Los Angeles, California

About a two-hour drive in the rain on CA-1 through places like Ventura, Oxnard, and Malibu, before meeting Spence at Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood. Maybe it was just the events of the last 24 hours combined with crap weather, but we both found the several towns on the route depressing in their own special way. Oxnard, for example, looks to be in worse financial shape than many of the small, sad towns we passed through in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. Lots of boarded up windows, Out of Business signs, and wayward people. Malibu didn’t look anything like the flashy, richy-rich place I’ve seen pictures of. In person, it looked like little more than a crowded, weathered beach town.

From what I can gather, Barney’s Beanery is an LA institution with a long history, and to prove it, plenty of kitsch on the walls, ceiling, tables, and bathrooms. Jimi Hendrix used to hang out here!!! With or without Jimi, it was the perfect place to watch the game. TVs everywhere, a funny menu, and lots of interested (but not rabid) fans, the most memorable of which were probably the two Russian dudes drinking heavily and rooting home the Dutch. Our bet: they both had big money on the game. Solid bar food, including my 12” chili and cheese dog, added to the fun. Not necessarily part of the fun: getting a $20 ticket for not turning our car wheels toward the sidewalk while parked on a hill (with a very mild incline).

LA is a funny place,* with a look and a feel all to its own. Wide streets, palm trees, and lots of people in cars. What you drive, where you drive, who you talk to while you drive, how you look while driving, etc., must be of great importance. People clearly invest in it: I’ve never seen so many expensive and well-maintained cars – Mercedes, Hummer, Ferrarri, Porche – in such a short span of time. They also like to talk/text while they’re at it. Hopefully more evidence gathered during our second time through.

Since I’m so well-practiced at (mostly baseless and uninformed) snap judgments, here goes: Able to confirm a few clichés: 1) Movie stars and the influence of the movie biz. We saw one recognizable but very small time actor come out of the coffee shop we were in carrying three packs of cigarettes and peel out in his Hummer H3, looking very important all the while. 2) Plastic surgery and individual presentation: lots of the weird fake-looking lips/eyes, huge boobs, faux hawks, tattoos, etc. Lots of fake blond hair, too.

I find the city’s quirks pretty fun, actually, and definitely more so when the weather is good (abt 2 or 3 pm, the sun finally came out). Couldn’t ever live here, and certainly wouldn’t have the fortitude necessary to try to make it in the movie biz, but a few days on vacation is cool.

Great to see Spence. Look forward to a bit more time upon our post-Hawaii return to LA.

After a bit of down time in the hotel** and our first shower in several days, we packed up the car (in the face of several evil looks from the valet guys/bellhops***) and sped over to Adam’s house on South Venice, where we have stashed the car on the street. Can’t thank him enough for his help keeping an eye on our stuff. Hugely appreciated. Hope all is well with the Subaru over the next 10 days.

A later dinner at China Beach, a hole in the wall Vietnamese place a block from Adam’s apt. Both got versions of pho (chicken for me, veg for LVL), a favorite dish of mine, especially when accompanied by a 40 oz bottle of Bud, purchased at the liquor store adjacent to the restaurant.

* Actually, I should probably limit that statement to the neighborhoods we spent time in today: Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, and (a dark) Venice.

** Actually, most of the time spent packing and fretting over how best to store our wet, dirty tent for the ten days we’ll be in Hawaii. Lacking any other options, we put the tent, etc in a plastic bag with some holes in the bottom of it. Any bets on whether we’ll need to buy a new one?

A quick trip back through Venice to move the car to a better spot and lock it up with the Club (I forgot the keys the night before). The cab driver hired to take us to the airport was pretty cool about it and the errand only took about 5 minutes. Made it to LAX in plenty of time for our 10:30 am departure to Honolulu.

No matter, really, though. At about 10:15, after moving the departure gate once, flight 163 was cancelled by United Airlines without any explanation, warning, or sympathy. LVL may have sensed it was coming, as she was smack in the middle of a mad rush to the Customer Service desk before I could even look up from my book (I was dutifully watching the luggage as she checked on our flight status).

The upshot, after a bit of stress and self-pity: We were automatically put on a 4:55 flight to Kahului, Maui and then a short flight from Maui to Honolulu. Estimated arrival: 9:30 or 10:00 pm Hawaiian time. So, basically, we trade a day in Hawaii for a day in LAX.

Almost simultaneously, we both blurted out, “at least we get to watch the [World Cup Quarterfinal] game!” And so we did. Found a spot in a crowded bar, mostly filled with other would-be Honolulu flyers, and took in the 1-0 Spain victory. Made some “friends” along the way, including:

• A middle-aged woman, Dani, and her two kids, Savannah (14) and Fiona (11). I could write for days about this family, but will spare you most of the details. I’ll probably remember most Dani’s "special" cookies, her bloody marys, out of context and overly excited soccer-related outbursts, and frustrated rants about her teenage kids; Savannah's dyed black/blond hair, her punk rock jacket/tights combo, and semi-bizarre movie references; and Fiona’s semi-sullen orientation, and the glee with which she flipped through the latest issue of US Weekly.

• Former NBA star, Danny Ferry, his wife, and their six young kids (5 girls; 1 boy, the youngest). A lot of soon-to-be extraordinarily tall people. As drunk Dani said to tall Danny, “you could field a soccer team all by yourselves!”

After the game, we read/chilled, and waited for our names to be called. Surprisingly, attitudes positive, spirits high.

The flight from LA to Maui was great. Not at all crowded, and really smooth in the air. In fact, we were able to have a row to ourselves, with no one in front of us (for most of the flight). Between us, we finished a book, played a game of scrabble, watched an episode of Frasier, took three naps, drank half a can of tomato juice, lost an ear cover from a pair of headphones, watched a kid pick his nose (no eating, though), and many other exciting things.