Extended Tour

Today really started yesterday when I learned that the group I would be training wouldn’t be in town until tomorrow. As such, I along with my travel companions, were granted a whole extra half day to explore the varied landscapes of Los Angeles County.

Starting at 8am I enjoyed a running tour of LAX. The run was intentional but the tour was not as my running companion and I misjudged the haste required for changing direction and ended up in the 1.5 mile loop of exit doors and hotel shuttle busses departing from the massive baggage claim. Once out of the loop we managed to run a few miles north through a pseudo storefront town that transitioned into neighborhoods. The route provided some excellent large trees to shade the morning sun and the large trees provided ample roots to periodically raise the route upwards up to 3 feet, which made for a nice break from the inevitable monotony of a run.

The day included a $15 egg sandwich at the hotel restaurant and a $7 plate of 3 tacos from a shop in which you walked into the kitchen in order to order and pay for the food. The tacos were one of many highlights of the portion of the day at the ocean, specifically the beaches between the original and modern muscle beaches. The original was cooler. The equipment was awesome (rings, ropes, pull-up and parallel bars) and the people were cool and strong.

A few dozen minutes in the car brought us to the hills of Beverly Hills. High up in the hills the houses were crazy and the views were stunning. At the bottom of the hill the shops were ridiculous but the people not as much as we expected.

The tour closed at the Improve in Hollywood for dinner and comedy. The comics were funny and leveraged their insecurities (a classic comedic trick) to help us all laugh at our own. This worked until the headliner lost his leverage when his insecurities distracted him to the point of begging less engaged onlookers to enjoy his jokes because he was obviously funny because he had been hired to tell jokes at this club. There’s no doubt that he was a student of his craft but I think he may need to bone up on another comedic classic, how to point out the ridiculousness of circular arguments.