Just back from 6 days in beautiful, but congested, sunny southern California. My wife and I went out to visit our son and his fiancee (last time we'll see them before they get married). Weather was great. Traffic was horrendous. Fantastic food of every variety (Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Italian, and, of course, Carl's Jr. and In-N-Out Burger).
Biggest disappointment of all, however, was the taping of an episode of one of my favorite sitcoms, The Big Bang Theory. We had procured four tickets for the Tuesday evening taping. We were told to arrive at least one hour before the scheduled 6:30 showtime. Traffic between Venice and Burbank was unbelievable. Arrived at Warner Bros. studios at 5:50 PM. At first, we were turned away, but then put on the list as guests 125-128. Unfortunately, an unusually high number of guests on the VIP list meant that only 89 of the 128 ticket-holders got in to see the taping. We wound up leaving with a VIP card that can be used for any taping in the next year. So our "Big Bang" turned out to be a "big bust." We wound up poking around Burbank, then heading up to the Griffith Park Observatory to look at the moon through a telescope, and marvel at the city of Los Angeles at night, laid out below us like a twinkling blanket.
One more thing. While the "redeye" flight allows you to spend a full day in L.A. before coming home (a day which included some successful whale-watching from Point Vicente in Palos Verdes), you definitely pay the price on the day you get home.
