My Favorite Weekend: Kevin Nealon

Kevin Nealon has come a long way from his “Saturday Night Live” days. For one thing, he’s swapped coasts and now resides in the South Bay with wife Susan and young son Gable. But his career’s hotter than ever, with the hit Showtime series “Weeds” as well as his Nick at Nite animated show “Glenn Martin, DDS,” which just began its second season. His weekends are on the kooky side, but there are some tasty finds too.

4-day weekend

My weekends really start on Thursdays, just because it seemed like a good idea back when I was more of a drinker. I don’t really drink anymore, but I still keep the Thursday start date. I’ll begin my weekend with some exercise by running the escalators at Manhattan Village. If you take the escalator up and then run down, you get in a lot more running. Then I’ll come home and clear out space on my DVR so I can record more shows that I’ll never watch. I call it my catch-and-release program.

Hitting the high points

On a Friday night, we’ll drive up to the Griffith Observatory and watch the smog settle. Then we might go for dinner at the Spot in Hermosa Beach, which is very earthy, very organic. I like the Dear George entree, which is fresh vegetables on rice, but it’s the sauce that makes it special. They also do great vegetarian spa tacos.

Then there’s Mama D’s, which is a nice, family-style Italian restaurant. We also like Old Venice, and then Petros for some good Greek food. And the Tin Roof Bistro is a really cool place, and you can even play bocce ball there, too, while you’re waiting for a table.

Check this place out

On Saturday morning, there’s this quaint little coffee shop that we love called Starbucks, and they let you stay as long as you want. I never really remember where it is, but then I always seem to stumble upon it. Then I’ll put my surfboard on top of my car and head to the beach, where I’ll just stand by my car so people will think I’m a surfer. We’ll round off the day by hitting Costco about 6 p.m. when they have the most free samples.

Urban trekking

My family likes to go hiking, but what it really amounts to is going from open house to open house on a Sunday afternoon. We used to do it just as a fun thing, but now we’re actually looking for a house, so our hiking has gotten much faster. It’s also fun to start bidding wars, especially if you’re not interested in the house.

Then later I’ll go polish my star on the Walk of Fame. Or I would if I had one. They’d tell you if they gave you a star, right?

mark.sachs@latimes.com