Day 2 Los Angeles

At this point, anything that might go wrong is almost comical on this vacation.  Jessica has a virus but I am hoping it is a short term as she was able to get out in the afternoon.  Emily went to hang out in West Hollywood/Hollywood for the most of the day, with friends, which is not exactly a hop skip and a jump from Marina Del Rey.  I guess that is why they have taxis.  Josh and I were the heroes ( with my sister-in-law) of the day as we went on a bike ride.

Josh and I got 2 bikes from the hotel.  My first reaction to the bikes was to wonder when the last time someone actually tuned them up but figured it is what it is.  Josh and I hopped on our bikes and went to meet my sister-in-law for a little spin.  Little is an understatement.  We drove through the Marina and over to the bike path which you can ride to Palos Verdes but we were only going as far as Manhattan Beach ( that's far enough).  The ride was seriously long.  The bike path was blown out from sand and hence closed about one mile from Manhattan Beach but we almost made it there.  Josh was so happy when we got to turn around and frankly, so was I.  We were already a good hour or more into our ride.  We turned around and were going against serious headwinds.  I thought Josh was going to kill me as he let me know it was the worst morning of his life.  At one point, he got off and decided to walk.  The winds were killer.  It was like being on an Outward Bound journey.  I pushed him to get back on the bike and suck it up and his chain broke.  So, we walked and called the hotel to pick us all up as we were just entering the Marina boundary.  Our legs were humming.  2 hours in and serious wind.  I can laugh now.

We went back to the hotel and grabbed my car.  At this point, my sister-in-law realized her Amex fell out when she was trying to track us down.  Had to cancel the card and all that nonsense.  We went to lunch.  A tiny cafe in the Marina on Washington where the salad was fine and Josh had a BLT.  My sister-in-law headed home to shower and Josh and I went back to the hotel to do the same. 

I am taking a shower and the lights go out.  It appears that due to the high winds that a nice chunk of the area we are in has lost power.  No elevator either.  At least I had already rinsed my hair.

Josh went off with my sister-in-law to pick up her kids, the dog, etc.  I went with Fred and Jessica to pick up Emily which took about an hour to get there.  Afterward we went to Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles which happens to be in Charlie Chaplans old studio.  Very cool space.  The other store is in NYC and really carries the latest and greatest fashions on the cutting edge.  We also checked out another store in Melrose called Creatures of Comfort, another hipster store.  Jessica and Emily are pointing me in this direction.  Young designers, very cool stuff.  Next door to Creatures of Comfort is a great home store called Table Art which is only open Tues-Sat.

Afterward, we headed towards dinner.