Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised by the nicely refurbished and mod-looking Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. The service was great, the hotel nicely maintained and the immediate vicinity full of nice shopping and restaurants.
As usual, southern California had gorgeous weather -- sunny and 80 to 85 -- not a cloud in the sky and no oppressing humidity (which I had just left in Michigan). Simply gorgeous. The only thing that confused me were the locals' complaints about the hot weather. I couldn't have asked for better weather, and I wonder what they were used to normally. After all, they basically live next to the desert!
Sometimes, I think that you really do get soft skinned when you live in near-perfect conditions all the time.... you lose appreciation for how great you have it. (I sure wish it had been that nice in Madison, Wis. the following week.)
Anyway... that wasn't the loopy part of the trip. One of the nice features of the area was this outdoor shopping/plaza area full of nice restaurants, cool stores and entertainment options, including a wine tasting, live jazz and whatnot. It was a nice little area, and very fun.
In the middle of it all though, were these weird statues and "decorations" -- I really couldn't figure out the "theme," but figured that it might have been built for a movie at one time and they just left it up.
On my last day, I was glancing through the hotel guide when I noticed the name of the shopping plaza... it was called the Babylon Plaza! Now why anyone would want to associate a shopping plaza as the city of the infamous tower and the mad king, I cannot imagine. Perhaps they think that a war-torn, ancient Middle Eastern city is chic?
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