Hollywood, Jan 2026
We left in the dark. The alarm went off at three. We moved through the house without turning on many lights. The airport came fast. The line. The gate. A short delay in Atlanta. Then Fort Lauderdale and the heat when the doors opened.
Way too early of a Flight
The hotel was a block from the boardwalk. We dropped our bags and went out again. Lunch was tacos and margaritas with Joe and Mary. Serge and Lisa stayed back. I went to find a bike.
Our Hotel
The first shop wanted to keep my ID. I said no. The second shop handed me a Specialized. It wasn’t electric. It was fine. I rode north and then back. The ocean stayed on one side. Motels and palms on the other. I rode about twelve miles and came back a little sunburned.
After that, we used the bikes for everything.
Lisa and Serge rented trikes and rode the boardwalk. We rode to coffee. We rode to groceries. We rode for no reason. One morning we went down Hollywood Boulevard toward North Miami and back. We stopped at LLF. We had been going there for years.
Some days we stayed on the beach. We rented a cabana and two loungers and watched the water. I walked for a while and then went in. The water was cold. Later, when the air turned cooler, we rode again and went to GG’s for dinner. We did laundry that night.
Hollywood has characters, and we met some of them. At Casadonna, we met Donna and her son Mike, who turned a couple of beachfront condos into a small, family-run world: Airbnb rentals and a tiny coffee and sandwich shop run right off their stoop. Donna’s husband had been an inventor; years ago he bought her a restaurant as a gift. Now she and her son run this little hospitality ecosystem together. It felt like the kind of story you only get when you linger.
Casa Donna
There were cats living around the hotel. An orange-and-white mother and some kittens. They cried at night. They sounded like people. They tried to get into our room. Lisa didn’t let them.
We met Donna and her son at Casadonna. They ran a few apartments and a small coffee and sandwich place out of their building. We went back more than once.
On Sunday Joe and Mary had us over. There was sauce and antipasto and wine. Joe still had his Christmas decorations up. We stayed late.
Another night we went to the rooftop at Pier 66. We ate oysters and small plates. Someone ordered a drink with Pop Rocks in it. After that we went to a speakeasy in a strip mall. We got home too late. The next day we didn’t do much.
One day we rented a small convertible and drove to the Keys. We stopped in Miami for coffee and a late breakfast and then kept going. We had lunch on a pier in Marathon. On the way back we drove through downtown Miami instead of taking the highway. The city was bright and full and kept going.
One night we went to a screening of a film called Shttl. The lead actor was there. We stayed for the talk afterward. When we walked out, it was quiet.
As the days passed, it stopped feeling like a trip. Serge went home. Lisa and I stayed and worked from the beach house. We took meetings and then went for rides. Sometimes I caught myself thinking about furniture.
The Lead Actor of Shttl at a talk at Cinema Paradiso on Hollywood Blvd
On the last day we rode into downtown Hollywood and then up to Dania. We returned the bikes. We checked out at three. We took an Uber to the airport. We sat in the lounge and waited. Then we flew home.
Later, when I was back in my own house, I still knew where the good coffee was.
In the Centurian Lounge awaiting our flight home.
