Los Angeles

A week or so ago, I had another work trip, this one to Los Angeles. My colleagues and I rented a car to get to and from our meeting appointments, and over four days we logged 220 miles. That might not sound like much by comparable roadtrip vacation standards, but all of these 220 miles were travelled within the metro Los Angeles area. In my book, that's a lot of city driving. LA's reputation for really bad traffic is honestly earned.

The day of our departure coincidentally coincided with the start of 'Carmageddon,' when 20 miles of the 405 freeway - a major north-south artery - was due to close for 48 hours. The resulting domino effect was expected to bring the city to a possible standstill. The event has come and gone and from what I understand, the city is still standing, but one thing I learned is no one does hype like the Angelenos do.



One evening we headed to the Hollywood Hills for a light hike through Runyon Canyon. From the summit we could see all of Los Angeles spread out below us: from downtown, through Hollywood and Beverly Hills, and out to Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean. Far from our traffic woes, with soft evening light filtering through the hazy air, the sun warming our backs and fit and flawless actor-slash-waiters passing by us, the city seemed picture-perfect.

We found many picture-perfect moments during our visit - at our hotel's rooftop pool, at a charming outdoor cafe near Silver Lake, at the beach with crashing surf at Santa Monica, or winding along Mulholland Dr. (like I said, 220 miles). For as much as LA is maligned for bad transportation, poser people and overpriced everything (all true) it's still an endlessly fascinating city with diverse and engaged communities, a beautiful environment, and great people watching (and I mean really great). And the weather ain't bad, either. I'll be back.