Holiday Rush Is On As Travelers Crowd LA Freeways

BRENTWOOD (CBSLA) — The freeways are crowded. The airport is crowded. The grocery stores are crowded. The holiday rush is on.

"Very crazy. Busy. A lot of people not changing lanes correctly. Darting across," a woman told KCAL9/CBS2's Tom Wait at the Ralph's parking lot on Bundy and Wilshire in Brentwood.

"It took me an hour-and-a-half to get to work today. It's starting," said another Ralph's shopper.

The traffic headache lasted much longer into the night than usual. That meant a longer drive to grocery stores for Thanksgiving preps. The Ralph's was buzzing, reports Wait. Turkeys in high demand.

"Some people are stressed. I'm trying to just breathe and get through it," said another woman loading groceries in the Ralph's parking lot.

Along the Third Street Promenade it felt more like a night in early summer rather than late fall.

Families seemed to be enjoying the warmer temperatures and were even adjusting their Thanksgiving plans accordingly.

"We're going to be cooking inside the house," said a woman. "It's going to be hot and we're going to be making turkey and ham."

"We're from Arizona where it's warm but this is really warm," a woman told Wait.