LA in 5 Days

Los Angeles, California

Sunday-Thursday, July 8-13, 2006

On our first day in LA, Thea was in dire need of a Starbuck’s fix. Since our tires were melted, we set off on foot to explore our new neighborhood. But thanks to our best friend TomTom (the little GPS system we've come to rely on daily) who finds restaurants in addition to getting us from Point A to Point B, we found ourselves at City Walk in Universal Studios. Yes, our first day in LA and we end up in one of the biggest tourist traps in town…all national restaurant and retail chains…everything not indigenous to the State! Still, we did get to watch Italy defeat France in the World Cup finals on a huge outdoor screen and Tommy enjoyed his first Original Tommy's Burger. Then, we did what everyone does in Hollywood...we went to the movies ("The Devil Wears Prada"...not bad)!

Later that day we received a call from our friend telling us that unfortunately for us the real estate market really isn’t as slow as it's been reported in LA and that the house was sold, although we'd have some time before we had to move on. The very same day, another dear friend called to say she had been in an accident back east and would find it helpful if we could house sit at her home in Corona Del Mar (next town to Newport Beach) while she recuperated in Connecticut for the rest of the summer. So, we quickly got new tires for Tom's car and took delivery of my mine.

We attempted to acquaint ourselves with parts of LA—Westwood for exotic combinations of sushi at Tomodachi, Laurel Canyon for organic Italian fare at Pace with our friend Jason, and Hollywood for glimpses of the stars (real or embedded in the pavement) at the Kodak and Grauman's Chinese Theatre . But after just five days, the heat and traffic were so brutal that we decided it was time to head south to Newport Beach.