mlshanks

If you are going w/ a car rental, I think you're a tad low in your time estimates, and would figure 60-75 minutes. Equally, I'd avoid the 101 as the 405 & 134 interchanges are both notorious for plugging up, even outside of rush hour traffic. Going N. on the 405 to Burbank Blvd. and then taking this surface street East (or dropping south to Magnolia Blvd. or Chandler Blvd. which are even better) is apt to save you real time instead of sitting in freeway congestion.

I'd figure an hour and a half to two hours at 5 p.m.... Although if you go out to dinner in the Valley, and save your trip "over the hill" until after 6:30, I'd guess that you're back to looking at an hour to an hour and 15 minutes total travel time. Maybe eat somewhere in Encino on Ventura Blvd, which has almost any cuisine your heart might desire.

Actually, if I were trying to do an "all public transit" routing, I'd try going mostly Metro light rail rather than trying to transfer to the heavy rail Metrolink. Take the shuttle to the metro green line, green line to blue line, blue line to red line. The last station on the Metro Red Line is at Lankershim Bl. & Chandler Bl....and you should be able to catch a taxi from the waiting zone there, as Hollywood Way is less than 2 miles. As near as I can make out the schedules, you'd be looking at 2:00 to 2:15 in travel time. (For the bargain concious, using a "Metro Day Pass", less the taxi(s) at the Valley end, the whole trip would cost $3 )