Los Angeles, Baby!

We're in Los Angeles, safe and sound.  It's only 9:30 but everyone's crashed due to the time difference.  From the time we left my Mom's house this morning to arrival at our hotel, almost 13 hours had passed.  And everything went without a hitch.

First impressions of Los Angeles:

1.  It's a cliche, but the weather was actually 72 and sunny.  No joke. Steve Martin is a genius. 

2.  Traffic, traffic, traffic.  Holy cow.  It's wall to wall and the highways stretch on forever.  Witnessed a fenderbender within 45 minutes on  the road.  The exception to the madness was the occasional HOV lane which soared gracefully into the sky, a lonely, angelic, literal skyway for weary travelers.  Unfortunately, we missed every one until it was too late to get on.

3  Every single episode of 24 was totally full of crap.  If that show were realistic, the world would have ended during the first season while Jack was stuck on the 5 North.

We're staying at the lovely Miyako Hotel, a Japanese owned establishment in Little Tokyo, with a very Japanese clientele.  It's comfortable and I love the decor.  We'll be in good shape here for the next three days.

Finally, for dinner we ate at the restaurant of the guy who supposedly INVENTED the California Roll.  The restaurant was Oomasa and it was good.  We didn't get anything off the wall, just standard stuff because we wanted to see how it compared.  It compared very well.

So, off to bed.  Tomorrow it's Hollywood and Rent, directed by Neil Patrick Harris and starring Wayne Brady, at the Hollywood Bowl.