LA weekend that turned into a week-long visit!
I was working in North Carolina back in September when Hurricane Florence hit which turned a weekend visit with two of my close friends into a week. We packed so many activities into the weekend thinking that I had a redeye flight on Sunday night that getting a few extra days only meant that I was going to get to explore even more. This was my first time to LA and I was very happy that I was getting to soak up some more sunshine, hike some more trails and spend some much needed quality time with two of my favorite people and my dog godson, Calvin.
I landed bright and early Friday morning which really just meant that it was lunchtime on the east coast so I was starving. My friends live in Eagle Rock so we went to a local spot called Oinksters where I had an arugula salad and a Rueben. It was delicious and hit the spot. We walked for a bit and sipped on vanilla lattes from Swork. Later that evening we went downtown to the Broad art museum to see the infinite mirrors which is typically a 1-2 hour wait so be prepared to get there and put your name in and explore the rest of the museum while you wait or grab a bite nearby. They will text your phone when it is your turn and you have 10 minutes to check in. The infinite mirrors were so beautiful, it was hard to believe that we were essentially standing a room that was the size of a small closet. There were so many cool pieces in the museum like a giant dining room table that made me feel just like Alice in Wonderland or a giant blue balloon animal dog and I had to stop in front of the Elvis portrait to snap a pic for my mom. She loves him.
After the museum we were starving so we walked over to the Grand Central Market. This place was so full of life and food. Everywhere we turned a different smell hit my nose and I didn’t think I was going to be able to make a dinner decision. I ultimately went with Sticky Rice and got the drunken noodles. Wow. I was so blown away with how much flavor was packed into this dish. I highly recommend it, although I think everywhere would also be a good option. After dinner I headed up front to the Golden Road Brewery where I had a couple of beers my friends and Calvin joined me. I was very impressed with how many dog friendly places there were in LA. While waiting I had a “Balboa Blonde” which was as fruity as it sounds and I really liked it.
From the Grand Central Market we went over to LACMA, or the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to see the Urban Light display outside. There were lots of people here snapping photos and I am sure you can see why. It was so unique and I liked that each row looked like a different set of streetlamps. It made me curious if they were in any specific order like from the very first design and then they got more complex or if they represented the different types of streetlights you would find in a specific city.
Saturday morning we woke up and tried to go get brunch at “The Commissary” but it was closed for remodel and you could only get breakfast in the hotel lobby so we opted to find another restaurant. I believe we ended up at the Mermaid Café and it was what you would expect for a café. After this we drove over to Melrose to walk around the shops. For dinner we popped over to a place called Spoke. This was my favorite place we ate all weekend. It was a restaurant right off the bike path and also had a bike repair shop in it. Like its name is was also decorated with different bicycle pieces throughout. The food was sooo good. I had a BLT with Avocado which just happens to be one of my favorite things to order and a salad. I also got a chai tea and a homemade power bar. Everything here was excellent.
From dinner we stopped back at the house to change and pick up Calvin to go over to Griffith Observatory to catch the sunset. It is as beautiful as anyone who has been there will tell you and there are a couple of short trails to walk around it. It also offers an awesome view of the Hollywood Sign as well as the rest of the city. Be sure to check if there are events happening on the night you want to go because a concert caused us to sit in some traffic trying to get up to the observatory. Later that night we went to couple of bars in Hollywood called Mama’s Shelter which has a rooftop bar but we had to wait in line to put our name on a list to get up to it. In the meantime we ordered drinks and played foosball. I would recommend getting any of their mules here, but not the red sangria. It was terrible. The roof is really relaxed and offers lots of seating and even some areas that movies are playing. Adjacent to this bar we walked over to Dream Hotel and went to the Highlighter Room which offered more of a club vibe, playing lots of pop music and packed with people.
Needless to say that Sunday we all needed a rest day from all the activities we had packed in to the first two days so we stopped at the grocery store, grabbed some food and packed a picnic for a beach day. We drove out to Malibu and we a little more north to a dog-friendly beach for Calvin. It was so relaxing and nice to just layout in the sun listening to the waves crash and watching all the dogs play. The water was ice cold so I did not swim but I stuck my feet in and walked for a bit. I would like to add that the drive from LA to Malibu is so beautiful. We drove through the winding roads wrapped around the mountains and some vineyards to pop out staring right at the ocean.
After the beach we found a trail to hike up and watch the sunset. The sunsets in Malibu are unreal. I mean anywhere on the west coast they are, but I was particularly stunned by the one in Malibu this night. There were so many different layers of colors in the sky the car headlights on PCH seemed to twinkle making it even more magical. It was also amazing that we were able to clearly see so many planets. We saw Venus, Mars and Jupiter causing me to download Sky View Lite and see what else was above us and sure enough, Saturn was up there too. The hike down was pitch black, but at least we had the ocean and highway as a reference point and Daisy and JT had also packed headlamps which were VERY useful in lighting our path down.
Now that I had a few extra days I knew for sure I wanted to hike Runyon Canyon which we did and it was easy until the top it get a little steep, but definitely doable and there are steps to climb. One day Daisy and I went out for lunch and I ordered Sweet Potato Tostadas and a carrot, ginger, apple juice and we walked to some shops. There was the cutest paper company shop full of lots of office supplies, and even left handed notebooks which I had never seen before.
Probably the most spontaneous thing I did on my trip was deciding only the day before that I was going to go skydiving. I dropped Daisy off at work in Malibu, worked remote from a coffee shop and headed up the coast to Santa Barbara County to Sky Dive Santa Barbara. I have another post all about my experience sky diving, but I absolutely loved it. It is an awesome experience that I can’t wait to do again. On my last night we made tacos for dinner and Daisy and I had a movie night. We watched Sierra Burgess is a Loser on Netflix which was pretty cute. I worked again on Thursday and we went for a little drive up to a dog park for Calvin, then we just drove through some of the neighborhoods on the hills to look at the homes. I love that the homes are all so different. Each one has a personality of its own from modern design to ones that you know have been there for decades. All in all I had a wonderful time in the LA area and would definitely go back because there are still a few things on my list that we just ran out of time to do like a hike to the Hollywood sign, have lunch as Villa Blanca, and see a taping of Ellen or the Price is Right.
