Palling about with other people's mothers may not be every Angeleno's definition of a good time, but it is for Anne Block.
     "People ask me, 'How could you spend the day with my mother?'" says Block, founder of Take My Mother, Please®, a service that will take visiting relatives off your hands-for a fee. "I always tell them, 'Your mother fascinates me!'"
     Since 1994, the Arkansas native with flaming red hair and a vibe that is significantly younger than her 50 years, has been packing perfect strangers into the back seat of her silver Cadillac and trekking them to the city's most "gloriously unusual" hide-outs. Whether it's visiting downtown's Bradbury Building or getting a soda at the drug store where Hugh Grant met his mistress, or taking a bathroom break at the Roosevelt Hotel, she's succeeded in demystifying a city that most out-of-towners find intimidating.
    "When I give tours not only am I showing off where I live," says Block, "but at the end of the day, my visitors have a feeling for the real L.A. and not just the fantasy. Of course, along the way, I'm pointing out every dive I've ever eaten a taco in."
     When she says she is "absolutely crazy about Los Angeles," you can't help but believe her. Her enthusiasm for the city is unparalleled.
     "I'm always snoopin' around, trying to find out what's really fun about L.A.," says the loquacious Block, with just a hint of a Southern accent. "I had been planning other people's trips for a really long time before it occurred to me that there was a business in this."
     Block can take up to five people in her car on an eight-hour, customized adventure around the city (for larger groups she lures a van or bus). She tailors each trip according to information she's received from the client. But plans are hardly set in stone.
     "If I pick somebody up and [she's] completely changed (her) mind, I don't care. We'll just do something else."
     Block's service isn't just for older people. It's for anyone with an interest in an alternate view of the city. She was once hired by a Parisian banker whose 16-year-old daughter "Was very interested in seeing the Getty Museum," Block says. "And [the filming of] 'Baywatch.'

—SUSAN CARPENTER