The Belated Rest
...Yes indeed, the bounty of California lay at our feet.Despite the previous week's intense flooding, signs of damage were conspicuously absent. Rather, the aftermath witnessed a dip in travelers and subsequent fall in hotel prices. This was much to our pleasure, as we discovered a steal at a waterfront Courtyard Marriott, 15min from downtown San Fran.
Our few days in that wonderful city included an excellent Ahmad Jamal jazz concert at Yoshi's, an indulgent visit to Kevin's wine-collecting friend, forays through the SF downtown, waterfront, and Chinatown, a hike thru the Muir Redwoods, a stop in Sausalito, and excellent food.
Allow me to attempt to capture the quality of our culinary experience: let us say that the best Chinese food you have ever tried was like winning a new BMW, the worst like a used Ford Taurus, badly in need of an oil change; using this scale, the Chinese we ate in SF was like winning a Lamborghini Murcielago. I exaggerate not. Chinese food is often characterized as greasy, heavy, loaded with MSG, etc. Our fare was delightfully flavorfull, in such a manner that one could identify and enjoy both the individual flavors, as well as their artful combination. Ingredients were fresh and satisfying, while resting featherlight in the stomach.
With much regret, our troupe departed San Francisco for the chaos of LA. We had told our local host an ETA of 3:30 in Hermosa Beach. However, we had failed to calculate for the horror that is LA traffic. Indeed, we reached the outskirts of LA at 3, but reached Hermosa Beach (in central LA) at 6pm. This was a stretch of 20 miles at most.
LA would have been a total nightmare had we not a free house a mere 1min walk from the sands of Hermosa beach all to ourselves. This situation (and accompanying weather) proved so delightful that we extended our stay.
Our affair with LA could best be described as Love/Hate. The house, the beach, the weather, and Hermosa were a treat. We found downtown LA, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Sunset Blvd., and the rest of that hideously sprawling city to be both overrated and a test of our patience. But what visit to that city would be complete without a tributary visit to Compton, Inglewood ("Always up to no good!"), and the infamous Crenshaw Blvd.? Indeed, we braved their streets at 2AM, windows down, the local hip-hop station blaring classic DRE and Snoop. Unsurprisingly, we were the only car around without rims. The recklessness of this venture was highlighted the following morning, when news reports revealed that a man was shot 5 times at a stoplight on Crenshaw - the same street we had cruised paying respect to the notorious West-Side.
posted by Jason @ 6:28 am
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