Ridin' on the Freeway

Disney Music Hall
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As if California weren't strange enough, we left the Bay Area for L.A., a place I had never been. We stayed with Jon's cousins (the parents of Robin in Portland and Holly in S.F.) and had a lovely dinner upon our arrival with some other family members.

In the morning, Frima took us on her driving tour of L.A. It essentially started in Beverly Hills, which is adjacent to their home in Westwood. Beverly Hills, huh? It didn't seem real to finally be driving through a place that all my life has been a mythological abstraction. On the one hand, it look just like any other swanky suburb. On the other hand, things in L.A. are on a totally different scale. I never thought I would see a place that put the Upper East Side to shame.

Aren't movies made in some mythical, other-worldly place, not a sprawling suburb with too much traffic and smog?

Speaking of, an integral part of the Frima Tour of L.A. is "the Daves," a house that has 15 replicas of the David lined up in the front yard, along with lots of other excessive sculptures and fences and things. We didn't take a picture because it was too much to fit in one frame, and also because it's better for you to try to imagine a house with 15 Davids in front of in than to just look at a picture.

After that we went into "Downtown" (it's hard for me to think of L.A. as a place with a downtown) and saw the Disney Music Hall, which is a pretty cool structure built by everybody's favorite, Frank Gehry. On the way back, we passed by Culver City and lots of other places where movie studios are. I mean I believed Frima when she said that's where the studios are, but aren't movies made in some mythical, other-worldly place, not a sprawling suburb with too much traffic and smog?

Wherever they're made, I'm not cut out for L.A., this much is certain, although in the days to come, I would very much be missing the constant 80-degree weather. On Saturday morning, we got back on the freeway and headed out on I-10, destination, Joshua Tree National Park...