A Weddings Adventure Part VI: Manhattan West Coast Style

We reluctantly left Mexico on Wednesday and made our way back to Los Estados Unidos.  This time we stayed at a Radison, which was a significant upgrade upon the Travellodge.  It even had a sleep number bed, which rectified my problem that hotel beds are always too hard.  From now on I'm going to have to try to always stay at a hotel that has one*.  Not feeling too adventurous, we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant, where I got steak which was easily better than any I had in Mexico. The meal reminded us both that we were back to American sized portions, and that we needed to carry wallets around again.

*Unless the hotel comes with a hammock.

Thursday was our one free day to roam the streets of Los Angeles.  Figuring out to spend a day in LA proved to be a bit of a logistical challenge.  Everything is spread out and expensive, and neither of us had any great interest in the trappings of Hollywood.  We ended up finding a $5 all day trolley that connected various hotels including ours to a few tourist destinations.

The first stop on the trolley was Manhattan beach, where at least some of the local rich and famous live.*     There was a pathway with various local shops along it.  Up a street on one side were colorful houses that cost more than we are likely to make in the next few decades.  On the other side was the boardwalk, beach and ocean. We ate lunch at a bakery that offered enormous sandwiches and delicious mini cupcakes for dessert.  There was also a cute independent bookstore whose kind is rarely seen anymore. We went down the boardwalk and watched the surfers for a while. This allowed me to explain the entertaining art of watching people fall to Becky.  There was a pier that led to a free aquarium, but it was closed.

 

*For example there dwells Nomar Garciaparra and Mia Hamm who Becky's grandmother asked us to stalk on her behalf.

Becky and Honey on the pier

Next up was the Manhattan village, which turned out to just be a fairly generic mall.   We wandered around for a while in the various chains that can be found in most similar places, We ate some barbeque for dinner, the good kind where they have paper towels on the tables.  Then we went to see the Muppet movie*, which seemed like a very LA thing to do. 

*The night did have a striking resemblance to what my friend Rich's idea of heaven must be.