18 Sept 2014
“I know we have the whole trip ahead of us, but I don’t want to leave!” I felt like stamping my foot, I loved the Parker Palm Springs so much.

“I can’t imagine any other hotel will be as good as this one- have we peaked too soon?” I couldn’t shake feeling a little sad. We definitely want to come back to Palm Springs – in winter. 
“Every time I come to LA to see Sonya, I want to come here.” 

Dave had found an interesting mid-century design store that we planned to stop by before driving to Los Angeles. 
“Which one is it?” I asked squinting into the sun on the baking footpath of the main strip. 
“That one with the For Lease sign in the window” scoffed Dave. 
The place was completely empty. Ah well, let’s hit the road!

I imagined driving into LA to be much more complicated than it actually was. It was quite straightforward; I mean I had to drive consciously to stay on the right side and to remember to check my right hand side blind spot. But I enjoyed the drive. Dave was a great co-pilot, in charge of navigation and keeping me company. He was taken by the overpasses and took some interesting shots along the way:  

The road to LA

We’re staying in The London Hotel in West Hollywood, the room is huge and we love the view. After a few minutes of settling into the room, David noticed a plume of smoke billowing out of an apartment block in the hills next to us. We watched as fire trucks and police cars streamed into the street, and a police helicopter circling overhead provided amplified instructions from above. There must have been nine or ten fire trucks come and go. Sunset Boulevard and the surrounding streets were shut down which caused traffic mayhem as we discovered later when returning the car. 

The view from our room

Our room 828

The London, lobby

The London, lift lobby

A fire in the hills

Police chopper circling the rooftop pool

Nighttime over West Hollywood

Later that evening we met at Sonya and Bernie’s place where Kelly, Paul and their kids are staying. They had arranged for a sitter to come so we could walk down to their favorite Thai place on Melrose. We had a few drinks while the kids were being fed, bathed, and put to bed, so I had a buzz to boot as we were shown to out table. It was delicious food and great company. 

Walking home, Bernie pointed out that the Lottery draw on Saturday will be $196 million! Boy- what we could do with that kind of money!! Dave bought a ticket and promised to split it with Bernie if we won. Apparently you have to be a resident to win. 

PS. Needless to say we didn’t win. But wouldn’t THAT have made this blog interesting!