I’ve been itching for an adventure. Something like exploring an abandoned jail or a defunct cookie factory. The type of thing I’d done back in high school with my friend Herrie, looking for roof access in unfamiliar buildings, or scavenging through condemned farmhouses and vacant ketchup refineries. But Herrie’s off in New York, where the architecture is so dense and abundant that she can easily amuse herself by wandering into any of thousands of buildings and strolling from rooftop to rooftop until coming across a set of forgotten above-ground train tracks drowning in foliage, and then follow those tracks until she ends up crawling through the window of an abandoned factory and ending up back on the street– or so I’m told.

My friend Bob is usually down for such mischief, but he was feeling exhausted today after a long work week, and in no mood for anything requiring physical activity. So when Claudine’s name showed up on my cell phone’s caller ID, it felt like fate. I met Claudine when we were both working as high school extras on the Noggin channel teen soap “South of Nowhere“. She was so totally different than the young actors and actresses I had met before, I took an immediate liking to her. She has a good sense of humor, an outstanding amount of energy, and she’s more into hiking and travel than television and Myspace– rare qualities in a Hollywood girl.

We started hanging out last fall, but she disappeared for a few months to Colorado, pursuing some fire-walking, wilderness-camping boy who ended up breaking her heart. She’d been back in town for a few weeks and we still hadn’t hung out yet… so when she called, it was perfect– she was looking for something to do, and I was looking for a partner in crime. I picked her up in my ‘97 Geo Metro and headed for Korea Town, and the handful of skyrises that it lays claim to. We chose our fake names, just in case, and our fake destinations: “We’re visiting Daniel Kim on the 11th floor, at Pro Asia Media,” we told anyone who asked. We honed in on the biggest and most architecturally interesting buildings, and then headed for their rooftops.

Claudine’s Living Room

The remains of the Ambassador Hotel