Day 14: Los Angeles

We left Arizona and headed for LA on Friday. We were going to hit Death Valley and San Diego, but we decided to skip them because we were behind in even our most tentative schedule. We chose to skip Death Valley because we’d had all the earth-seeing and deserts we could stand for a while. We skipped San Diego because we realized we hadn’t allotted a significant period of time for it, and we would have to do it when we had several days to spend there. Yes, it’s sad, but we’ve still got three more weeks of traveling to do, so back off.

We crossed into California from Arizona in the early afternoon and were impressed by the mountains that seemed to spring up out of nowhere.




Dave pointed out that we were going to hit the west end of I-40 in Barstow. Being from Wilmington, NC, where I-40 begins on the east coast, he wanted to see the sign on the other end telling how many miles it is to NC. So we made sure to pull off and take pictures.



We reached LA in the afternoon and headed right to our friend Walker’s place. I was initially pretty hesitant about coming to LA, but I quickly changed my mind. This place is pretty cool. Walker’s neighborhood is really lovely. It’s a quaint old middle-class neighborhood. No two houses are the same, and each one has more character than the last.


We were also quite excited by the impeccable manicuring of lawns even in the dumpiest neighborhoods.


Walker’s place is pretty awesome as well. It’s an old two story house from the 1920s with an apartment on each floor. The bathroom and kitchen have lovely tile work. I love it!

After catching up for a while, we decided to go out for dinner and drive around town. Walker took us to an AWESOME Korean BBQ place that was really different from Korean BBQ I’ve had in Durham. The place was called "Soot Bull Jeep."


I know those three words independently, but all together, they make no sense. I can only picture an ashy bull sitting in a dune buggy or something equally ridiculous. Again, having eaten there now, I’m sure it means something awesome like “You can’t touch the scissors” or “Domineering Waitstaff Hub.” Walker warned us that we would receive surly service and amazing food. He was dead-on with both points. The meats were excellent. The sides were delicious.



The waitresses were surly as I’ve ever seen. They did not want us cooking our own meats, and they certainly didn’t trust us to cut it ourselves. Luckily, Walker is an expert at Korean BBQ and not only was able to order for us but was able to steal the scissors from the surliest waitress and cut our meat for us.

After this delicious dinner, Walker took us to his favorite bar in LA, the Bounty. It’s an old bar with dim lighting and lots of wood, like my dad might like. In the booth where we sat, there was a tiny brass plaque behind my head indicating that Jack Webb used to sit there. Awesome. Webb was the brains behind and acted in the TV show Dragnet. There were other tiny plaques in other booths, but we didn’t read any of them. Walker tells us that there are lots of old guys who hang out in the bar who were jazz musicians.

Attached to the bar is an apartment building called the Gaylord.


The Gaylord used to be a hotel in the early 20th century and hosted lots of movie stars, as shown in the photos and news clippings in the lobby display cases. Very cool!

Walker drove us around town for a while. There were hundreds of people outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater having some sort of makeshift memorial for Michael Jackson.



Cops were on the scene managing crowds effectively. It was weird.

I noticed that there were lots of stores for puppies. Not dogs, puppies. I guess dogs aren’t nearly as cute as puppies. Everyone has tiny dogs, I guess, and they need to outfit them in the latest pooch fashions and accoutrements. And somehow, this is completely normal to these people. Stunning. I am clearly not nearly fashionable enough for this city. Hell, I’m not even wearing make-up! I wonder if I’d even be able to find a store with sizes to fit me. Curious.

After driving around for a while and looking at big houses and crazy people, we came back home and hung out on Walker’s second-story patio for a few hours. What a delightful day.