Thanks for the upgrade! and other Los Angeles, CA Warning Or Danger Tips

On my last two trips our rental car was upgraded from an intermediate, in one case to a minivan which was welcomed since we had two kids and two adults plus two more adults on a couple of occasions.

On my most recent trip they gave me an SUV which was not welcome. After checking out the Beast, I went back into the office and begged them to please give me something smaller. I'm not used to driving big cars, I didn't want to pay for the gas and I didn't relish the idea of grandma having to get herself in and out of the beast. We finally settled on a PT Cruiser which I eventually got used to.

I think the LA airport rents a lot of family friendly vehicles, minivans and SUVs, and most business people want regular size cars. I did see plenty of 4 door options as I was going through the garage, not sure why I couldn't have one of those but I suspect the higher paying business customers get first crack at them.

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If you drive in Los Angeles, you will get stuck in a traffic jam. I wasn't there long enough to figure out exactly when rush hour is but it seemed like any time of day I would get on a freeway, there would be a traffic jam, sometimes due to an accident (and a gapers delay on the other side), sometimes just because it was the wrong time of day.

If you have more than one person in your car, keep an eye out for car pool lanes, they don't always move much faster than traffic but sometimes they do.

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Although I think that Southern California has experienced an unusual amount of rain this year, sunny LA was anything but on our recent trip. Be sure to check out the weather reports, after checking with Grandma, I took out everything short (shorts, short sleeved shirts) and repacked long (long pants, long sleeved shirts).

And when the sun did deign to make an appearance the smog was so thick that taking pictures of anything more than 10 feet away was sort of pointless.

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I didn't run into any trouble on either of my visits to downtown LA but I was a little uncomfortable as I walked from Olvera Street to the Grand Central Market on my first visit as it was a totally deserted even though it was a beautiful sunny day in the middle of a work day.

On my second visit the LA Conservancy tour started at Pershing Square, once a lovely tree filled park but now a place where you will encounter many homeless people. I'm not suggesting that you don't go there especially if you are meeting up with the LA Conservancy, I felt perfectly safe as I wandered around with the group, but just be aware of your surroundings and your valuables.

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