico Boulevard a block west of its current location, played a crucial role in the evolution of the Southern California folk music community.

SOUTHWEST MUSEUM / ELDRED STAIRS You don't have to fight the crowds in Santa Monica Canyon to get a great stairway workout. You can hike the historic wooden Eldred stairs in Highland Park and get great city and mountain views in the bargain. Duration: One hour Distance: 2.6 miles Difficulty: 3 on a 1-5 scale Transportation: Gold Line, Southwest Museum Station; Metro bus No. 81 1. Start from Figueroa Street and Woodside Drive. Climb the stairs to the elevated sidewalk, and pass Casa de Adobe and some fine Craftsman homes.

"Doctor Who" producer Julie Gardner has purchased a Santa Monica Canyon-area house for $1.95 million. Photographer Charles Brittin, a documentarian known for his coverage of the avant-garde and beat scenes of Los Angeles in the 1950s and '60s, was the seller. The two-story home, built in 1978, is three blocks from the beach. It includes high ceilings, 3,500 square feet of living space, three fireplaces, four bedrooms and three bathrooms. French doors off the living and dining rooms lead to the backyard.

A blend of steel, copper and glass frames a Santa Monica Canyon contemporary built by Los Angeles architects Mark Cigolle and Kim Coleman originally as a live-work space for their young family. Constructed in 1992, the house features a top-level atelier that can be used as an office, a gym or an art gallery. A sliding glass door leads to a deck with an outdoor shower, and across to a guest suite with a bathroom. Below are family living spaces and bedrooms. The neighborhood, known as an artists' and entertainment-industry enclave, offers direct access to the beach and the canyon forests nearby.

Overgrown foliage, hidden stairways and spectacular ocean views characterize Santa Monica Canyon. Patrick's Roadhouse, with an oversized green sign at the corner of Entrada Drive and Pacific Coast Highway, marks the main entrance to this community of less than one square mile, which lies between Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades. The basics Originally known as the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, the first adobe houses were built here in the 1800s.

All that remains of Angelina Marquez Olivera's childhood in the rustic Santa Monica Canyon of 70 years ago is the fragrance of jasmine blossoms, the family's cemetery plot and the schoolhouse. And her memories. "Miss (Theresa) Slatten, the principal, gave me my first job--clapping erasers and cleaning the blackboard," said Marquez, who is the oldest living descendant of Pascual Marquez, who donated the land for Canyon Elementary School. "She gave me a shiny nickel and a kiss on the cheek.

When my wife and I bought our house in Santa Monica Canyon, we had been living apart since our marriage three years previously. It wasn't that we didn't like each other -- quite to the contrary, we enjoyed spending time with each other more than with any other person -- but the complications of changing schools and neighborhood friends for our two teenage sons from previous marriages made it easier to continue to live in our own homes.

Their family dynasty once embraced 6,656 acres and included 4 1/2 miles of some of California's most beautiful beachfront. These days, descendants of Spanish land-grant owner Francisco Marquez are down to their last 17,000 square feet deep inside Santa Monica Canyon. And as it's often been for the last 165 years, Marquez family property is again in the middle of a tug-of-war. The fight this time is not over entitlement to the sweeping mesa that forms the center of today's Pacific Palisades.

Beneath an old diving helmet straight out of Jules Verne, a couple seated at a corner of the raw bar feed each other oysters, clams, bites of lobster. They eat slowly, luxuriously, between sips of wine. He whispers in her ear. She laughs and pops a shrimp in her mouth. Behind the bar, a cook deftly shucks oysters, tucks a little more ice around a lipstick-red lobster and slides a plate of peel 'n' eat shrimp over to a guy at the other end of the bar. This is Hungry Cat Santa Monica Canyon, the third iteration of David Lentz's wildly popular Hollywood seafood restaurant (the second is in Santa Barbara)

Rating: three stars Location: 100 W. Channel Road (at Pacific Coast Highway), Santa Monica, (310) 459-3337, http://www.thehungrycat.com. Price: Seafood platters, $50 to $155; caviar, $50 to $120; appetizers, $12 to $15; salads, $10 to $13; main courses, $14 to $32; cheeses, $12 to $20; desserts, $6. Corkage fee, $15. Brunch items, $10 to $25. Details: Open for dinner 5 to 10:30 p.m. Sunday; 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday; 5...

"Doctor Who" producer Julie Gardner has purchased a Santa Monica Canyon-area house for $1.95 million. Photographer Charles Brittin, a documentarian known for his coverage of the avant-garde and beat scenes of Los Angeles in the 1950s and '60s, was the seller. The two-story home, built in 1978, is three blocks from the beach. It includes high ceilings, 3,500 square feet of living space, three fireplaces, four bedrooms and three bathrooms. French doors off the living and dining rooms lead to the backyard.

A blend of steel, copper and glass frames a Santa Monica Canyon contemporary built by Los Angeles architects Mark Cigolle and Kim Coleman originally as a live-work space for their young family. Constructed in 1992, the house features a top-level atelier that can be used as an office, a gym or an art gallery. A sliding glass door leads to a deck with an outdoor shower, and across to a guest suite with a bathroom. Below are family living spaces and bedrooms. The neighborhood, known as an artists' and entertainment-industry enclave, offers direct access to the beach and the canyon forests nearby.

Gerald McCabe, a furniture designer whose passion for woodworking and love of music led to the creation of the Santa Monica folk music institution McCabe's Guitar Shop, died Sunday in Eugene, Ore., two days after suffering a heart attack. He was 82. McCabe left his namesake operation before it became celebrated for the intimate concerts that have been held there for decades, but in its earliest days the store, on Pico Boulevard a block west of its current location, played a crucial role in the evolution of the Southern California folk music community.

Long before Santa Monica Canyon became prime real estate for successful Angelenos, it served as a serene resting place for some of the area's early and prominent landowners. In the late 1840s, Francisco Marquez, the Mexican co-holder of the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica land grant given by his government, established a burial ground on the canyon's wide-open upper mesa.

George Clifford Thomas Jr. was finished designing golf courses. He said so. No, actually, it was more emphatic than that. He swore it was so. After all, he had already designed courses from Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to California. Besides, he called such work "my hobby." Born into a wealthy Philadelphia family, Thomas had many hobbies. He was an author, golfer, an expert on deep-sea fishing and a nationally recognized authority on the care and breeding of roses.

Training for stair-climbing events isn't easy without stairs, which is why people in L.A. are at a disadvantage compared with those who live in 60-story apartment buildings in Manhattan. According to Chris Solarz, who last year set a Guinness World Record with 33,000 feet of stairs climbed in 12 hours and was ranked sixth in the world in 2010, you need at least 30 continuous floors for good training. That's roughly 650 steps. You'll probably have to settle for fewer in L.A. The Aon building opens three times a week for climbers in the three months before the Fight for Air Climb in March, and the YMCA event, this year on Sept.

Santa Monica Bay views Location: Santa Monica Canyon Size: The modern-style, high-tech house has three bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms in about 5,000 square feet. Published on: May 11 Listed then for: $5,375,000 Sold for: $4.75 million on June 30 -- John Lautner's 1949 Schaffer residence Location: Glendale Size: The house has two bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,698 square feet. Published on: May 4 Listed then for: $1,958,000 Relisted on Aug.