The Crappy Van Should Have Tipped Us Off

We landed last night at LAX about 47 minutes ahead of schedule. That gave us time to call the hotel shuttle and wait about 30 minutes for the decrepid van festooned with signs about the LA Adventurer 'All Suite' hotel. Ugh. You can just tell what happened next. The beat-up van took us past West Century Boulevard's check cashing stores, ugly fast food joints and dicey liquor stores, dropping us off at the hotel we had found on-line for $76. Ugh again.

No offers of free blueberry muffins, complimentary champagne cocktails from 5-6 pm, nor the drawing for the free tee shirts could make this gloomy room work for Cindy. She glumly climbed the stairs and when we looked at the door, where the security chain locks were stripped and gone, that was it. This hotel was not gonna make it. Men wearing hoodies shuffled down the streets, and across the boulevard, a woman in spike heels and tight white pants strode down the avenue.

So we regrouped, and on our friend Eric's advice, called the Marriot in Marina del Rey. After an expensive ride in a cab with a barely bilingual driver, we made our way here, to this lovely hotel with an expansive view of the LA skyline and the Pacific in the distance. This is the home of Johnny Jet, world traveler extraordinaire, and friend to GoNOMAD. I am sure he is not home now, as he says on his blog, but we will try to track him down here on his home turf.

The early morning sun is bright and clear here, with sharp shadows arching away from every building and vehicle down on the street. We are heading out to Venice Beach to find an internet cafe, to post this the first blog of the trip. Then we can try to get our money back from Hotels.com, the people who booked us in that lousy flea bag firetrap.

Last night we joined my friend Eric at a hip tapas joint called Primitivo Wine bistro, where we sat outside and noshed on diver scallops, calamari and a grilled ceasar salad. Eric told us more about his foray into a new travel website, to be called travelista.com. It combines 'the velvet rope' with an adventurous spirit. It was fun to be in the charged up energy of the Abbott Kinney neighborhood, a small street lined with hip bars and trendy eateries.

We will be helping Eric and his partners get this new site linked up on the web when the launch in April, you'll hear more about this soon.