costa mesa

since i was planning to stay w/ a friend in irvine after the concert, i had to pack up and check out of the hotel in l.a. for lunch, several of us headed to little tokyo where i met up w/ an old colleague of mine from fort worth who is now in the detroit symphony. afterwards, i did some gift shopping and then headed to costa mesa on the early bus.

while in california and other than korean food, there was only 1 place i had to make sure i went to, in-n-out burger. thankfully, one was within walking distance from the hall and it was even better than i remembered it to be.

i believe segerstrom hall just opened in september and in a short time, has already received much acclaim. inside and out, it is absolutely stunning. tonight was a very different program w/ the schoenberg chamber symphony, mozart (in place of the schubert songs) and brahms symphony #1. for an encore, we played one of brahms' hungarian dances. several old friends who i used to go to church w/ in boston, and their children came and were blown away. they all live about 10 minutes from this hall and really want to attend more concerts now. afterwards, 3 of us went to a 24 hr soon dubu (soft tofu stew) place and reminisced about old times over some good korean food.

w/ all the places i mentioned in my san francisco and l.a. posts, i would have to say california is home to some of the best eating in the world. now if we could only do something about the traffic......