Jim - I'm going to post a reply to your post in the MINT thread on CC over here instead ... it's too hard to keep track of the thread in both locations. We've decided that we're going to drive down from Sacramento on the day before to make sure we don't run into any snags along the way (told you guys we were paranoid!). We booked a room at the Westin LAX through Priceline for $60/night (thanks Todd for that suggestion!).

Masaki