There is so much to do in LA that’s it’s near impossible to get to do it all in 36 hours. Now, a lot of it might be possible if it weren’t for the insane traffic on the 405 … at all points during the trip the traffic was at a standstill. I have never seen anything like that in my life!!

So, I haven’t been to LA in years … and I can recall my first trip there quite vividly. I was 19 years old and coming to town for a Bruce Springsteen concert. Needless to say, LA is a great place to visit for the first time but it was a little overwhelming. So many things and so little time.

Although it’s 10 years later, I still had that same feeling when I reached town. I even still got that same feeling when I reached the view of the Hollywood sign, and while walking on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. The good part about this trip is that I would appreciate all the smaller stuff much more this time around. I guess the bad part about seeing so much so young is that you don’t have appreciation (or as much) as once you’re a little more versed in the world and the details of life.

This time I had a hefty list of things I wanted to see and actually got to run through the entire list, thankfully!! I even got to squeeze in time to see on of my dear friends from the industry and formerly Orlando. The trip started by flying into the odd Long Beach Airport as the flight from Vegas wouldn’t go into LAX as much as I would have preferred that option.

From there I checked into my La Quinta by the LAX airport (irony) and waited at the lobby bar for my friends to get there to tear up the town. In just that short time I was able to see a few different sights that were on my list including the Chinese Theatre, Kodak Theatre, and Palladium … which was right across the street from where I was supposed to meet my friend Jenny from Warner Brothers Records.

Jenny, aka J-Flo was the local record company rep in Orlando for the whole time I was at O-Rock 105.9 and we had tons of good times together. Normally record people are slightly shallow and all about themselves and force feeding work down your throat (sorry to my friends in the industry that aren’t like that … Stevo, T-Bird, Johnny Promo, Mark, and the others on that short list) but Jenny was never like that.

I remember on Friday’s she would even come into the station to be on-air with us inbetween the morning show and my show on a segment we called “The Brunch Bunch” … it was 45 minutes of absolute insanity. No format, we just talked about what we thought was funny and topical – and I’m sure it was the topic of many nightmares of my Program Director, Bobby Smith. But, it was awesome and one of those things I know I’ll never forget about being on air in Orlando. Then there were the shows we hit … I remember helping her kid at Projekt Revolution (Linkin Park) Tour when he decided to pull out his tooth!?! Random memories from an awesome person.

So, we were meeting her for her birthday at a bar called “The Well” in Hollywood. And, at first, we weren’t finding her. So, we had some drinks while I texted her trying to see if she was there … no reply. That’s ok, I thought, this is a great bar with killer music and my buddy was diggin’ the hell out of it too. So, there we say enjoying drinks at a vip table when I saw the tell-tale tattoo on Jenny’s arm in my peripheral vision … it’s music notes that wrap around her arm! I tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around said hi and then with a moment of disbelief said ‘Holy fuck!!’ Priceless greeting if you ask me!

From there we took some pictures, we had some b-day shots, she introduced me to her friends and I did the same. This is one of those moments where the thought occurs to you that you really miss certain people. Jenny is one of those people. One of the few friends I would trust with pretty much anything! You know when your car is broken down and you go to call someone for a ride – the lucky person has more than 2 people that they KNOW would drop something and help out. I guess I’m a leprechaun then, as I know I have a dozen plus people on that list … and Jenny is one of them.

So, after a year catching up with her was better than awesome.

The second LA day consisted of a great brunch on Rodeo Drive, driving around the viewing spots of LA, hitting Greystone Manner … follow that link and see all the movies this house has been in. By the way, I wasn’t supposed to really be there but I just walked around the place like it was mine and they didn’t question me. I even ended up on the back patio having a drink overlooking the city – again, NOT supposed to be there.

Check the link on crosscountrycarter.com for the full list of places I checked out in LA and see below for some of the photos.

So glad I hit the City of Angels. I wasn’t expecting to have that much fun as I normally think of LA as a pretty phony place – but having real friends there certainly changed my prospective on that town. Next up … the blog from Napa Valley!!

Dinner time.

Carter