{"id":6912,"date":"2017-11-29T08:10:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T13:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6912"},"modified":"2017-12-14T09:34:34","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T14:34:34","slug":"la-la-land-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6912","title":{"rendered":"La La Land"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-6913\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/traffic-1024x538.jpg?resize=584%2C307\" alt=\"traffic, Los Angeles\" width=\"584\" height=\"307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/traffic.jpg?resize=1024%2C538&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/traffic.jpg?resize=150%2C79&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/traffic.jpg?resize=300%2C158&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/traffic.jpg?resize=500%2C263&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/traffic.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/>Envision nine days in Los Angeles Thanksgiving week. Is this what you see? This terrifying photo\u2019s \u00a0from 2016, and I\u2019m happy to say it wasn\u2019t that bad this past week. With GoogleMaps directions, we survived. Most days, we got around pretty well. No dents in the rental car. No need to reenact \u201cAnother Day of Sun\u201d from the hit movie <em>La La Land<\/em>. Are you curious how they turned a traffic jam into a musical extravaganza? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2017\/04\/la-la-land-another-day-of-sun-song-video\">Watch how they did it!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>We stayed downtown at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www3.hilton.com\/en\/hotels\/california\/hilton-checkers-los-angeles-LAXCHHF\/index.html\">Hilton Checkers<\/a>, which was close to great restaurants and other walkable destinations\u2014practically straight uphill to the cultural attractions at The Music Center and Center Theatre Group though. For that, we used Lyft.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a 188-room boutique hotel, with a Spanish-style fa\u00e7ade, designed in the 1920s by Charles Whittlesey, who designed the El Tovar at the Grand Canyon. Online sources differ regarding the origin of the name\u2014the staff didn\u2019t know\u2014with some saying it\u2019s named after Chequers, the traditional country retreat of the UK Prime Minister. \u201cRichard Nixon\u2019s dog\u201d gets my vote.<\/p>\n<p>To ease into a different time zone, our first night we ate dinner in the hotel. Given that there were only about three tables of diners, and despite our modest expectations, the food was amazingly good. If we hadn\u2019t had so many other cuisine choices and logistical considerations, we would gladly have eaten there again. Staff was terrific.<\/p>\n<p>Friends who stayed at the Checkers a few years ago report a beautiful rooftop pool. The Internet has pictures of it. We were there nine days and never saw or heard a thing about it. It may be gone or out of season.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Related travel tips:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6927\">Hooray for Hollywood<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6933\">LA Cultural Forays<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6958\">LA Sidetrip: Richard Nixon Library and Museum<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6915\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/coffee-mug-2.jpg?resize=224%2C198\" alt=\"coffee mug, traffic\" width=\"224\" height=\"198\" \/><\/p>\n<p>My favorite museum gift shop coffee mug.<\/p>\n<p>Now THAT\u2019s devotion!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Envision nine days in Los Angeles Thanksgiving week. Is this what you see? This terrifying photo\u2019s \u00a0from 2016, and I\u2019m happy to say it wasn\u2019t that bad this past week. With GoogleMaps directions, we survived. Most days, we got around &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6912\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"La La Land - nine days in Los Angeles. How was the traffic? Where'd you stay? Answers here.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,104,78],"tags":[307,99],"class_list":["post-6912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-real-life","category-the-morgue","category-travel","tag-los-angeles","tag-urban-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Nu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6912"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6968,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6912\/revisions\/6968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}