Thanks everyone -- glad to hear that things are likely as I thought they were -- no problem with checking earlier than four hours.

As far as doing something more interesting than hanging out at the AC, my problem is that the timing on returning a car to Hertz means that I'll pay another day -- roughly $100 because it's a drop off at LAX from another location -- not worth it for a few hours of sightseeing in a town I know really well!

Sometimes booooring isn't that bad -- maybe I'll find something new on the menu -- now that would be exciting :-)