spectacular views |

Today, Monday, was a hell of a Monday. Meetings starting at 8:30am in DTLA, traveling to Gardena for meetings, then back to DTLA, over to Koreatown for a block of more meetings, then back to DTLA for some fun at Spire 73 atop the Grand Wilshire Intercontinental (or whatever it’s called). It was kinda crazy. But I did enjoy the view up top and this time, I got to see the view as it overlooked the PwC building. Pretty pretty cool.

Capturing the entirety of the building

Can see the helicopter pad in this one

Looking over towards the US Bank building

The panorama shot isn’t my best

Looking north towards Glendale

Me and Ari

The old First Interstate building

After this, I walked over to the Ace Hotel and met up with Doug and Sloan, with Doug being one of Larry’s college friends and coworkers. They’re out in town for work and we were able to meet up for dinner tonight with them and their adorable toddler son, Silas. Ended up going to Perch and having a great time – very fun to catch up and also get to go to Perch as I’d been wanting to go there for a long time. Got a pretty cool set of couches to sit on. Fun times!

This morning, Larry & I met up with the gang (this time, it was Nicki, Brian, George, Rob & Jamal) to do some hiking! Nicki had warned us that it would be a more difficult hike than our previous one in November (which is when we hiked in the Santa Monica Mountains along the Mandeville Canyon trail – I have pics but they weren’t posted as that was during my lazyass posting phase) and she was NOT lying.

Ignore that initial straight red line - I think the app was freaking out. — Ignore that initial straight red line – I think the app was freaking out.

We met along Lake Hollywood Drive, at which point you park and then hike up a little road to the trailhead. We didn’t do what it looks like most people do, which is take on the direct path to the top of the trail at a place called Wisdom Tree; instead, we went along the mountains to the San Fernando Valley side first, getting great views of Universal City and Burbank. The hike had been along a decently-wide trail but at a point where you’re looking right out at NBC Burbank and Warner Bros, our path turned vertical. Yep, it was time to hike up the mountains so we could approach Wisdom Tree from the back. Despite it being more than what Larry & I had bargained for, the effort was well worth it. As we progressed ever higher up the mountain, the views of the Valley were amazing. It being Sunday, the smog was pretty much minimal and in fact, the whole area was pretty damn clear. It did get annoying as we’d hit what seemed like a summit only to find yet another peak to climb. Even though our elevation was only about 1600 feet at the max, it was a rapid elevation and pretty tiring. Yet when we got to that last summit and hit the ridge that allowed you to see all of Los Angeles (non-valley), it was invigorating and all worthwhile. I’ve put all my pictures up and Google/Picasaweb was nice enough to automatically stitch my attempts at panoramic photos for me! Take a look:

Universal City Panorama:

San Fernando Valley Panorama:

Los Angeles Panorama:

So yeah, it was awesome and the weather really cooperated. Here’s the whole suite of pics below though, just in case you want to see some more action shots and more of the harrowing journey we embarked upon!