close encounter of the fun-nest kind

it seems so long ago, but after a whole lot of schedule syncing, a group of us finally got our shit together and met up at encounter restaurant at LAX for dinner.  you know, it's that star trek-y looking structure that you see whenever they show the airport on tv.  we'd talked about it for weeks, and were all looking forward to the kitschy, space-y experience.  i was a little concerned about how difficult it would be to find my way there amongst all of the usual airport traffic, and then park on top of that, but i didn't care - eating with the monkey, insomniac, and ashley is always worth it.

here's what you get when you hold the camera up and aim it in the general vicinity of what you're trying to capture...while driving.

oh, well.  i pulled into the valet parking lot and tossed the keys to the dude listening to his iPod.  look at this crazy ass joint:

looks like fun, right?  i was a little bummed that the restaurant didn't rotate, but was still excited.  check out the groovy elevator i got to ride in, too.  when the doors close and you press the button for the restaurant level, you're treated to this psychedelic, wacky, cheesetastic music on the way up.

and then the doors open to this visual treat:

this was our view:

is that some silly shit, or what?  but it gets better.  when you crack open the menu, in fine print on a back page you find this:

the menu itself was nothing to write home about.  pretty basic - steak, pork, chicken.  and it was a little disconcerting to be waited on by airport staff, complete with employee ID hanging from a lanyard.  although i admit, despite the boring menu, the food was actually quite good.  of course, i went for the red meat.

and for dessert, i'd brought a little box of yum - dots cupcakes, of course.

after the meal, i paused downstairs and checked out what turned out to be some sort of 9/11 tribute:

they covered all the bases, eh?