Westwood

I'm at a conference at UCLA right now. I'm enjoying this visit. The weather is quite nice. I realized on my way out here that I had never actually been to LA before. I had been through the area driving to and from Berkeley and San Diego. I had been to a football game in Pasadena. But this was my first visit to Los Angeles proper. (Disclaimer: I'm not 100% sure I'm in LA proper right now; I haven't checked municipal boundaries.)

Anyway, UCLA is located right on the edge of something called "Westwood Village". My hotel is on the other side.



I was mostly familiar with "Westwood" through the radio network Westwood One. But it turns out that it's a neighborhood of shops, restaurants and offices that's much more traditionally urban than I expected from Los Angeles. I mean, this is the land of the highway, right? But after getting off the 405, I found I didn't have a lot of need for the car. So it's mostly been sitting (at $18/day) in the hotel parking garage. Today, I got tired of walking, so tack on an additional $6 to park on campus.

Anyway, I head back tomorrow, but I just wanted to say that UCLA is definitely a cool place to be for a conference. Great weather, many restaurants within walking distance...what more could I ask for?