[Los Angeles] Another kind of Greek Island

(Written 3 days ago)
As planned, I did nothing yesterday. That is, I blogged. I worked out. I hung out by the pool. I waited for Jared. Oh, and I went to the ATM.

It’s amazing the way they’ve managed to take a pool surrounded by parking lots, plant a few trees, and make it very pleasant. I read and swam, swam and read and easedropped. A mother with 4 young boys played in the pool (after the kids couldn’t entertain themselves anymore and the mother had to give up her sunbathing). Parents and their lovely grown daughter sunbathed. Two 20-something men, who did not appear to be lovers, discussed their childhoods and their experiences with their fathers and their backyard pools. One drank a Midori sour, the other beer.

I wasn’t sure if I was finished when I left the poolside, but I wanted to have time to do some research and shower before Jared returned. It was too much time.

When he returned from class and taking care of business, it turned out Jared was jealous. He wanted to do nothing too. So, we decided not to go anywhere last night either – to stay in the airport complex. Between the hotel and the self-parking area there’s a sign that reads “California Pizza”, and we thought that sounded like an excellent low-key dinner option.

However, we’d read the sign wrong. The sign indicated the “California Pizza” restaurant supply headquarters. We were back to square one. So, we began walking down the “street”. It has about 4 lanes in each direction, a grassy area, and a sidewalk. The street serves office-park-style hotels and the occasional… office building. We walked about a mile along it, and then down a similar street that also served a lot of surface parking facilities and a Burger King. We were not hopeful. We began weighing our options: Burger King or the hotel restaurant. Ugh!

As we followed the roadway away from the airport, the hotels got lower-brow. We passed a Super 8 with a sign that it also had a Greek Restaurant. Hmm… We peered inside. Nothing promising. But then we rounded the corner and found our place. It was a divey little place with Greek tourism posters on the white walls. Maybe it was a converted garage or fast food joint – the building was a strange shape. Keep in mind that we were completely surrounded by surface parking lots for airport parking and cheap hotels for at least a mile in each direction.

The service was very slow – I was just as likely to get up and get us whatever we needed as the waiter was – and the food was fine. After a while, when the other patrons had left (it was well after 9 PM at this point) they changed the music from whatever strange soft rock they were playing (I’d never heard any of those songs before) to heavy metal, which we figured was our cue to leave. It turned out to be one of those odd experiences you only have when you have no idea where you are or where you’re going… when you don’t plan. It was fun.