oops, shoulda responded here! The Westin is my old stomping grounds, it's next door to South Coast Rep where O_a and i used to work. Pretty, spendy hotel with a very nice heated rooftop pool (and if you make nice with the bartenders, they will take and deliver drink orders to said rooftop pool, even if you are clearly not a guest of the hotel.)
It means that you will be spending a LOT of time in cars, and will want to try and arrange pickups before rush hour starts. Try to avoid having anyone from the LA/Pasadena area pick you up or drop you off between 3 and 8pm, especially on Friday! If unavoidable, enjoy lots of car chat time :)
If you want to spend lots of money there's a pedestrian bridge across the big street to South Coast Plaza - the central shopping hub of Costa Mesa. Lots of dining (and drinking) options and a carousel. Also obscenely expensive couture.
eta: a very nice hotel to slounge in, indeed! i was always very jealous of the affluent actors who could afford to stay there on long show weekeneds.
Oooh, there's also "The Spa" in walking distance...i forget what kind of deals they have but you might be able to get a day-use pass or something. Really nice facility, salt water lap pool, suana, eucalyptus steam room, hot tubs with cooled washcloths floating in iced water with cucumbers....i had a few luxurious spa days there with some coworkers. very good times. I'm pretty sure if you get any kind of treatment (e.g. massage) you get full run of the spa all day. It's verrah nice and relaxing. The kinda place where they provide fluffy bathrobes, all the towels you could ever think to want, flavoured showers (no really, each shower stall has a unique "flavor"), razors, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, mouthwash, disposable toothbrushes, deodorant, shorts, tshirts, socks, flip flopspretty much all you have to provide to work out is underpant, shoes, and swimsuit. Actually, i think they will even provide loaner swimsuits, i just find that icky.
The Spa. I should totally get a discount for my glowing recommendation :)
Unfortunately, I will miss amyth because I will be in the SF Bay Area. I'm heading up on Jan 6. Performing on Jan. 8 at The Freight and Salvage. Will probably kick around a week before heading up to Harbin Hot Springs (unless roads require snow tires in which case my plans will change). I'd be up for meeting Buffistas. Unlike last time, I'm not trying to squeeze in a lot of research at UC Berkeley or Davis so I have more time to meet folks, if they're up for it. I'm slowly filling my appointment book with lunch, tea, etc. with offline and online folks...
Costa Mesa is very close to me, too.
Hey aymth! Mom just reminded me that she and I have plans to go to The Bowers Museum on Wednesday. It's about 20 minutes from Costa Mesa and Mom's kind of excited about the possibility of meeting up with buffistas there. Does that sound like something you'd like to do?
Laga, I posted about this in Natter and put it in the email that I think you are copied in on, but I should have posted it here as well. Sorry for the oversight!
There has been a change in plans. The second half of my friend, T.'s consulting gig was canceled, so we're not going to Costa Mesa after all. We're flying back to Portland Tuesday evening. So we're getting in Sunday night, staying at the Omni downtown, and leaving Tuesday when T. is done with work. A whirlwind trip!
Thank you so much for thinking of me, though! If there's any way to still squeeze in some F2F time, I'd like to, but I understand if it doesn't work out this time, since I'll be there for less than 48 hours.
Just landed in LA! Email insent to LA-istas. Let's make plans!
Will x-post in Natter.
So, now that we'e past the holidays, where are we on F2F planning? IIRC, St. Louis and KC and maybe Denver are still in the mix? Minneapolis?
Yeah, I'd love to get something on the calendar soon, late spring and early summer is open for me right now but I know that will change quickly.
