Marina Del Rey

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of an empty slip. Or in the case of Marina del Rey, more than 200 of them. In good times, there was a two-year waiting list for spaces and small boaters complained that they were being pushed out by bigger boats. But as of February, Los Angeles County officials said, the number of boat slip vacancies at Marina del Rey had nearly doubled to 259, compared with 133 a year earlier.

Travelin' Local welcomes tourists to the Southland and gives a guided tour complete with good-quality photos, walking maps and budget-conscious attractions for families as well as independent travelers. What's hot: Hyperlocal blogs are all the rage, so I've had my eye on Travelin' Local for a while now. It's written by Lisa Newton, a relatively recent East Coast transplant to Los Angeles, and she shows off her new city as if she's been here longer than just a few years. Tourists will find the "Where to Go" and "Metro" sections most helpful for getting to know the different neighborhoods and how to get around.

Pity the poor desk clerk at one Marina del Rey hotel. Sixty guests, all named Gerstenberger, are spending the week there after converging on Los Angeles as part of an unusual attempt to trace their ancestry back 800 years. It's the fourth time that the Gerstenbergers' "World Family Reunion" has united Gerstenbergers from Europe and North America. About 90 Gerstenbergers attended the first one, which was staged in the tiny hamlet that started it all: Gerstenberg, Germany.