So I took a brief little trip to LA. I lived in LA as teenager and had some great experiences there and met some very nice people. I haven't been back to the west coast since my trip to burning man a few years back so it was time.
Unfortunately, the weather upon my arrival was AWFUL. RAIN RAIN and MORE RAIN. Oh and mudslides which I learned are not like sludge, as I had imagined, but more like avalanches with dirt instead of snow.
Fortunately, my hosts lived in a section of LA that is mercifully flat and was spared any evacuations or other emergency measures.
Thankfully, after a few days of RAIN RAIN RAIN [did I say it rained?] the sun popped out and blue skies greeted us. One benefit of all that rain was that the smog was all washed away giving very clear skies. You could easily see the snow caps on top of the mountains that got FEET of SNOW while we were getting RAIN.
The highlights of the trip were meeting a good friend's mom after 20 years of friendship. She was a sweet meemaw and the family resemblance was uncanny. Another highlight was getting reconnected with my best friend from junior high in LA. I have so many good memories of hanging out with him both in LA and in NY so it was nice to get reconnected after 25 years.
Other than that, I also did make it to some notable stops:
Galco's for retro candies, every soda imaginable and beer and spirits from around the globe.
Huntington Library and Gardens A HUGE collection of mansions and art. These people had so much art they had to build more mansions on their hilltop property to showcase it. That's a lot of dosh.