Descending from the San Bernadino Mountains, the greater Los Angeles area stretches out before us as far as the eye can see. Hungry, we pull off and are immediately rewarded with a Hooters restaurant in Ontario.
| Ahhh Hooters girls. (picture taken from www.hooters.com) |
Some guys come over to our table after noticing our Michigan hats and ask if we have any tickets for the game. Unfortunately we do not have extras, but give them the # of someone we know who does. Seems tickets are a hot commodity. As of now we have nowhere to stay, fortunately the restaurant has a hotel guide which we pick up and choose a place closer to the coast, near Universal city. After finishing dinner we head towards the hotel and I remember what LA traffic is like. It's nice to have 5 lanes to play around with, though not as much when it's moving at 5 mph.
The hotel is less than perfect but we settle in and watch the second half of the Michigan State/Nebraska game. The big ten is disappointing me so far and I'm now out 20 bucks I had bet on the Sparties as they get thumped 17-3.
As I take my morning shower I learn another aspect of the hotel, a 10 minute shower requires about 25 minutes for the tub to finish draining. We will not be staying here the entire trip. We pack up and head for Santa Monica Beach to enjoy the day.
| We drove down Santa Monica Boulevard to get a non highway view of the area and suddenly came out on the Pacific Coast Highway to find the beach. Though partly cloudy this is alot better than being in Michigan. | 
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 | Beachfront buildings at Santa Monica Beach. |
| I have no idea how those bluffs stay in place but lucky for me I don't live at the top of them... all right all right, I'm jealous, I'd live up there in a heartbeat. | 
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Once again we have nowhere to stay so we hop on one of the many highways to look for a Best Western or Holiday Inn or something along those lines we can see from the highway. Hunger takes over so we pull off to go to an Outback Steakhouse but see a Black Angus instead. Having never eaten there I choose Black Angus and am rewarded with one of the top 10 pieces of prime rib I have ever had. Shortly after we find the Shilo Inn in Pomona. Our room includes free buffet breakfast at the sports bar next door so we get the place for three nights. Life is good, I never want to leave.