Post #59873 by weirduncletiki on Thu, Nov 13, 2003 11:22 PM

What a storm! I was at the top of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles (the big glass cylindrical one that's featured in many of your favorite Hollywood blockbusters) in the Bonavista Lounge for a big wine event. It's one of those joints that rotates and the picture windows afforded a spectacular view of the violent rain and awe-inspiring lightning bolts. As we were setting up, there was a bright flash just outside the window and the all the lights suddenly went out. Dim emergency lights came on a few moments later and we were told that the hotel's power was out due to a lightning strike. This meant we were pretty well stuck on the 35th floor since the elevators were now out of commission. Needless to say, the event was canceled. None of the guests had shown up so there were only about six of us up there and it couldn't have been a nicer place to have been trapped during sucha tempest. We had the beautiful view, cases of premium wines, and a whole buffet layed out with sterno keeping it hot. A couple of guys wandered in a few minutes later desperate for a drink to calm them down since they had pried themselves from a stuck elevator and then climbed up to our fine position. We all relaxed poured ourselves some vino, grazed the vittles and watched the lightning outside, the jammed freeways below and the many firetrucks and emergency vehicles fighting the snarled streets way down there. I was more than a little disappointed when they finally got a service elevator running to bring us back down to the lobby.

-Weird Unc