LCT Friends:

I usually send a email journal to my friends at home. While this many not always be fascinating, it's my way of saving the "memories" of our trip. Karen offered to post them here, but I'm on a boradband connection in the hotel, so I'll do it myself. Hope you don't mind if I just share my ramblings. Here's the first installment.

Well, we completed the first leg of our journey. We arrived in LA yesterday right on schedule. Usually we complain about air travel, but I want to tell you about a wonderful experience – at least as wonderful as it can get when flying. First of all, both of our flights were on time, the service was fine, they even fed us some edible food – certainly nothing gourmet, but when you start your day at 5 AM you’re pretty hungry by the time you’re somewhere over Mississippi!

But the best part of our trip started before we even left the ground. As many of you know, while Tom is physically able to walk, he doesn’t go very far or very fast so when we travel I ask for wheelchair assistance.

Some people wouldn’t dream of using this service, even when they could benefit, but they should. Tom’s experience is a fine example. We were staying at the Marriott and we asked for a bellman at 5:15 AM. Tom told him he could walk to the lobby but once we were there his “chariot” was waiting. The young man whisked us off and in minutes we were standing at the shuttle to the planes. Here he handed us off to a Skycap.

So far, nothing really unusual, just fast and friendly service, but our skycap was amazing. He takes us through a special screening line, helping Tom remove his shoes, putting my laptop in the bin, generally shepherding us through the whole process, right down to tying Tom’s shoelaces on the other side of the x-ray barrier.

But wait, it gets better, next he asks if we’d like to stop at Starbucks for coffee. Of course we are dying for a jolt of joe so we divert from the gate to get our coffee. Then he takes us to the gate and insists on checking with the boarding staff to make sure we will have assistance in Houston and LA. At this point we thank him fervently and Tom hands him a tip. We think we’ve seen the last of him, but 20 minutes later he’s back. He boards us first and then even stows our two carry-ons in the overhead bin before he’s on his way to be a good Samaritan to the next needy passenger! So, we started our flights with a smile and real appreciation for someone who knows how to do their job and seems to really like doing it!

The assistance in Houston and LA was fine, but the gentlemen in Tampa really made our day.

LA was sunny but a bit smoggy. It’s been a while since we were last here so we enjoyed the ride to the hotel, just gawking out the windows, and talking about how different the landscape is from home.

Our plan for the rest of the day was lunch, some rest for Tom and a visit to the Los Angles County Museum of Art for me. Months ago I purchased tickets to see the King Tut exhibit. Egyptology is a fascination of mine and I couldn’t pass up this chance.

The museum is only 3 miles from our hotel, so after a nice lunch, I grabbed a cab and went off to see the King! The exhibit is in its closing weeks but I never imagined the crowds that would be there on a Monday afternoon. Lucky me, my 3 PM tour time was shared with about 100 middle school children! I tried to remember my school field trips and how wonderful it must be for these kids to see artifacts from 3000 years ago, but somehow my empathy disappeared as their noise and commotion increased.


I loved the exhibit, but appreciated it much more last night as I reviewed the amazing objects in the photographs in the exhibit catalog. The memory of the King’s artifacts are now at my fingertips, and seeing them in person was worth the trouble.

After leaving the ciaos of Tut, I decided I had to see the Cézanne and Pissarro exhibit. Curated by Joachim Pissarro and organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the exhibition consists of approximately 80 paintings (40 by each artist) and ten drawings that focus on the years 1865–85 when Cézanne and Pissarro worked closely with each other, often painting literally side by side.


It is amazing to see these works displayed together. Often as I moved through the exhibit I was surprised to see how they passed their techniques and visions back and forth. You could see and feel the influence they had on one another. Of course the beauty of their brush strokes and compositions are best appreciated with close examination. It’s well worth seeing!

While my creative soul was sated, my body was reminding me that I’d been going nonstop since before dawn and with the three hour time difference it was time to head back to the hotel. I was surprised that it was getting dark at 5 PM but I had arranged for the taxi driver to return for me at 5:30 so I walked back to our meeting place and found a bench to rest. Unfortunately, my taxi did not arrive. After waiting for a few more minutes I asked a security guard where I could get a cab. He kindly offered to call one for me and directed me to the corner of Wilshire and Ogden where they would pick me up. It was obviously a bad time to try to get a taxi and after 30 minutes I went back to check with the guard. He called again and then send another security guard to wait with me just incase we had another no show. I was happy for the company, it was getting dark and I don’t really know my way around LA. Finally about 20 minutes later the cab arrived and within minutes I was back at the Beverly Hilton, tired but happy to be “home”.

Tom and I had planned to go to Trader Vic’s for dinner. What better way to start a trip to the South Pacific? But, our internal clocks vetoed the idea. A hot shower and room service really seemed a better idea. And, with Monday night football on the 40 inch flat screen TV in our room I had no chance getting Tom to go out anyway.


We plan to sleep in on Tuesday and leave for our ship at around 11:30. So, I’ll check in with you from the ship.