LCACs; Seal Beach; A Musical Angel; Bad Boys; Ethnic Villes

We left San Diego yesterday heading for Seal Beach. On the way, we passed through Camp Pendleton, home of the First Marine Division and largest Marine Corps base on the West Coast and our daughter Susan's first duty station. We also passed an interesting sight, Navy LCACs (Landing Craft, Air Cushion) operating offshore. These craft ferry Marines and their equipment ashore from amphibious ships. Their motto is “No beach out of reach.” 

We are now in Los Angeles, The City of Angels... well, actually, The Bus is at a Navy campground at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, with an entire battalion of Marines guarding us (okay, they’re really guarding the weapons stored here for the US Pacific Fleet, but we feel pretty secure). It’s a large base, with a National Wildlife Refuge inside the fence, a large port area for loading Navy ships, a gym and lots of room to run. It is also the site of the West Coast WWII Submarine Memorial, which honors the 52 submarines and 3,000 sailors who didn’t return from their patrols during that conflict.

One of our primary reasons to come to LA was to meet Laura Perlman, “the Musical Angel” who composed the opening music for the Messages of Hope documentary. Laura has worked with many of the great directors in Hollywood, including Ron Howard and Robert Redford.  Now she has Chris Lavelle, producer and director of Messages of Hope, to add to her impressive list!  She is not only a composer, but a singer in her own right, and is currently working on her own CD of jazz music.  Suzanne had spoken to Laura on the phone and set up a meeting at her house near Hollywood, and I had looked into a restaurant. Here’s a “synchronicity” for you: I chose Café La Boheme in West Hollywood after dining at a San Diego restaurant called Bleu Boheme, which blew me away with their exquisite food and service. I thought, maybe they have another in LA; they didn’t, but the menu at Café La Boheme looked great, so I took a chance and made a reservation for last night. When Suzanne asked Laura if that was an okay choice, Laura responded, “Gosh, that’s our favorite restaurant and it's only five minutes from our house."  Points for Ty!

We drove in typical big city rush hour traffic from Seal Beach to Hollywood, taking 50% longer than GPS had estimated, but we had planned in a cushion of time. On the way, I was reminded of the diversity of Los Angeles: signs for Little Saigon, Mariachi Plaza, Little Armenia, Little Tokyo, Thai Town, Chinatown, Koreatown... the author Alex Haley said Los Angeles wasn’t a melting pot, but rather a tossed salad, composed of distinct, overlapping cultures. LA has the highest concentration of Mexicans outside Mexico, Koreans outside Korea and even Samoans outside Samoa. It also has a complex but effective system of freeways that is more like driving at Indianapolis than I-75 back home. People here drive CRAZY! (to my editor friends: I know I should use an adverb rather than an adjective, but it’s my blog...). 

One of the many interesting signs along the route was an Adopt-a-Highway sign labeled “adopted by Bad Boys Bail Bonds”. Their motto is “Because your mama wants you home.” (I am NOT making this up! They have been featured on the Discovery Channel.) Reminded me of that bounty hunter guy on TV who looked meaner than the thugs he was chasing. 

We arrived at Laura’s home in trendy Laurel Canyon, up narrow, winding streets that reminded us of Japan or France. There were spots where speeding Audis and Benzs flashed past with bare inches to spare; I thought, “We’re not in The Villages anymore!” Many of the houses were perched dangerously on hillsides above other houses, and I hoped the Big One didn’t arrive while we were here (that’s what they call the predicted San Andreas Fault earthquake that will supposedly split California in half). A lot of famous rock stars lived in Laurel Canyon in the 60s and 70s, before McMansions became popular. It is still an interesting, eclectic area. Laura and her husband Nick live with an adorable dog, two cats and two birds in a cozy house with a music studio where Laura composes her music, and hundreds of books on overhead shelves with a sliding ladder, like in a big library. Really cool! Nick was still working on location in Long Beach, and would be unable to join us for dinner. After setting Rudy and Gretchen up in their little kennels in Laura’s office, we drove down an even steeper set of streets (some only recently paved) with alternating views of Hollywood and steep, empty canyons on the back side of the city.  Here's a photo of Suzanne and Laura overlooking the city.

Dinner at Café La Boheme was divine... ahi tuna and crab cake appetizers, risotto and hanger steak entrees, and chocolate cake and peach cobbler desserts... we will be running this meal off for days! Our server, Sterling, was probably one of the many young people who come to Hollywood to become actors; we wish him all the best. We returned to Laura’s, loaded our puppies in the car, and got to meet Nick as he was just arriving home after a 12 hour day setting up and managing a commercial video production.

Driving home along Sunset Boulevard, we passed several corners with attractive young ladies in tight mini-skirts... they reminded me of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman... I think they may have been representatives of the Travelers’ Aid Society, or some group like that...

Lastly, Suzanne asked me to comment on our Wi-Fi travails; often we have no or limited access to the Internet (or even cell phone service). Sometimes we are right on the edge of being able to connect. In this case, I had to open the sliding window and perch the computer on the back of the sofa to get a decent enough signal to upload each individual photo for the blog. It's an adventure! 

Before you go, you MUST visit the Bad Boys Bail Bonds website for a great laugh:  http://www.badboysbailbonds.com/