Weekend in LA LA Land.

It's been a few weeks, but I wanted to share some time that Mom and I spent together in LA when I was down there for some work.

First off, LAX, is a chaotic airport to pick folks up from or drop them off too. It's built in a big U shape with each of the 8 terminals creating its own traffic jam. Anyway, I did find Mom and we got back to Torrance OK. Had a nice little dinner at a place called Norm's and got back to the hotel.

Friday, Mom declined (understatement) to have the car and explore on her own. I can't blame her, the SOutern California freeways can be terrifying. So many, so many lane changes just to get where you are going. I understood.

Friday after work, I had tickets to a play penned by Ken Levine, the TV writer and Baseball announcer.  So off to the Hollywood area we went. The GPS recommended we get off the freeway and use surface streets. Ok, it turned out that we weren't the only people doing that, but we had time, and we saw some of the supporting companies that provide Hollywood props, and also some small studios. We found the little (hole in the wall) theater, but it was way too early, so off to hunt some dinner we go.

Finding a place to eat, in an area already way too full of cars, and pedestrians was a challenge. We kept seeing places but there was no chance to park. Other times we wondered if people actually ate as there were no restaurants at all. We finally found a little hamburger place called Tommy's. I had some trouble understanding the protocol of ordering burgers there, so we got a much plainer dinner then I would have wanted (had I understood the lady), but that filled us up.

Back to the theater. Still early, but there is a small coffee cafe linked to the theater. We got out 2 coffees and had a quite time to chat and people watch. Before the theater crowds arrived, we saw (what we learned later was) the Stage manager of our play, as well as the lead and only actress. I suspected she was the actress as she arrived with these huge hair rollers that I hadn't seen the like off since I was living at home and going to Junior High School.

The play it self was a comedy. The theater was fairly small, 30-40 folks maybe. I spoke to Ken before the show for a few moments, that was nice. There was at least 1 World Series baseball player there, as Mom spied his diamond series ring. Not sure who it was but that was the kind of crowd we had.

Saturday, we again ventured out, not knowing that there would be a bit of a Chicken Farm experience. Started off well with a trip to a lighthouse and park on the Pacific. Very nice views from a high bluff over the rocky beach. We were very lucky that once a month they open the actual lighthouse property for a day and we were there on that day. They had a little museum with a lot of lighthouse type artifacts.

Leaving we drove down the coast on a road that they warned had significant earth movement. It was very rolly poly with big pipes next to the pavement to somehow keep the road from sliding into the pacific. Some very posh places along that stretch of California.

We set as out next target the museum in downtown LA where one of the space shuttles ended up after they were early retired from actual use. The GPS took us just fine to that part of the city. What we didn't know, but soon discovered was that the museum was next to the USC campus, and we got there about 2 hours before a USC football game at the Coliseum. There were a LOT of USC fans walking and looking for places to park. One such place were lots close to the museum charging $60 to park. Well, we decided that the museum wasn't workable that day.

Where to go? Oh I thought, lets get out of downtown LA and run up to Pasadena and visit the NASA JPL visitors center. Do some checking out of Mars rovers, and other deep space missions. Trust GPS led us up no more than 6 different freeways and up the access road to JPL we went. Stopped at the entrance were the somewhat sad guard told up that the visitors center was not open on weekends. What? Really? Strike two.

Pasadena, lets go peek at the Rose Bowl. Down the little roads over the hills and we found ourselves close to the Rose Bowl. Uh Oh, UCLA plays there and today was home game for them too. One little luck was that it was an evening game, but all of the access was already closed off. Maybe another strike, but I count it as fouled off. Now hungry, we had the GPS lead us to nearby restaurants. Well that led us to some residential areas, very nice neighborhoods, but not much chance for lunch. We did pass a huge property, with immaculate grounds that we read was the Tournament of Roses Committee house. They work in style.

On to downtown Pasadena were we actually did find lunch. Mom found some places to take pictures of Hotel that looked like a set for Zombie movies. Yes, we got safely back to our hotel, got Mom back to LAX. It was the next day that the Oil Refinery went insane.

I'll classify this weekend as a Corcoran Great American Adventure Agree?