We got into LA around 1, and had a nice delight when we picked up our car. Not only was it a cute little light metallic blue Mazda 3 (good for the hot sun), but it had a pretty little GPS unit in it, even though we hadn't asked for it. We were staying with my friend Monica in Manhattan Beach, and she suggested heading to her area for lunch rather than going in to LA because traffic gets really bad around LA on Fridays, so we enjoyed a great lunch at Pancho's and then walked back on The Strand, watching the surfers and checking out the nice homes. Unfortunately, the beautiful sunny weather started disappearing during our walk, and sure enough, it started raining by the time we got back to Monica's. In September. In California. The place where you can pretty much count on it never rains from May to October. There was even thunder and lightning later in the evening. By then, Monica was finished with work and errands, so we just ended up hanging out at her place for the rest of the evening, catching up since we hadn't seen each oher in about a year and a half, and then crashed pretty early since we were still on East Coast Time.
For our only full day in LA, we packed a lot in. A trip to the Farmer's Market, a great place with almost any food item you could imagine. Except produce. Highly enjoyable. It started raining later, so we headed to the LA County Museum of Art nearby, hoping to hang out there while the storm passed. Did you notice? More rain! We really enjoyed the museum - very interesting collection, but not too big so that you got to see a lot of different types of art - so it was almost a good thing that it rained since we probably wouldn't have gone there otherwise. By the time we left, it was drizzling a bit, but not pouring, so we went to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to check it out. It was beautiful, and I thought the setup was really great. There were stairs and pathways all around and on top the the building so people can really explore the structure from the outside, not just from the inside. After the concert hall came the requisite stop at Pink's. We made it back to Monica's in time to change and have a few drinks with her friends before heading out to Monica's birthday celebration at a bar near by. We just happened to be in town for it, which was nice. I even got to see a friend from Tufts who came down to celebrate.
And that was our short but sweet trip to LA. The next morning, we walked on the beach a bit while people woke up, and then hit the road after brunch.
+ See my other LA photos over at Flickr
Posted by dahl at October 2, 2007 10:34 PM