My priorities were family and shopping, with four half-days of work woven in to extend my time on the ground. I did nothing that was new, and little that would be of interest to the average tourist. So, rather than proper blog entries, here's a roundup of some random, brief observations.
- I had forgotten just how football dominated Thanksgiving is. Celebrating the holiday for years overseas, for me it's a sophisticated dinner party with dear friends, built around a discussion of how good our lives are. Back in the country of my birth, it was about people drifting back and forth from the buffet at the golf club, bolting down food in between long stretches of sport on a jumbo-screen TV. Yuk. The highlight was heading to the cinema for the fabulous Argo that evening. I'll take my adapted holiday on foreign soil.
- Sport might have made my holiday tedious, but it's turning my nephews into good little lads. Their father, who was sports-mad himself, believes that athletic endeavour keeps kids on the straight and narrow, teaches responsibility and teamwork, and gives them a sense of goal and purpose. His philosophy seems to be working, and American life offers enough options to involve them seven days a week. Though I worry they'll end up one-dimensional. I was reading the 7-year-old a fabulous, interactive iPad version of The Wind in the Willows, but he still had to play football on his own iPad at the same time. I guess the multi-tasking is good, but it sure is a different world from my own childhood.
- You don't have to get up at the crack of dawn for Black Friday deals. Wandering to South Coast Plaza by noon was sufficient, and was the first of multiple days of shopping that topped up my wardrobe and started the fulfilment of the Christmas list. Nothing exotic for me. Macy's, Old Navy, Wal Mart and Trader Joe's accomplished all I needed. Rather amazed at how Asian the mall now is. I'm not talking Californians of Asian descent, but throngs of Chinese-speaking 20-somethings wielding shopping bags from the most expensive brands. Welcome to the new economy.
- We only headed in to downtown LA once, to Little Tokyo for sushi. It's an odd place, not particularly picturesque and just one street over from one of the most crowded skid rows I've ever seen. I wouldn't have wanted to be here without a local; too easy to stray into danger. It's an L-shaped outdoor mall lined with restaurants and shops, with a Japanese-style tower in the middle and a public karaoke stage at the centre. It wasn't the best sushi I've ever had, but by far the biggest rolls.
- The Palos Verdes peninsula remains one of the most beautiful places in the States. Winding streets, lined with palms, bougainvillea and other exotic flowers, wandering past ever more exquisite houses. There are faux French chateau, cutting edge modern architecture and, most often, a Mediterranean palace style that resembles the set of some Errol Flynn pirate flick. If family holidays had been less stressful, I might have noticed this as a child and wanted to live there.
This visit was trouble free, however, thus allowed me to appreciate all that tropical beauty as I headed back to LAX. One day, it was hot and sunny. 48 hours later, I was pulling on snow boots in the French Alps. That's the kind of November it's been.
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