Seattle
Evening flight to Seattle meant a chance to see the Palisades Fire burn area on departure from LAX. It's a bit harder to appreciate given much of the burn area is fairly rugged canyons that were lightly populated to start with, but the stark contrast between where the lines held at the northern end of Santa Monica and what is now the charred ruins of Pacific Palisades is pretty striking. The area of the coast northwest to on Pacific Coast Highway had a few more lights than expected, but that too is mostly a sobering view of the fire.
All too soon you are over the center spine of the Santa Monica Mountains, and as the fire was thankfully halted before doing damage to homes on the north side, you see a few clusters of lights and the lines of roads, then back to the glow of city lights.
With loads light this time of year, ended up in first class on United, where the oddly-named Los Angeles signature dish is salmon (?) and rice. Not bad but not a fish you'd associate with Los Angeles? The Magnolia Bakery banana pudding is pre-packaged and hard to get wrong as well. Arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was efficient, but with a massive line and long wait for the rental car shuttle. Missed the first one, had probably a 20 minute wait to the next, but managed to squeeze on to that one so did not have to stand in the cold too much longer than expected.