Los Angeles

We left Riverside the next morning, and hit the Quality Inn about four miles west of Dodger Stadium.  We got to the hotel in time to park and grab a cab to the game.  The game was our most exciting to date – going 12 innings w/ a walk-off homerun for the home team to win against Philly.  Yeah!  The stadium was a little dated – check out the old score board pic!  Overall, a clean and well-kept stadium, we’re just a little spoiled with information in newer stadiums.

Because the afternoon game went so long, cabbies were apparently caught up in the horrible LA rush hour traffic.  We waited for over an hour for a cab, amongst some Philly fans and a drunk guy that was apparently kicked out of the game, many hours earlier.   A police officer in an unmarked car had been circling the area, to make sure everyone was off and on their way.  He realized no cabs were coming, and offered to come back after signing out of his shift to drive us closer to our hotel.  We jumped into his car with another passenger and proceeded towards the old Quality Inn.  Turns out the extra passenger was the Philly pitcher Joe Blanton’s mother-in-law.  She was also a retired chief from a nearby county.  She kept joking that we were a target in the unmarked car heading through some so-so areas.  Our police escort dropped us off directly at the hotel.  A big thanks to A.S. (not sure he would want his name included).

After we got back we decided to walk to Sunset Boulevard for some dinner.  One small problem; this section of Sunset Boulevard did not look that safe so walked quickly walked back and hit a Mexican restaurant near the hotel.

The next day, July 19, we stayed in the hotel all morning and early afternoon to catch up on work and do some blogging.  Later on we hit a sushi place for dinner.  Definitely one of the strangest dinners so far and maybe ever.  I had done some research and the place was right near the hotel and had great reviews.  The website went so far as to say “don’t consider ordering a California Roll...”.  We entered the place and found a small sushi bar with two other couples at the bar and the sushi chef behind the counter.  He had one helper / waitress.  Three out of the four customers at the bar were Japanese.  Good sign.  Anyway, the chef asks us what we like and we say anything, but we also like spicy foods.  He goes into a mini tirade about spice being bad because it covers the fish taste.  He literally said “Spice bad, fish good”.  Totally felt like the Seinfeld soup Nazi.  Anyway, he started serving us food at his discretion.  All the food was excellent and he continued to give (order us) us advice on how to eat the food he prepared for us.  Ultimately, the food tasted great and the night was unforgettable.

We left the sushi bar and hit the Mexican restaurant from the night before.  We had a great bartender, Antonio, who gave us the ins and outs of Mexican pop culture (some youth awards were on) and of course of tequila.  They had tequilas that went for over 50 dollars for a shot – somewhat like fine cognac.  We sampled the cheapest one and sipped it slowly.  Couldn’t help but think of Big Daddy!