Tar pits, brazillion dollar homes, a $10 BLT, and a trader named Joe

My sister took me around to see some sights today. Her idea of seeing sights is from the inside of her SUV. However, we did park it long enough to visit a few places.

Our first stop was the La Brea tar pits, which is a pretty cool place. Enclosed in the park is the Page Museum, and it documents the many paleontology finds there. The active pit is enclosed, but the fence is very close and you can see what's going on there. Inside the museum, they have reconstructed many animals - from mammoths to sabre tooth tigers. The tar actually preserves the bones themselves, so they aren't actually fossils. They have a wall of dire wolf skulls, which is pretty impressive.

We then lunched at the Los Angeles Hard Rock Cafe. I had wanted to go to the Hollywood HRC, but it's actually in Universal City. Interestingly, the LA HRC is MUCH closer to Hollywood than the Hollywood HRC is. I've been in many Hard Rock Cafes, and this one lived up to the standard - awesome rock memorabilia (including Prince's purple pants- that's one TINY man) and pretty good food. I had the BLT, which at $10 was a little pricey, but at least it included fries and two really cool toothpicks.

After lunch we drove around Beverly Hills. It was just like on Tee Vee. Swimming pools, movie stars, the whole nine yards. Impressive privacy hedges, too. All the homes are immaculate, and I imagine having a decent landscaping firm that serves Beverly Hills is quite lucrative. And security is, how you say, tight. We saw more Beverly Hills cops in 15 minutes than you'll see state troopers while driving from D.C. to Daytona on a spring break weekend.

Finally, we made our way to - TA DA - Trader Joe's. Mike Gross had told me about TJ's, but it's hard to describe the uniqueness of the place. Most of what they offer is their own branded food, and it's all top-quality, and it leans toward the healthier end of the spectrum with minimal processing. If you're in Charlottesville, think Foods of All Nations without the slightest air of pretensiousness. And with better food. And SERIOUSLY lower prices (one of their mottos is "come save with abandon"). Some of the prices were too low - NOBODY sells pasta for 64-cents a pound, regular price. If you're in Crutchfield's eCommerce department, you can expect some Trader Joe's brownie cookies when I return. Mmmmmmm. I'll begin lobbying them for a C-ville location immediately.

One final note: the times of these posts are Eastern Time, but I'm actually posting on Pacific time, so subtract 3 hours. It's not really Monday yet. At least not here.