Megan and Murray McMillan

In response to L.A. Blogs Friday L.A. Insight:

1. When you can only get out of LA for a weekend, where do you like to go?

San Diego, La Jolla, Santa Barbara, Catalina, Palm Springs, Idyllwild.

2. Where do you stay when you go there? (lodging and/or region)

Either we go camping or we stay in fancy hotels or luxury inns.

3. Where do you go on vacation to get as far out of the LA lifestyle?

Well, we love to make the drive from L.A. to Texas, usually over Christmas. This year, we’re routing our trip through Marfa on the way there, to see the Chinati Foundation, and then we’ll hit the Grand Canyon on the way back.

It’s great to see all that open space after the density and population of Los Angeles.

4. For longer vacations, 1-2 weeks, where have you been that you would go back to?

Oh, probably the Canadian Northwest coast. It’s so cold and crisp and clean and beautiful.

5. Where do you dream of going, but haven’t been?

Europe and Japan. Murray’s done the whole European tour the museums and castles thing a couple of times, so we’ll probably hit Japan before we go to Europe.

6. Where have you been on vacation where you thought “I could settle here”?

The Texas hill country. There’s the most beautiful stretch of road right on the Blanco River [my favorite quote on this website: “Alcohol is OK!  It is not illegal to drink and float the Guadalupe.  If you want to get get drunk and rowdy (or nekked), the law may talk to you and convince you that you made a major mistake and will have to pay for it.  Remember, no public consumption before noon on Sunday!”], and the river is cold and clean and you can see to the bottom of it. There’s nothing better on earth than a long day of floating on the river with your buddies and a cooler of goodies. Except, maybe waking up and drinking coffee on your porch looking out over the river and watching the deer nibbling away at your lawn.

7. What place in Los Angeles makes you feel like you’re already on vacation?

The gardens at the Getty. Those gardens take me away on a lovely vacation.

8. Where in Los Angeles would you warn tourists to stay away from, even though a lot of them end up there?

The 405. Oh, wait, that was last week’s survey. I’d say Hollywood Boulevard, the whole “Walk of Stars” thing. Um, okay folks, it’s just some names on the sidewalk on a kind of skanky street. And the traffic is awful and there are too many people, and it’s just plain grimy.

Also, no need to try to get any closer to the Hollywood Sign. You can see it just fine as you’re sitting in traffic on the 101. Unless it’s a particularly smoggy day, and in that case, you need to get yourself to a nice clean air-conditioned movie theater as soon as possible. I’d suggest the ArcLight.