If you ask people their feelings about New York versus Los Angeles, you are likely to get a strong opinion regardless of their preference. Personally, I happen to be a bigger fan of “The Big Apple“. That’s not to say “The City of Angels” doesn’t have a lot going for it, rather, that I too have a strong opinion and it happens to be a right coast slanted one (see picture below).
Before I get into my rant I would like to preface this post by saying that Felicia and I were both working in Costa Mesa California a few weeks ago. La Roche Posay, a division of L’Oreal, was hosting an educational seminar that happened to be held in a hotel within walking distance of one of our E*Trade offices. When I made this discovery a few months ago, I quickly and courageously instituted the E*Trade exchange program. After getting the green light, I decided to join my wife on a Wednesday night. Since we were forced to be in sunny California getting paid to work, we decided that we would conquer L.A. and make a weekend out of our visit.
It just so happened that the Lakers were playing their long standing NBA rivals the Boston Celtics Friday at the Staples Center. Without hesitation weeks prior, I became one in a long line of online shoppers purchasing tickets through EBay. We arrived early for probably the most notable piece of this excursion and blended in with the locals at Fox Sports Bar and Grill.
The purple and gold clad environment seemed a comfortable scheme of hues for me but it was probably just another sports bar for Felicia. Now, team spirit is one thing but Lakers fans seem to be rather extreme (this coming from a Yankee fan). We found women at the bar that were on a first name basis with the bartender (Jeff). 
They could recite Kobe Bryant’s statistics from his 81 point performance against Toronto last season or even run down the complete roster of any of the famous “Lakeshow” teams. There were grown men with even more developed mid sections wearing jerseys appropriate for elementary school kids. And when a couple of acquaintances from Denver joined us for drinks, the hissing towards the fellow Western Conference team, the Nuggets, started to rain down. This of course all became the highlight of the evening. The game itself was rather anticlimactic to say the least. Kobe Bryant (who irks me to no end) dropped 20 points in the first quarter and seemingly broke the hearts of the scattered Boston fans. Eventually, the Lakers went on to win by… well who really knows? We left mid-way through the 4th quarter.
That night we drove one and half hours north to Ventura to stay and hang out with one of Felicia’s friends from Connecticut who now lives with her boyfriend. After slugging it out with other drivers in the infamous L.A. traffic we arrived in the quiet beach town in the valley. In true vacation fashion, we opted to head to the club rather than get some much needed rest after a long week of travel and work. 
Club Hush plays host to the local hip-hop fans and college students looking to pursue that oh so elusive career as a “film director”. We met people as far away as Boston and as odd as a small unrecognizable town in Minnesota.
With our thoughts thoroughly focused on a hassle free exit from Cali, we decided to head back south towards L.A. and Santa Monica. This is where our trip took a turn for the bizarre.
Choosing to check into a hotel to avoid imposing on any other friends, we discovered that it was perhaps the most inopportune time of the year. We would have had better luck jumping to safety from a 20 floor building with cement boots than finding a regular hotel rate on Oscar’s Eve. That’s right! As dumb luck would have it, the Oscar’s were being held the following day and the only rooms in town were small boutique (meaning expensive) closets in Beverly Hills. Without alternatives at the time we opted to just make it happen.
Upon pulling up to the Mosaic Hotel and unloading our less than Beverly Hills priced luggage, we stepped into #1 of two major surprises. It appears as though the hotel took our online reservations in error as they in fact were oversold for the night. Without vacancy they were forced to pay our room rate and tax at a neighboring boutique hotel - uuhhh okay if you insist! The two of us feigned being bothered and relocated ourselves one block to the trendy Maison 140 Hotel.
After touching all four walls with several less than well choreographed turns in place, I embellished the hunger I was feeling so that we could breathe some fresh air. Better yet, air that itself had the chance to benefit from its own qualities - outdoors. We drove toward Sunset Blvd. and Miyagi Sushi with purpose. There we stumbled onto surprise number #2 for the night. Now picture this…The restaurant is approximately 40% open air. Meaning there are patios and decks that allow patrons to take advantage of the sights and sounds of L.A.
The real issue with this is that despite the meathead bouncers at the door, management is apparently unable to control all who enter. It wasn’t until our sushi order was placed that we notice a tiny field mouse scurry across the floor toward a baby grand piano in the corner of the room. Now ordinarily this would have given me great pause – only to be followed by a quick departure. This instance however, seemed manageable. After all, our food was being prepared within sight at a counter top bar. The restaurant had nothing but “A” ratings and that seemed to carry more weight since we were in a major city.
Felicia expressed her displeasure with the waiter who in turn asked the manager to come and speak with us. In return for our bravery, the manager decided to “comp” our meal and even offered dessert and drinks. Our bill for the night read something like this:
1 Night in a Beverly Hills boutique hotel: $0
2 Meals at the famous Miyagi Sushi on Sunset: $.01
Keep in mind that we did other things on our stay to California but none seemed as interesting as the story I just shared so I think I’ll stop while I’m ahead… and by the way, we did leave a tip!
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