Day 30-
We made it to a friend's house late last night. Spent the morning sleeping. California has really been a place to sink into the vacation feeling of this trip. Its been "go" for the majority of this trip but we got to California and there has been no rush. No where to go. Nothing to do. Just relax. Our host lives in Culver City. You could see Sony Studios down the street. Parking has been interesting. We have to make sure that we move the car for street cleaning. Got the car checked early this morning at Liberty Tires so that we are prepared to go back east. They suggested we check out Venice Beach. It was down the street.
We spent our afternoon at Venice Beach. It reminded me a bit of that feeling of walking through Electric Forest. There were a lot of visuals. Our goal was the beach but we got distracted by street performers on the boardwalk. We spent an hour watching a group of acrobats and break dancers make jokes and liven the crowd. It was great!
At the beach, we ate the worst food ever on the trip - terrible! Slice of cheese pizza, not fresh-squeezed lemonade (they lied to me), and I finally got deep-fried oreos. I like to call deep-fried oreos "Unicorn Poop" - one is delicious, two is pushing it, too much and you're done. Its quite terrible for your body. I considered getting some at the festivals we attended earlier this summer but missed those opportunities.
We walked past muscle beach and all the shops and finally got to the water. We just relaxed. It was nice to swim in the water. It was a perfect day. We slept on the sand.
Later that night we would reconnect with our friends in California at the Hammer Museum. There was a free special event connected to their Made in L.A. exhibit. We thought that Alex Ebert from Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes would perform. We were disappointed when we realized he was only hosting and did not have his own set. It was cool to see him. He had a brief interview on stage with KCRW. It was still fun to feel young and cultured. Sophisticated drinking Georgia Peach cocktails with golden dinosaur stirrers in the middle of the museum courtyard. There were strange videos projected on the walls and local music performances. The gallery spaces were filled with contemporary art made by local artists.
After we realized Alex was not going to perform, we left and our friends took us to In-n-Out. They made sure we had animal-style burgers and animal-style fries. They tasted fresh. we had one more stop on our Thursday night adventure. We regrouped at Millions of Milkshakes in West Hollywood. They make milkshakes with Ferrero Rocher chocolates. The "Million Dollar Shake" is made with strawberries and Ferrero Rocher. I ordered a "Mr. Pink" with banana, cookie dough and Ferrero Rocher. One of my favorite memories is when we formed a tasting ring. The milkshakes rotated as we passed them to left to sample the different flavors. The people on the streets late that night were very stylish. I knew I was no where near their level in terms of fashion.
Day 31-
We woke up late again - no plans. Today we would city hike. We hiked to the metro station. Got to Hollywood and did touristy things. I got coffee at Starbucks. We hiked away to a really great Italian deli called I Panini di Ambra. The owner was really nice. Her food was amazing! I ordered a Chicken Salad. She suggested we check out the Griffith Observatory. We didn't make it because it was in the opposite direction from the sites in Hollywood. From the deli we wandered, we saw the Hollywood sign from a distance. We found an old book store and cd store. We kept walking until we got back to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We checked out the Chinese Theater. We were pretty let down by the filth in the shops in Hollywood. It was a pattern of liquor stores, head shops, and costumes shops.
I missed walking... so we walked and took a bus to LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. On the way we found a smoothie truck! It was organic and the owner grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland too. He was cool people and also advised us to check out a few things in the city. LACMA had an Alexander Calder exhibit that I wanted to see but they wouldn't let me in for free. I was tired and decided I'd rather check the rest of their collection for free than spend money on viewing that exhibit. I like Calder but not that much. It was getting late anyways. When we left, there was live jazz music in the plaza.
My feet hurt and we were supposed to meet our host for dinner. Eventually we got back to their home by bus. It took some waiting and patience since we were unfamiliar with their public transit system. We we finally met up, we went out for sushi at Shibuki: Brown Rice Sushi Restaurant. Christina talked us into meeting some of her old friends at the Culver Hotel Bar. We sat inside the space. They had a live band playing Michael Jackson and other pop songs. Above, an old film was silently projected on the wall. There was Wizard of Oz memorabilia around because a lot of the cast stayed in that hotel during the filming.
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