Chapter 3. A Long Goodbye.
We drove back to LA and checked into our next hotel.
For this last leg of the trip we’re staying at the Cameo Beverly Hills. This used to be the Mr. C Hotel, but was recently sold to Hilton. The lobby is very nice and the rooms are spacious, but they’re showing their age.
We had rented a car from the Turo app, so around 2pm Slavko dropped off a 2021 Porsche Macan, which we’d be driving around for the next day and a half.
We were pretty hungry and had no plans so we hopped in the car and drove over to Century City mall. Tzvi says the mall is unrecognizable from the mall he used to go to as a kid. We walked around a bit and then went to the food court where we got sushi rolls for a quick snack. After that we drove to Beverly Hills and got smoothies at Erewhon. Like the van from the airport, I didn’t want to know what those cost, though I think they were about as expensive as the van from the airport. From there we drove to visit with Daniel, who I used to work with at JNF, and his wife Deborah. The girls spent a half hour in the bathroom while the adults talked. I don’t know what they were doing in there.
For dinner we met Tzvi’s childhood friend Benjy, and his wife Chen and their two kids, at Lenny’s Casita. It was great to see them and catch up. As for the restaurant, I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s like going into a fast food restaurant, but there’s waiter service, and every four minutes they start blasting music as they bring a tray with a sparkler to someone’s table. It’s like greasy burger joint meets Fuego. It’s a very confused place. Hopefully they figure it out soon though, because the food was very good.
While we were at dinner, Tzvi got an email from a law firm he’s negotiating against on another project. Just when he thought he was free from work for the rest of vacation, this other project pops up. He was pretty annoyed, particularly that this law firm decided to send back the drafts the night before a holiday weekend.
Back in the room we had a daily credit to use, so we ordered some cocktails and hot teas to the room. Then we finally finished that West Wing episode and fell asleep.
Friday morning we got up and drove to Venice Beach, where we met Larry Martinek for breakfast at The Butcher’s Daughter. Larry is an old friend of the Kaplan family and is the founder of Mathnasium. It was great to catch up with him. After that we did some shopping on Abbot Kinney, which is like the main street of Venice with lots of stores. We all bought very overpriced sweatshirts at Aviator Nation (but on sale!). Tzvi was on calls for most of the shopping, and when it was time to check out at Aviator Nation he told me to pay and went outside to make a call.
From there we drove to Santa Monica to meet Austin and Rachel and Kira at the Cayton Children’s Museum. As soon as we parked, Tzvi looked in the trunk and said, “Where’s all of our stuff?” I guess he had been piling up his stuff and the girls’ stuff at the register, and when I went to pay, I only paid for my stuff, not the stuff he’d put aside. Whoops.
We spent a couple of hours at the museum. It was great and the kids had so much fun. They played in the ball pit and climbed through the suspended ropes course, did arts and crafts. Tzvi was on a call for some of it. As we were sitting and doing arts and crafts we started talking to the people at the table next to us. Turned out they were from Woodmere.
After the museum we walked around the Santa Monica Place mall. We went to Nordstroms, where the kids all walked out with balloons (I’m pretty sure they were for decoration and you’re not supposed to take them). We also spent way too long at the Peloton store, but hey, they were having a sale. Then we drove back toward the hotel and stopped at a Coffee Bean we saw on the way. I have no idea what neighborhood we were in but it didn’t seem like the best. There were some strange people at that Coffee Bean.
We got ready for Shabbos and then walked to Rachel’s parents’ house in Beverlywood for Shabbos dinner. We had a really nice dinner with Rachel’s whole family – her brother and his wife, her sister, one of her cousins. It was so nice of them to have all of us. Even their massive dog Teddy was okay – both girls actually played with him.
Shabbos morning we woke up, got ready for shul, and then had breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel lobby. It was very good. We had lots of pastries and I had an acai bowl with peanut butter. Tzvi was less than thrilled about that one. Then we walked to YICC where we made it for the end of kiddush. Security at YICC was also quite tight. They started questioning Tzvi, asking him where he’s from, who he’s visiting. It was like visiting a shul in Europe. We hung around at YICC for a little bit and saw our old college friend Avi Buchman. Nice to catch up with him. Then walked to Rachel and Austin’s apartment where we had lunch. The power was out, which was fine because they have so much natural light. Rachel made a very nice lunch and the girls played so nicely.
After lunch we walked back to the hotel and sat by the pool. It was so nice and peaceful, so different from the pool last week at the Marriott. There were a few Jews there but no little kids other than ours. The pool was pretty cold but the girls wanted to go in, which meant Tzvi had to go in. We ordered a cocktail, which was okay but too sweet, and the girls had strawberry daquiri and lemonade.
Eventually Austin and Rachel and Kira left, and we went back to the room to do some packing. Shabbos ended and Austin and Rachel lent us their car so we could take the kids out. We went for dinner at Pizzana in West Hollywood, a fantastic pizza place. We had way too much pizza, delicious fried cauliflower and great Caesar salad with excellent pizza crust croutons. After that we drove further into West Hollywood for ice cream at Salt and Straw. It was pretty lively. We sat eating our ice cream and watching the people and delivery robots going by. Madeleine liked all of the rainbows. She didn’t want to get sticky so she got an empty cone. When we got back to car we found there was a tow truck waiting to tow us. I guess we weren’t supposed to park in the Chase lot, even though the Chase was closed. The guy told us we should be more careful and read signs. Oh well.
We made it back to the hotel and started the next episode of The West Wing, of which I watched five minutes before passing out.
Sunday morning we woke up and got ready to go. Austin and Rachel came to the hotel with Kira and brought us bagels, and then Austin drove Tzvi over to Philz coffee on Beverly, which was good coffee, but strange because they only do pour over (no espresso). Then Yossi (a driver we got from Austin and Rachel) came to pick us up and take us to the airport in his minivan. We’ve really come a long way from where we started with that party bus, but Yossi was very nice and his Toyota Sienna was clean.
We were all sad to go, especially Madeleine, who cried and said she wanted to stay with Kira.
See you at Thanksgiving, Kira!
The End.