Weekend Escape: Los Angeles : A Century City theater outing with a 4-year-old ends as sweetly as an Olvera Street snow cone

The unexpected is all but expected when you are going on a weekend vacation with a 4 1/2-year-old (in this case, my nephew Joshua). But who could have ever known that the low point of our overnight journey would come as aunt, uncle and nephew settled into the fourth row at the Shubert Theatre for a Saturday matinee of “Beauty and the Beast”?

The words came assuredly out of Joshua’s mouth: “I don’t really want to sit up here. Let’s move back there,” he said pointing to what must have been Row ZZZ.

“Those seats belong to someone else,” Aunt Sherry offered, knowing that honesty and deductive reasoning satisfy Josh.

“No one’s sitting there,” he pouted firmly, pointing to the countless seats not yet filled 15 minutes before curtain.

The irony, of course: We had planned this trip a long time ago, with good (and thus expensive) seats in mind, wanting Josh to see Belle and the Beast in all their Disney glory.

Time passed very slowly. “I really don’t want to sit up here.” Tears welled up. Finally the overture began. The first minutes of the play were watched from Aunt Sherry’s lap. The first scenes of the forest brought hands over the ears. But somewhere along the way, around the time Lumiere, the candlestick, did some friendly sashaying, Josh finally moved to his own seat to watch the proceedings . . . carefully.

That emergency barely averted, all three of us breathed varying sighs of relief. When we first found out “Beauty and the Beast” would be coming, I knew we would want to take Josh. At some point we decided to make a weekend of it by staying at a hotel near the theater. Though we could have saved a few dollars elsewhere, the ideal solution was the JW Marriott Hotel at Century City, just up Avenue of the Stars from the Shubert. Its selling points: a junior suite for $145, which meant plenty of room for three, and the hotel’s limo--available for guests at no charge.

We reached Beverly Hills around noon and headed to Beverly Drive for lunch at Johnny Rockets. The burgers were good, the waiters friendly, and Josh got a red balloon. Later he told his mom we ate at Red Robin. So much for unique.

With just a simple request to the hotel concierge, the limo was all set. The Shubert is an easy quarter-mile walk from the hotel, but this was a first for Josh, who was suitably impressed with the long white car. After the play we walked over to a gift stand. With T-shirts and hats aplenty but no toys in sight, Josh wasn’t much interested.

A phone call from the lobby, and the limo returned in 10 minutes. We shared the ride back with another 4-year-old and his family and, back at the hotel, hit the indoor pool for a swim. Then we dressed for dinner, heading for the surest kid bet around: Dive!, the Steven Spielbergian restaurant shaped in part like a submarine on the north side of the nearby Century City Shopping Center and Marketplace. The limo dropped us off right in front of the restaurant--again, for free.

In the family meal category, Dive! is more costly than the chain restaurants. But the food is better than it probably needs to be, given the name-brand pedigree (Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg are among the owners). Josh had a few bites of his grilled Cheddar cheese on a bun, filling up mostly on the crunchy French fries.

After that we walked around Century City, mindful we were storming past Josh’s bedtime. But we wanted to make a trip to Gelson’s. Since a stop in the hotel dining room the next morning would set us back another $20 or so, we picked up grapes, milk and croissants for breakfast.

Our room was on the fourth floor, so the nighttime city view was less than breathtaking, but Josh was impressed with the countless planes heading to both Los Angeles and Santa Monica airports. The room was ideally arranged so that Josh slept in the sofa bed in the suite’s living room. The bathroom had two doors so he could go in without disturbing us. I’m an early riser, so Josh and I were up by 7. We read, watched a little TV and breakfasted on the balcony without waking up his uncle.

Since we’d spent nearly $200 on the theater tickets we decided to make Sunday, well, cheap. To a boy enamored with all things transportation, a trip to Travel Town in Griffith Park sounded like heaven. Since it was Sunday morning, it took us no time at all to get there; Travel Town has plenty of parking and, best of all, no admission charge. Josh loved climbing onto the many locomotives and passenger cars, spent a lot of time watching the model train display, and definitely wanted to ride the small train.

At lunchtime Josh had no interest in leaving. The only way to get him out was by tempting him with something even better: a ride on the subway.

Off we headed to downtown Los Angeles. We parked at Union Station and spent 25 cents each to ride the Red Line to the end of the line. For another 75 cents the three of us took the return trip.

Back at Union Station, we crossed Alameda to Olvera Street, where on this sunny day the snow cone stand was going gangbusters. Being an aunt and uncle, we had no problem buying Josh a big snow cone right before lunch. While he and I stood in line (“I want a red one!”), my husband scouted the restaurants.

He found a goody. Casa La Golondrina Cafe, which claims to be the first Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles, is housed in the Pelanconi House, a 140-year-old brick building. The food was better than average, ranging from the chicken mole to the nino’s burrito.

We headed back to our car and, for once, Josh didn’t want the front seat. Strapped into his seat belt, he lay down in back and was asleep before we made it to the freeway.

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Budget for Three Lunch, Johnny Rockets: $21.43 Three orchestra tickets, “Beauty and the Beast”: 195.00 Dinner, Dive!: 48.50 Breakfast, Gelson’s: 6.33 Tips for limo driver: 5.00 JW Marriott, one night: 165.30 Three tickets, Travel Town train: 4.75 Six one-way trips on Red Line: 1.50 Snow cone: 1.50 Lunch, La Golondrina: 44.04 Parking, Union Station: 5.50 Gas: 13.74 FINAL TAB: $512.59 JW Marriott at Century City, 2151 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles 90067; tel. (800) 228-9290. “Beauty and the Beast” tickets: box office or Telecharge, (800) 447-7400.