Back from Los Angeles, where the weather was hot, the burgers cheap and greasy and Sophie overcome by a giggling fit on her first visit to the beach. We'd left the BA on Thursday around 8 pm, just before baby's bedtime, her cries of denial softening into light snores on the Oakland Bay Bridge. Four somnabolant hours later down I-5 we holed up in a Super 8 outside Bakersfield, for the highly reasonable fee of $39.99, tax included. Friday AM we woke for the final push into Tinseltown, down 405 to Wilshire Blvd and a trip west to Santa Monica. The Third Street Promenade was crowded with summerers, and Sophie got bored on the pier so we packed back up and pointed northeast to our hotel in the Hollywood Hills. The Highland Gardens, formally the Larchmont, featured huge 2-bedroom suites, central swimming pool, lush bourganvillia and palm trees overgrowing the faded prewar architecture, and a healthy dose of lore: Janis Joplin spent her last days here, before going poke one over the line in 1970 in room 105. We had room 224, with a balcony, blaring AC, full kitchen setup and room for six more. Next time. Tomorrow would be earlyish, with a tour of the MetroArt meeting at Hollywood / Highland at 10 am. We clicked on the news, heard the glove got shipped out to Boston, and promptly fell asleep in the king-sized bed for 11 hours til Sophie woke us the next day..