Attended the L.A. Boat Show with some friends today. It was surprisingly small. I recall attending a boat show years ago, in Dallas (at Market Hall), and it was enormous. This boat show didn't even seem like half the size of that boat show.

I wasn't interested in a boat, but I do have a friend who has a boat and was looking to purchase some accessories for it. Also they had lots of booths on houseboats and houseboating on lakes here in California. I've been on a houseboat on Lake Shasta several times and it is very fun. I may go with them up to Lake Shasta if my work schedule allows it.

Also at the convention center was HempCon. I don't have much to say about that.

I mentioned my favorite hike awhile back. However the hike I linked to isn't actually mentioned (in its entirety) at the link I gave. The reason? Because, as far as I can tell, it is not mentioned at any of the hiking sites that I know about. I call it the Temescal / Will Rogers Hike. It is around 13 miles with a total elevation of about 1100 feet (most of that in the first 2 miles).

The basic path is to start from Temescal Gateway Park heading north. This is the hardest climb you will have during the hike. You get some very nice views of Santa Monica.

Eventually you will come to a fork. You can either go down to the waterfall or you can go up toward Skull Rock. Go to Skull Rock. After you pass Skull Rock you'll walk above a housing development and later on some power lines.

Eventually you will come to a dirt road and you will see this post.

Continue north along the dirt road.

You will eventually see the following sign. It will be facing the opposite way that you are walking and, at times, may be easy to miss.

Eventually you will come to a sign that says Backbone Trail at a 'T' in the road. Head east. There are some very good views of Century City and, later on, the valley.

This is the longest portion of the hike. After around 6-7 miles you will reach Will Rogers State Historic Park. Head toward the polo ground and then head west toward the bathrooms (and drinking fountains!). To the west of the bathrooms the trail continues.

At a point around 1-1.5 miles before completion of the hike you will come to a fork. You can either go up onto a hill or stay down below. Go up onto the hill. The other way is an unmaintained path. I don't know where it goes, but I did mistakenly hike on it for a few hours the first time I took this hike. Big mistake.

Last night is not the first time I have been to Universal CityWalk, but it was the first time I'd been to it at night. A group of us first had dinner at Tony Roma's and then spent about an hour at Howl at the Moon. A fun time.

Went with some co-workers to the Lucky Strike bowling lanes at LA Live. It is interesting how bowling lanes have (apparently) changed. At this bowling alley it is dimly lit, you sit on couches, there are giant projection televisions at the end of the lanes, plus there is a sit-down restaurant near the bar. Oh, and after 7pm there is a fairly strict dress code. At a bowling alley! How bizarre that seems to me.

Maybe this experience is not typical, but, to contrast, every bowling alley I've ever been to (the last one I went to was nearly 10 years ago) was very well lit, you sat on plastic seats (that were typically some bright shade of orange, lime green, or yellow), the people were very casually dressed, and there were no televisions except at the bar. To be fair I've only been to a handful of bowling alleys in my life.

I bowled a hard fought 61 and came in last of five bowlers. This is likely the reason I've rarely bowled. None-the-less it was a fun time with good people.

I currently work in downtown Los Angeles. I sit at a desk on the 43rd floor of one of the taller buildings along Flower Street. I occasionally wonder just how resistant to collapse these buildings are. How big would an earthquake have to be to bring down the building I am in? It's not an entirely idle thought. I was at work when a smallish (4.5) earthquake struck. I could look out the window and see the sway of the building. It was not a pleasant experience.

When I first moved to Los Angeles four years ago I was overwhelmed with the different districts and neighborhoods in the city. Where the heck was Valley Village or Canoga Park? I realized fairly quickly that I needed to learn where all these places were located if I wanted to get anywhere. I found two invaluable sources. The first is a map put out by LA Almanac. They have the on-line version, but I bought a full color map that hangs on the wall of my office. The second is Wikipedia's list of districts and neighborhoods of Los Angeles. A pretty decent summary of nearly all these areas can be found starting with that page.

It took awhile, but several years after moving to Los Angeles I discovered the ArcLight. Yeah, they have a fantastic selection of popular movies and arthouse movies. But the real reason to love them is threefold: assigned seating, alcoholic beverages served before and after the film, actual age restrictions for some showings of movies. If only all theaters did this. I may have to start going to the theater again.

Probably the best hiking site for the Los Angeles area is This Hiking Trail. It's the site where I first discovered my favorite hike. I just recently discovered the trailhead to a hike very close to where I live. It's a moderate distance at 7.8 miles, but is fairly strenuous at over 2000 feet in elevation from start to highest point. The point of all this is to show the usefulness of the site. It lists several dozen area hikes, links to other hiking sites, and (actually useful) comments from other hikers.

Went to the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant in Van Nuys tonight. I did not know what to expect, but it was really very good.