Tag Archives: LA

Hectic trip home on Southwest from LA

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Not in LA anymore

At 5 a.m. we got a text from Southwest telling us that our flight home was cancelled. At first I thought it was our Las Vegas-Des Moines flight, due to snow. But it turned out to be our Burbank-Las Vegas flight — no snow but instead due to labor unrest with the mechanics union, a bunch of flights were cancelled. argh.

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Ditto

We ended up getting a flight from LAX which involved considerable hustle and hassle to get there (a much long Uber ride at 6 a.m.) but we made our close connection without a hitch, thanks in part to a nearly 1/2 hour early arrival. Phew! One trick I learned: I could NOT use the Southwest website to find an alternative flight. It didn’t work. At first I called and pressed the number for the “change existing flight reservation” (or some such)…and the wait for a callback was 55 minutes. So we called back and pressed the number for “make a new reservation” — miraculously, that was an 8 minute wait. (Why help existing customers when you can get new paying customers, right?) As it turns out we didn’t really have 55 minutes to spare because we had to hightail it to LAX for our alternative flight. Live and learn. Bit disappointed in Southwest, which I’ve long flown and liked.

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Filed under Airlines, California, flying, Los Angeles

Sycamore Kitchen, LACMA/LA and Burbank playgrounds

356711D7-13FE-4E6B-9CF1-BA272F0A4507An art exhibit I was dying to see in DC turned out to be in LA this trip, hence our first trip to LACMA, which was a great option on a chilly Sunday. The show, about the interplay between untrained and trained artists, was fascinating and as I suspected, one of my favorite Kansas sights, The Garden of Eden in the small rural town of Lucas got a prominent nod in  the exhibit (“Outliers and American Vanguard Art.”)

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Dora, Denise and Dirck at LACMA

We parked for free on a residential street near LACMA.  Before the museum, we had a good quick lunch at Sycamore Kitchen – the fried cauliflower side was a favorite (in a hot red sauce with a cool creamy dressing).

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Dirck and Dora at Sycamore Kitchen

In Burbank, we have done the tour of playgrounds, thanks to our 6-year-old niece Lucy who prefers Johnny Carson Playground and Betsy Lueke Playground. Dinner tonight was in Venice at my cousin Jenny’s house, with superb food by her husband Jay. We enjoyed walking down the narrow sidewalks lined with beautiful cottages, bungalows and  modern showpieces, plus dense gorgeous foliage and flowers.

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Filed under California, Los Angeles, Uncategorized