Wow, what an evening, gang!! We had such a blast. Of course, once we got to the motel, I realized I'd forgotten to bring the Flip camcorder or my camera. Jay said, "Should we run home and get it?"

ME: "No, no, we can't!! We're on vacation now! We have to pretend we aren't anywhere near the house!" (In fact, we were about 15 minutes away.)

So we made do with my cell phone. So, naturally, the pictures are kind of lousy but you'll get the idea, I'm sure.

First off, dinner at The Top was unbelievable! God, was it good. And what a trip to the past, gang. Martinis, Oysters Rockefeller, steaks topped with that blue cheese - red wine demi-glaze, and baked potatoes. Salad, what have you. We sat in a nice giant booth, the retro lights were turned down so low it was almost pitch black in there even though it was still light outside. There were floor to ceiling mirrors all over the walls. A guy playing piano at the bar. Etc., etc. Just really this long ago world, right? (The restaurant first opened in 1955.) Guess what wasn't straight out of the past, though???? If you said: " the FUCKING check!!!!" you guessed correctly, amigos! Jay said, "Our appetizers cost more than the motel room!"  But, oh well! We had such a great time. (And, seriously, when was the last time you had Oysters Rockefeller prepared the real way???)

The motel was too fun. Nowadays, it's a cross between a residential motel for hookers and drug dealers, and a nightly hotel for people like us! But is was clean. And everyone there was friendly, including the guy who asked to borrow a cigarette (I tossed him down a Pall Mall from the balcony-type thing), and the gal who, in the wee small hours, called up to Jay, who was once more smoking out on the balcony, and asked if he had any singles b/c she was trying to make change (!!).

Here's a view from out on the balcony (the walkway thingie). This was just after dinner. Sorry it is so blurry. It's the backs of houses with the alleyways. It was actually kind of pretty.




Here's a view of our room!! (And a great big thank you to DQB for suggesting we bring a good ashtray! How right you were!! It turned out, there was no ashtray in the room at all!)




Here's a shot of the bathroom -- which I loved!! A million years ago, it was probably really nice!




Here's a shot of Jay in the bathroom, trying to fix the only lamp we had in the room. He never could fix it. And since I am more vain than you can possibly imagine, I said, "No way are we doing anything in here with that overhead light on all night! It ain't gonna happen, Jay! That is the most unflattering light imaginable!! Ack!!" So we opted to just have the TV on all evening with the sound off  (luckily, it was a sort of marathon of the Ghost Hunters, so it was in black & white all evening, and I look pretty darn good by the glow of a black & white TV show.) Jay said I looked like "a Varga girl!" but that was probably due to that great lighting!




And here is a shot from that balcony thing after night fall. Sorry that it is totally blurry:




So, as you can probably guess, my little Frederick's of Hollywood spike-heeled slippers, along with the rest of my outfit (yay!! -- let's just say that I still look good in black, thank God!), went over really well. And we made ample use of our gleaming little travel bar, and all the other "fun stuff" (that a lady doesn't mention!). We even brought our portable speakers -- and my playlist for the night (over & over, for hours) was:

Come Dancing, Art Lover, Better Things, and Lola -- all by The Kinks; Walk of Life by Dire Straits; Bring on the Dancing Horses and The Puppet -- both by Echo & the Bunnymen; Heroes by David Bowie, Begin the Beguine by the BBC Big Band; So Alive, by Love & Rockets; Pass the Dutchie, by Musical Youth; Sexbomb and She Drives Me Crazy, both by Tom Jones, and Pink Cadillac by Bruce Springsteen.

(And when the playlist needed to be started over, Jay couldn't figure out how to make it start over. ME: "Okay, untie me for a minute and I'll do it!!") (ha ha ha) Too fucking fun, right gang??

We had the AC unit blasting all night. I slept really, really well but Jay said he tossed and turned. Oh well; sorry about that part of it. But we were up by 7:15, started packing up all our little things then we were going to load up the truck and head out somewhere for breakfast. Jay said, "Okay, do we have everything?" I said, "Yes, I think so." But before closing the door one final time, I decided to take one last quick look around the room -- and, of course, there on the floor in the corner was the rope!

ME: "Jay!! What were you thinking???"

JAY: "I'm sorry. I'm really, really tired."

And then off we went. Next time, perhaps it'll be the Capital Motel and dinner at the Sonic Drive-In Restaurant... we shall see!!