If you're looking for an excuse to come to Los Angeles, I can't think of a better one than a visit to The Petersen Automotive Museum. In a former department store on Wilshire Boulevard on LA's famous Miracle Mile, the Petersen features two full floors of cars on display. The first floor is the permanent collection. It's set up as a walk through the history of the automobile in Los Angeles, with some great info about how LA was shaped by the automobile in the 20th century, in every way from architecture to layout to style and design. The second floor is a series of galleries with rotating exhibitions. Right now there's a Steve McQueen exhibition, one called "Cars of Heads of State," and the Hot Wheels Hall of Fame -- some 1:1 scale models of the Hot Wheels we all know and love. The Bruce Meyer Gallery is devoted to Hot Rods, and there's an Otis Chandler Gallery for motorcycles. The best benefit of membership is the annual party where members get to peruse the cars in the vault -- cars that are in the permanent collection but not on current display, and new arrivals in the process of restoration. One year I got to see not one, not two, but three Tuckers parked side by side by side in the Petersen garage. Awesome. Worth a trip to LA, and worth repeated visits if you live here.