Day 3 – July 2, 2009

 

      We had great plans for this day, but the most ambitious of them died in LA’s famous traffic. After our chorus practice, we set out for downtown Los Angeles to field test my walking tour. On the way, we stopped at the Crystal Cathedral, not far from our hotel, where Sunday services are broadcast all over the world via television. It was certainly an impressive church, very modern and ritzy — it is the lone picture from this day in California.

      Next we headedfor the freeway and our excursion into the downtown. However, we were almost immediately slowed down and virtually stopped in our tracks when we encountered some highway construction. After about a half hour of this stop-and-go stuff, we saw a sign which indicated Los Angeles was still twenty (20) miles away. So, we took the next exit and reversed direction, returning to our hotel, where we hopped the shuttle to the Honda Center to see the Barbershop Quartet semi-finals. The singing was incredible and we soon forgot our previous plans.

      After the competition we took a short walk and then headed south to meet our cousins for dinner. Our reservations were in Newport Beach, a posh LA address, at the Pelican Hill Resort, a magnificent complex overlooking the Pacific. We had a lovely dinner in the Colosseum Grill and chatted the evening away with great conversation and reminiscence.