Follow My Coffee: Checking Out the Back Streets of Malibu

Our apartment is just two freeway exits from the Santa Monica Mountains. Exactly 20 minutes to the beach. Today is Memorial Day and everyone goes to the beach, even us, but we didn't mean to.
I'd had a bad headache all day but I wanted to get out of the house. The husband Googled some restaurants and cafes nearby and found one that was located in Malibu. We didn't bring our swimwear or towels. I was wearing my usual flip flops and sunglasses. (That's the beauty of Los Angeles, everyday is a flip flop kinda day.) We took the scenic route out and when we hit the Pacific Coast Highway, we turned left. Just two lights down is a street called Cross Creek Road, where we made a left. Old signs on both side of the street state that we've entered the Malibu Country Mart. Stores lined both sides of the small side street. High end boutiques mostly but mixed in was a Coffee Bean, a Chipotle, and of course a Starbucks. There was a place called the Malibu Lumber Yard. No construction workers around, it was a mini shopping center that was paneled in dark woods and had interesting aquariums in front of the stores.
We looked and looked for this cafe the husband had found but we finally sat at a bench in the Lumber Yard and Googled it one more time. Dang, it had been closed down. Maybe it once sat were the Kitson store is now. It sounded so good with its advertising of coffee and crepes. With that news, we decided to walk this wonderful little location and find somewhere else for coffee.
There was a tiny two movie theater, an old fashion country market for sandwiches, sweets, and sodas, and all kinds of upscale clothing stores. (Free parking!) Strange, living only 20 minutes away, I've never thought about shopping or dining in Malibu. Malibu is just where the closest beach is. Today, that changed. We spotted an old familiar spot to get food and coffee; Marmalade Cafe.
I decided to get just a regular old cup of coffee. It was good. It hit the spot. While we dined, my friend in Seattle sent us pictures of her day at Pikes Place and I sent her some pictures from our day. I was reading the tips on this Marmalade Cafe location and it said to look up. So I did. A random paper maché animal head looked back down at me. Weird. The food was great as always.
We decided to walk it off by crossing the street to the beach. As we walked, we got a different perspective of Malibu. We were in people's backyards. A lagoon to the left and tennis courts in front of us. It was very different from the Malibu I'm so used to. The beach itself wasn't very crowded. I'm not sure if it's because we were in a more secluded location or if it was because there were signs stating, surfers only. It also could have been because the peak of the beach day had passed. It was fun being so close to the private beaches and watching the surfers catch the just forming waves. The tide was starting to come in while we we're there so we saw some pretty good wipeouts and some small waves that we knew in about an hour would be much bigger.
In all, we were only out for probably three hours, including drive time. It was a nice detour to discover the small town feel at Malibu just because I wanted my daily cup of Joe.