For my birthday earlier this month, my brother got tickets to see the Mets play the Dodgers in LA on Saturday, July 21st. The only problem was that same week I was scheduled to go up to Keystone to hang out at the condo. Luckily, one of the other owners was willing to switch weeks with me. This worked out perfect. In early June my mom was in town. I was able to switch out my July week for an extra June week. In the end, I was able to get my trip up to Keystone and head out to LA for a weekend.

My brother paid a kings ransom for the tickets, they were free through his company. So, what happened at the game, which I will get to, didn’t hurt the wallet. I arrived on Friday morning in LA, where we went to The Terrace on Washington Blvd. for some brunch. The rest of the weekend was spent either at The Terrance, Baja, or Tony P’s (best sports bar around). There might have been a brief showing at Za Zen, but we didn’t stay long. The weather the whole weekend was spectacular, about 75 degrees the whole time, a little bit cooler at night. Well, that was the case outside of the game. Dodger Stadium is a good 40 minutes from Marina Del Rey. The temperature seemed to rise about 1 degree for every mile (a little exaggeration). Our seats were 7 rows behind the backstop, which provided a great viewing angle… for 3 innings. Seriously, the temperature must have been in the mid to high 90′s, and it was humid. My body was one big sweat ball, it was disgusting. We decided to head to the shade where we made another decision, to go up to the stadium club out in right field. That is where we spent the next 6 innings, drinking our beers and Captain and Cokes in relative luxury… it was air conditioned. I was a little dissapointed about leaving the seats, but I’m pretty sure my body didn’t have enough liquid in it to sweat for another 2 hours. It took my hat 3 days to dry! In the end, the Mets lost the game 8-6. Oh well.

On the way back from the game we were stuck in some nasty traffic, which I consider to be nothing unusual when leaving any event. As we were cruising along, to our left was a truck where the driver was getting himself a “happy ending.” Well, that was until he rear ended the car in front of him. I can’t keep from laughing even as I write about it. The accident couldn’t have been much as no one was going more than 10 mph.

Overall, it was another great trip to LA. Every time I head out there I get to see why people love the weather and the atmosphere there. If only they didn’t have to empty the wallet for housing. Oh well, I’ll just have to settle for weekend trips out there a couple of times each year.