I have been out to Los Angeles three times and it has become my very favorite vacation spot. My first visit there in September, 1978 to celebrate my 21st birthday with my father and brother. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Santa Monica, and the location was just simply fabulous! Just imagine: staying right across the street from the world-famous Santa Monica pier; Palisades Park, where the palm trees stick up so high, and the excellent ocean views, you will think that you're on the Promenade de Anglais in Nice.

The room that I stayed at was right above the exit of the Santa Monica Freeway and had an excellent view of the city, especially a partial view of the Pacific Ocean.

Just a few feet down from the pier is the world-famous Santa Monica Beach. I just love lying on this world-famous stretch of beach, as well as walking the streets, listening to the oldies that I have taped off the radio stations here in Philadelphia. Can you imagine: being on vacation in another city and you're listening to something that you taped off the radio in Philadelphia? It's just a wonderful feeling.

Also within walking distance of the hotel are the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, where the Academy Awards were held during the 60's, as well as numerous rock concerts (my brother went to see Al Stewart of Year of the Cat fame there)and award shows; the Santa Monica Courthouse, where celebrity trials and divorces have taken place, the world-famous Third Street Shopping Promenade, Sears, Robinson's, and a supermarket. A MC Donald's and an IHop were located right across the street from the hotel.

Who says that you need a car to get around Los Angeles? That is not true! There is public transportation in Los Angeles. In fact, there are bus routes in Santa Monica that will take you into Beverly Hills, Westwood, West Los Angeles, the Mid-Wilshire district, to UCLA, down to Venice, and into downtown Los Angeles. In fact, the Holiday Inn where I stayed at is located on a bus route that takes you along Wilshire Boulevard into downtown Los Angeles. For example: my brother and I went to see a taping of “The Price is Right” at the CBS studios.

We got off at Fairfax Avenue and took another bus to Beverly Blvd., where CBS is located. They separated everybody who was eligible to be a contestant. My brother was picked, and I wasn't. That's because they wanted you to have a drivers' license and a Social Security card. The song Disco Inferno by The Trammps and the late announcer, Johnny Olsen, warmed us up before the show started. After the show, my brother stayed to see a taping of The Mike Douglas Show, which had just moved to Los Angeles from Philadelphia, while I went across the street to see the 1974 film, The Lords of Flatbush; which featured a then-unknown Sylvester Stallone.

I also used this same bus route that continued up Fairfax Avenue to Sunset Blvd. continue on into Hollywood to connect to another bus that took me to Burbank, where I took a tour of the NBC Studios. On this particular tour, they were taping the short-lived Dick Clark's Live Wednesday, and there were also a few Elvis Presley imitators there as well.

My next visit to Los Angeles was in May of 1981, but this time, I went on my own. I did not stay in Santa Monica, but at the Holiday Inn (now the Hollywood Renaissance) in Hollywood. I flew down from San Francisco, and then took a shuttle bus from LAX to the hotel, but when I got there, my room wasn't quite ready yet.

I once again spent some time down in Santa Monica. I noticed a huge shopping mall, Santa Monica Place, right across the street from the Holiday Inn, which was not there during my previous visit. I went inside of this beauty supply shop, and asked the clerk when this opened up. She told me that it had opened up the previous November (1980) . It was something like the Gallery, a huge indoor shopping mall in downtown Philadelphia. But as usual, I went to lie on the beach listening to the oldies that I taped off of the radio in Philadelphia. I also took tours of both the movie stars' homes and Universal Studios, which I took on my previous visit, and I even took a bus tour Palm Springs. Once you're an hour east of Los Angeles, it is nothing but desert country, but saw a taping of The Tonight Show at NBC, and we were all was standing in line for practically three hours before we got in. The only guest that I can remember being on there that day was Joan Rivers.

August, 1983 was my next visit to Los Angeles. I was going to relocate there permanently from my native Pennsylvania.. I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Glendale, which was located right by the Ventura Freeway, and it was a short walk to the Glendale Galleria. Right by the hotel was a bus route that took me into Burbank, where I connected to bus routes that took me to North Hollywood and Van Nuys. I later on stayed in North Hollywood, Venice, and Hollywood.

One day, after I came from a job interview in Van Nuys, I took a bus on Ventura Blvd., destined for the LAX Terminal, which went down the San Diego Freeway to Sunset Blvd, right through Bel Air and past the UCLA campus. I was in Westwood in just a matter of a few minutes! Amazing! I thought it would have taken longer than that! I traveled this route a few times more during my stay there, and there was a transit stop right there on the UCLA campus which took me into Santa Monica.

I needed to find a job, but I still had some fun. Not only did I once again go down to Santa Monica, but I went to see a taping of Press Your Luck, which was about to debut on CBS. Even though it was only a half-hour game show, it lasted for nearly three hours because of technical problems. The same thing happened the day before, and the gave everybody the opportunity to go see a taping of Wheel of Fortune, but I didn't go see it.

Well anyway, after the taping, I took the bus on Fairfax Avenue, right by the studio to Wilshire Blvd, and then got on another bus headed towards Santa Monica, but I got off in Beverly Hills instead. There was some type of awards show that night, while at the same time, the musicians were on strike. Later on, when it started to get dark, I took a walk on Wilshire Blvd listening to my tapes, and I just had that good feeling inside of me. I later stopped at a MC Donalds, I turned around, and then all of a sudden, I could have sworn that Mr. T was standing right behind me, but I didn't say anything.

My search for a new job not only took me into Santa Monica, but Beverly Hills, downtown Los Angeles, Westwood, West Los Angeles, and into Burbank, Glendale, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, and North Hollywood. I applied at staffing agencies and checked the local papers as well, but the best that I could get were these telemarketing jobs, which were located in Van Nuys, North Hollywood, and Santa Monica.

It was also the first time that I ever saw it rain there. I remember coming back from another job interview, and I went into this men's clothing store in the Galleria in Glendale just to get out of the rain, and I said to him “Welcome to sunny California.” Ten days later, it rained for two days, and this was in September. Normally, the rainy season in Los Angeles is during the winter, and this was really strange. Now get this: one night, while I was sitting in my hotel room in North Hollywood watching the movie Valley of the Dolls, I saw flashes outside, and I thought that somebody was taking pictures outside of my window, but it wasn't. I turned on the local 11 o'clock news, and I found out that it was lightning. Again, this was in early October, which was kind of weird. Lightning in Los Angeles in October? Wow! I couldn't believe it.!

Unfortunately, for family, financial, and personal reasons, it didn't work out, and I returned home to Philadelphia. I flew out to Los Angeles on Continental with an open-date round-trip air ticket. While I was still out there, they were in bankruptcy, and they stopped all of their flights into Philadelphia.

Coming back, I flew from Los Angeles into Denver, which was no problem. From Denver, I took another Continental flight into Washington's Dulles Airport; one flight from Denver into New York was already overbooked. Luckily, there was a United Airlines flight at Dulles which left San Francisco earlier in the day, which then was going on to Philadelphia. I got on the flight and was back in Philadelphia sooner than I thought

When I stepped off the plane in Philadelphia, my family was not only there to meet me, but I experienced some culture shock! I'm thinking to myself, “Where am I?”, “Philadelphia Inquirer?” “Al Meltzer and the Channel 10 News?” I had been away for two months and I needed to get readjusted to East Coast life again.

Both Los Angeles and Philadelphia have different weather contrasts. On all three occasions when I left Los Angeles, it was sunny/partly cloudy, but when I got back into Philadelphia, it was raining.

Well anyway, twenty-four years is a long-time to be away from your favorite vacation spot, and I would still like to go back there and visit. There is no place in the world for me to take a vacation than Los Angeles, California. And on my next visit there, you'd better believe that I'll be staying right there in Santa Monica.