Globe trotter

Howdy, folks. It's been awhile. I returned from Hawaii two weeks ago, then hopped another plane this past Tuesday to go to Los Angeles. Still in La-La Land, though taking a red-eye tonight back to Washington, D.C.

The first photo is of me an hour ago on the balcony of our hotel in Redondo Beach. The second is of me at the Manhattan Beach pier earlier this week, scarfing a bubble-gum and grean tea ice cream cone.

I'm here for E.'s UCLA tennis team reunion. At a UCLA-USC tennis match scheduled for earlier today, all the old players were going to be called down to center court and recognized at the switch-up.

But the cold rain and the winds came, and the game was postponed to tomorrow. Sigh. There's also going to be a party tonight for tennis alumni and their families in Brentwood (O.J. Simpson's neighborhood). But traffic was murder getting down here from West LA.

And I have a plane to catch. So instead of going mano a mano on the I-405 in rush hour, I'm going to enjoy the waning rays of the sun and leisurely head to the airport.

After all, I can't miss my flight (which arrives before dawn tomorrow). Sunday morning is the George Washington Parkway Classic 10-Miler, the race I won the essay contest for.

Speaking of running: I ran 10 miles on Wednesday on Melrose Drive in West LA, past tons of tanned, aggressively-Botoxed men and women lunching al fresco mid-afternoon at pricey cafes. And ran two 14-milers over the past two weeks, along with several shorter runs and one track workout.

But now I must go to catch the sunset over the Pacific. I've got a great view from our hotel room. It's my favorite time of day. The air looks golden, the ocean is a steely blue, and I can hear the seals in the ocean bark to each other.

Sunset in LA. Dawn in DC. As we used to say in high school, "Later days, dude."