California
We’ve moved from bunk beds where I hit my head on the ceiling to one of the great hotels in the country, the Peninsula in Beverly Hills, and a garden suite, with the largest patio in the hotel. Tomorrow I actually begin work with my day for Friday Wrap, then Wednesday the RESOLVE Event, and on Thursday The Almost Free Workshop, all at the Airport Marriott. We dined at the Grill on the Alley last night, absolutely packed, and Maria and I brought down the average age quite substantially!
My “free Cadillac” which comes with the suite turns out to be an Escalade Platinum, which is only slightly smaller than the Southwest Chief. We visited my son who said, “What on earth is this?” Turns out we need it, because I’ve never seen such horrible driving. I use it like that Pershing Tank we passed somewhere in the West. We’ve passed two dozen Rolls and the same number of Bentleys thus far, with Ferraris and other exotics in the mix. Mercedes are like VWs here.
The area around Grauman’s Chinese Theater remains one of the great freak shows in the country. Impersonators and hustlers are shoulder-to-shoulder, standing on garbage cans, swinging from doorways. Tourists clog the sidewalks. Traffic crawls. The sun beats down. It makes Las Vegas seem like the court of Louis XIV at Versailles.
Countryside in New Mexico
The luggage cart taking us from the Southwest Chief in LA
The living room at the Peninsula
Part of our patio
More of the patio
Still more of the patio
And, or course, our initials on the pillows!
© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.
