Chapter 1. I Guess That’s Los Angeles For You. Part I.
Welcome to our end of summer trip to Los Angeles!
We left on a Friday morning. It’s interesting (only to me and no one else) that for both of our trips this summer we left on a Friday. Anyway, our flight was at 915am, so we called our driver for 715am and were actually ready on time. We got to the airport and when we got to the Mosaic counter I saw the same woman who had checked us in for St Barth and yelled at us that we were cutting it too close. I said “hi, you’re the one who told us not to come too late!” She actually remembered me, and then I told her we were early today and she was very nice.
Anyway, we went through security really quickly, picked up our mobile order Starbucks, bought some snacks, got on the plane and we were off. The plane was probably a third empty and Tzvi and Hadar had an extra seat in their row. I have to say the flight was very uneventful and the girls did fabulously. I couldn’t have asked for a better flying experience. Thanks JetBlue.
Before take off Tzvi realized we never booked a car to take us from the airport in LA to the hotel, so he called his mother and asked her to text her Jewish guy who usually takes her to the airport to try to book us something. During the flight she told us it was booked and when she told Tzvi the price he thought, “wow, that’s expensive, but I guess that’s Los Angeles for you.” Well, we step out of the terminal to wait for our driver and get a text message “I am in a white Mercedes Sprinter van.” If you don’t know, a Sprinter is a huge van. We figured this was all that Sherry could book on such short notice. Well, it pulls up and it’s not just a van, it’s a party bus. It has seats that face backward, benches on the sides, a table with snacks, colorful led lighting and twinkling star lighting on the ceiling. We couldn’t even see the driver without lowering a partition. The kids were so excited. We were all so excited. I told Tzvi not even to tell me what it cost because I just don’t want to know. The ride was about 35 minutes and it was quite fun.
We pulled up at the Beverly Hills Marriott and checked in. I was literally walking away with the keys when Tzvi said to me, ‘you confirmed the rooms are connecting, right?’ So I went back to the counter and the guy was like, “oh no, they’re not, but don’t worry, they’re right next to each other.” Well that wasn’t going to work. We’re not sure what happened here. We told them that we called to confirm this so we don’t understand how this could happen, but the truth is it’s very possible that we actually forgot to call to confirm this. Whoops. After a whole back and forth finally we decided to pay an extra $50 to get a suite for the night so we could all fit in one room. It would have a bedroom for the two of us, a sofa bed for the girls and a rollaway bed for Hadar, which was okay, except there was only one bathroom. They said they could move us into connecting rooms the next day, so it would just be for one night.
The room wasn’t ready so we got an Uber and went to the Grove. We started at the Farmer’s Market where we each got different food for lunch. Madeleine and Hadar had pasta, Hallie had pizza, Tzvi had Mexican and I had a tuna sandwich. They were all delicious. Then we got a pickle flight of five different pickle varieties – bread and butter, half sour, honey mustard, horseradish, and kosher dill. They were all good. I think in this one trip to the Farmer’s Market we tasted more things than in all of the times I’ve been there combined. We walked around the mall at the Grove, bought some stuff for Hallie at Zara, then went to a coffee place Rachel recommended called La La Land coffee. It seems to have been designed for people to post on Instagram – yellow and white with cute signs. It was nice, but it wasn’t really coffee. It was basically just a milkshake. It was delicious but it was dessert. Then we got Hadar and the girls ice cream before calling an Uber back to the hotel.
We got ready for Shabbos and then Rachel picked us up and took us to her apartment. We had a really nice Shabbos dinner in their apartment. Kira and the girls played so nicely and we had a really good Shabbos dinner. I forgot to mention my parents are here too because they all got back from an Alaskan cruise this morning. Everyone was so tired.
We left and walked back to the hotel and passed out. Next thing I knew it was 515am and we were awake, which I knew would happen. I was hoping to at least make it to 6am, but oh well. We laid in bed for a while and then packed up our suitcases. Eventually we got dressed and went downstairs to the lobby. We were going to head to shul but the girls were hungry so we decided to just eat breakfast at the lobby restaurant, which was a little annoying because you had to pay $30 for a sub par buffet. Actually, the waffle was one of the best liege waffles I’ve ever tasted, so I can’t really complain.
I should mention there are a ton of Jews in this hotel (being one of a few places to stay in Pico-Robertson and walking distance to 35 different shuls). Tzvi was walking to breakfast in the lobby and wasn’t wearing his kippa, and a woman still stopped him to ask how to get to the Young Israel. Another woman stopped me and said, “Hi how are you doing?” I was like, “do I know you?” and she said, “we met last night.” I was like “no, we did not meet last night.”
After breakfast we walked to Beth Jacob. They had several guards outside with bullet proof vests and handguns visibly holstered. They checked our bags and then wanded Tzvi. Very different from the guys in polo shirts outside Beth Sholom, but I guess we’re in a real city here. Austin and Rachel daven at the young professionals minyan. There were no seats so I sat outside with the girls while they played on the playground, which is huge and really nice. We saw Kira come out with groups, so the girls enjoyed that. Then once shul ended we went to kiddush. It was nice, and the cholent was really good, but the weird thing was there was a man with a parrot on his shoulder that kept crapping on him. I guess that’s Los Angeles for you.
After shul we walked to Rachel’s apartment for lunch. A good time was had by all. After lunch we wall walked back to the hotel where Hallie and Madeleine swam and we all hung at the pool. It was an interesting mix of people. There were a lot of Jews – French and Israelis with kids who were running around like animals. At one point Tzvi and Madeleine were in the hot tub and six kids piled in with a giant inflatable crocodile. They were basically on top of Tzvi and he had to push them away. At the other end of the spectrum there was a woman in a thong with hair all the way down to her waist.
When it got a bit later we went back to our new rooms, which are connecting and thankfully each has its own bathroom. There’s a giant billboard of Clive Owen right outside the window this room, so it kind of feels like we have Clive Owen in our room. I guess that’s Los Angeles for you. We showered and waited for Shabbos to end.
