The LADWP almost ruined my dinner plans.

I hate the annual Christmas Light Festival in Griffith Park. The idea that the cash-poor city of Los Angeles decides that wasting tons of electricity is the best way to celebrate Christmas is almost as obnoxious as the truly knockout fumes from the cars if you get stuck in traffic there. Or the traffic snarls for hours on the 5 going South, as the lineup of cars snakes out of the park every night. For many years I’ve had to avoid going anywhere in the valley for 6 weeks a year, as the traffic jam coming home, sometimes for miles, just isn’t worth it.

Here’s a link to the DWP site, with all the info: http://www.dwplightfestival.com/.   Here‘s a  PR review of the light festival by LA Splash, which I never heard of before:

If you want to drive, load up with hot cocoa, or spirits for the adults not driving, and patience for the follies of others.  Play some holiday songs you can sing along to. There is music along the Festival mile, but the wait coming up Crystal Springs Road from Los Feliz can be as much as a couple of hours…

The surreal stroll with blinking and animated light displays made us giddy and we laughed and sang like silly kids as we pointed and marveled.  

Another great photo by Tambako the Jaguar! From Creative Commons. No, not from Griffith Park.

I didn’t feel at all giddy. I was scared. I was supposed to meet my friend for dinner in Toluca Lake on Nov 24, and I decided to take a nice drive through the park, and follow Forest Lawn Drive, rather than take the 5. Note that this is 3 days before Thanksgiving. There’s not supposed to be any light festival before Thanksgiving, let alone Christmas! I didn’t see any blinking sign in front, because there wasn’t any.

It’s not shaded on their website. It’s not a car night. It’s not ANY night, but it has a little star to say it’s Kick Off bike night – in other words, LADWP closes down a major back road, through the park, because they feel like showing off the lights early, before the festival has even begun.

So as we got to the point where only bikes were allowed, we were all shunted off into a separate area of the park. I had no idea where I was going. Okay, I figured, other people probably  know the park better, and I’ll just follow the line of cars ahead of me. Worked fine for the first half mile.

You have to realize, there aren’t any lights in Griffith Park after dark, except near the Golf Course and the Ranger Stations. Really pitch black. So I followed the backlights in front of me, but within a few minutes, I lost him. And then came to an intersection, in the pitch dark, with no indication which was the right way out or to the Freeway or anything. I noticed another car behind me, who was obviously following ME, and didn’t know anything, either.

The roads go on forever, but fortunately I had taken the right one, and ended up near Travel Town, where it intersects Forest Lawn Drive. Did I make it to my restaurant date on time? Yes, by one minute. No thanks to the gas wasted, and the unexpected detour where you don’t want your car breaking down.

And it will be just like this, but worse, until December 30th. Only 37 days a year for the DWP to take control of your travel plans. Hallelujah.