Cookie points the way south, and the Roadkids decide they like L.A. again

WE have gone from the solitude of rock and ocean to the megatropolis of Los Angeles, in order to visit friends and family there. Both of us having lived here in the past, we have held this place in low esteem for many years, for all the usual reasons that people like to bash L.A.

This time, however, the city is making us smile. Maybe it's the lack of smog..we can actually see the from the San Gabriel Mountains to Catalina. Perhaps it's the happy times we are having with friends and family. Certainly the visit to the Getty Museum helped. What an incredible work of architecture in a beautiful setting. I could easily spend our first visit admiring the sightlines and views without ever going in to see the galleries.

The result of all this is that we have decided to spend more time here, taking pictures, visiting galleries, playing with our people. And, digging L.A.; remembering that the traits that we criticize in others may well be those in us from which we hide.