One of the things that amused me on this trip was the stunning lack of LA sports team memorabilia actively worn by people. Granted, the Chargers & the Rams are only back in LA within the last year or two, but I only saw one Lakers hat (at Eggslut Venice), one Dodgers hat, & no Clippers gear whatsoever! By contrast, I saw at least 5 Packers gear (hat &/or jacket), three Celtics fans (The Local Peasant - Sherman Oaks), one 49ers fan (The Local Peasant - Sherman Oaks), two Titans hats, & one Trail Blazers hat. I also saw a Falcons fan & a Patriots fan at Mel's Diner.
I went to Valley CrossFit on Friday morning. Coach William was pretty good at introducing me to the class, pointing out where things are, & other introductory stuff. Coach Kris (IG @cleverhandz) taught our 7 am class. She explained everything that we did, from our warmup on the assault bike to the Lions & Lambs sprint work to the Muscle Ups & Progressions & even a little bit about trying new sports - she encouraged us to play basketball if we had time after class. She also had a way of inspiring us as she explained things, & she gave pointers & tips through the workout as necessary. After class, Coach William cleared the space & a few of us played several games of Knockout. This was a really fun CrossFit visit & I recommend dropping in here if you can.
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| Area for Playing Basketball |
I went to Eggslut Venice off the recommendation of a family member. I thought it was overrated & wasn't worth the trip, though I was amused that it was popular enough for them to have a line outside the door.
Now, in planning this trip, I was delighted to find out that the end of US Route 66 is actually close to Los Angeles. You may well remember that I visited the beginning of US Route 66 in Chicago back in 2015. The End of US Route 66 is in Santa Monica. The driving portion of US Route 66 ends at Lincoln Boulevard & Olympic Boulevard where you can see Mel's Drive-In Diner. But, on the Santa Monica Pier, there is a signpost that says
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| I saw the menu item for a Route 66 Concrete dessert, & I had to get it! |
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| The Route 66 Concrete Frozen Custard Dessert |
By the way, you can get this custard at PierBurger.
I did walk over to the driving end of US Route 66, which is only 1.1 miles to the northeast. I took note of Mel's Drive-In Diner as a future eating spot, & then I ordered a Lyft to the La Brea Tar Pits. The La Brea Tar Pits visit was very interesting. It was fun to learn about the different animals that would get trapped, then the other animals trying to eat the trapped animals getting trapped themselves.
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| Statistical Figure of animals found at Pit 91. |
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| Pit 13 |
After that, I walked to a restaurant that I thought would be a good spot to eat dinner, but the restaurant was closed due to an interior utility problem. So, I decided to take a lyft back to the hotel, & eat dinner near there.
The driver was nice enough to charge my phone on the hour drive back. (Yes, Los Angeles has traffic just about all the time it seems.) I had started coughing before I entered the Lyft, & my driver explained that the air in Los Angeles was particularly foul that week. I later learned that the fires up north may have had something to do with it.
I ended up eating at Costa Grande, a restaurant about 1.3 miles east of the chess playing hotel. As I wrote about on my yelp review page, it was a very good place & I am glad I took the time to find it.
The rest of the weekend in Los Angeles was mainly spent eating at a few different places in between chess rounds. Mel's Drive-In: Santa Monica was very good, In-N-Out Burger was not, & Dough Girl was divine. I talked about the first & last of these three places on my yelp page.
By the way, walking around Los Angeles was more dangerous than I thought. There is no space between the stop line & the crosswalk, the drivers here are even worse about not respecting pedestrians in crosswalks as compared to here in New Jersey, & the yellow painted crosswalks do nothing to help that problem.
I got off to a slow start, losing & drawing (where I might have been able to win the drawn game earlier), before charging back to a 3.0/5 round score. It wasn't enough to win money, but at least I played better after Round 3 started.
I forgot to mention in the post-analysis that the ...g6 move was purely to avoid setting my king & f-pawn up in a pin.
I'm glad I talked to the concierge about the flyaway bus after the tournament, as that allowed me to sleep an extra half hour to take the 3:30am bus. I wasn't happy about Denver announcing that the return flight to EWR has been delayed due to air traffic control, but there wasn't much I could do. The delay was 2:30, but I still got back in time to do some stuff.
And that concludes State No. 23
