My blogging will be at a minimum for at least two weeks. My family is going off to visit my family in California! My son has been counting the days til we leave since August 1st. We are half packed and ready to leave tomorrow. Tomorrow will be airline hell, but by Tuesday I will be happily settling into my California relaxation mode.

I used to love flying. Now, if it wasn't for my family living across the country, I'd avoid flying like the plague. Between Homeland Security's ineffectual but degradingly insulting measures and the airline's incresasingly petty fees and service cuts, the fun has been totally sucked out of air travel, leaving nothing but a husk of misery, anger and bitterness. I used to travel with a smile and just enjoy the ride. Now I fly with a tight lipped sense of dread. Thank you very much airlines. You suck and your suckiness gets worse year after year.

We will be staying with people I used to live with. For 5 years I rented two rooms in a house in the Hollywood Hills originally owned by the infamous movie pioneer D. W. Griffith. When my wife and I chose a venue to get married, this same house provided a lovely backdrop. Now it is one of a few places we stay when we visit Los Angeles. If we need a hotel, we like the Beverly Laurel hotel with its attached diner Swingers. But we perpeturally are short of money, so staying with friends is our usual somewhat inconvenient option. Often we bring offerings of yummy New York food to our hosts. This time it was requested we bring New York bagels...so before we leave we have to stop at Ess-a-bagel to buy a load of the world's best bagels to bring to our hosts.

Upon arrival in Los Angeles, our routine used to be a rental of a Green vehicle. We have tried electric cars, hybrids and biodiesel cars. Sadly, these options have become harder and harder to find. Electric cars and biodiesel rentals seem to be gone completely. And to rent a hybid for 2 weeks would cost us nearly $400 more than a regular rental. That is too much, so we are faced for the first time in awhile to go for a regular rental car rather than a cool eco-car.

But regardless, since I first introduced my wife to the tradition, we have almost always stopped to feast on Tito's Tacos right off the plane. The only exceptions were on Christmas day when Tito's was closed. They aren't the best tacos in the world, but somehow they are the most satisfying.

My son wants to go to the beach and go back to Swingers Diner. My daughter, after first being surly about having to go on the trip (she's 13), admitted she is looking forward to going and is dying to go back to Kado, an expensive but great Japanese restaurant near the farmer's market. My wife may just be hoping to get her mind off her impending Ph.D. dissertation, but she always seems to have been impressed with both Tito's Taco's and Versailles Cuban restaurant with their wonderful roast chicken and roast pork in an orange/garlic sauce. First time she ate at Versailles, my New York raised wife kept repeating, "I can't believe it's so cheap!" And me...I look forward to family, friends, seeing my brother's most recent art creations (see here for the last show of his I saw), maybe some sentimental memories of UCLA through my years, Versailles, Tito's Tacos and the amazing Jody Maroni's sausages on Venice beach. And that calm, happy feeling I get in California that I never quite seem to achieve in NYC.

Have a good couple of weeks!