Neon Los Angeles: Last Friday, we took one of the season's last tours of neon art in Los Angeles. Sponsored by The Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles, it's a 3-hour trip around LA on a double-decker bus, viewing the neon and watching the crowds react to the bus. LA is the nation's premier destination for vintage neon - filled with leftover signs still glowing red and blue and purple from the 30's and 40's. By 7:3opm when the bus left, it was windy and cool, and on a bus going 35 mph in the dark, you need to wear a jacket and hat, especially if you're now a thin-skinned Californian. We cruised through Chinatown, up into Hollywood, and heard the same phrase out of our not too inventive guide: "Take a look to the left - that's a famous sign at the XXX." He rarely told us WHY something was famous ... it was sort of a given that if the Museum was showing you the neon, then it WAS famous. I think famous was his code for old. A number of the "famous" signs were dark that October night.

Shortly after we left downtown Los Angeles, we turned down a street that took us through part of Skid Row. There we were, having paid $45 a person for the privilege of driving along in the bus, stopping at Canter's Deli for snacks, and viewing the neon, being waved to by people sitting in the sidewalks preparing to go to sleep for the night. "We love LA" a few yelled. Others gave us the "hang loose" gesture; a woman sitting in front of a small tent waved a white cloth at us. It was as though our double-decker bus meant that we were transported there magically from London; we were tourists, and they were the sights. Or we were.

Would I pay $45 for the tour again? No. It's overpriced, unless you consider it a donation to help the Museum restore vintage neon. You get little real history along the way ("This was a famous hotel"), no real information about neon or the city in the 1940's, and by mid-October, it's chilly. And, it being LA, when you're dropped back at the museum at 10:30pm, there are no cabs to be had. We walked back up to the Hilton along empty streets. And speaking of the Hilton Checkers ... again, if you're a visitor to LA, remember to call for a cab well in advance of when you need it. Otherwise you'll find yourselves as we did ... waiting for a cab with a deadline looming. Eventually the doorman at the Hilton called us a "friend" of his, who drove us 6 city blocks for $7.50 (no meter). Price of arriving on time for the tour - priceless.

Dinner before the tour was at Engine Co 28 Restaurant - an old LA firehouse converted to a restaurant. At 6:00pm, about 3/4 of the tables were occupied. Service was snappy, so it was a good choice for an early dinner before a show or event. The menu isn't terribly inventive, and I'd say the food was average. It was well-prepared, but it wasn't the sort of meal that makes memories. You pay $9.50 for a salad composed of big pieces of romaine lettuce leaves, a few grape tomatoes, and some crumbles of blue cheese. It takes about a minute to plate and contains about $1 of ingredients, if that. The crab cakes were pretty good - a bit spicy, and not too overloaded with bread crumbs. They were served with oven roasted potatoes that had probably been roasted a few hours earlier and left to linger under a heat lamp, and a spoonful of cucumber slaw. Tab for 2 people, with 3 glasses of wine and no dessert: about $90 before tip.