#11 IT WAS ONLY JUST A DREAM.. A CALI DREAM
I'm back in NY from a five day visit to LA with two of my college girlfriends. We flew into LAX from different parts of the east coast and stayed at an Airbnb right in the heart of downtown LA. I have no words to fully describe the amazing experience I had there. Our entire vacation pretty much revolved around the most cliche songs about California. We had a list of places in mind that we wanted to visit, but no specific plans on what we would be doing there. So almost everything that we did in LA were spontaneous.. and that is how I feel that most adventures should be carried out anyway!
Just one confession before I go on with my Cali recap - I am listening to Bad Things by Machine Gun Kelly & Camila on a loop. That was our theme song for the week because it just kept playing on the radio. Every time I listen to it, the remnants of California just start to warm my heart. I know it's harmful to be replaying such good music over and over for the entire day, but I cannot help myself!!
DAY 1:
Hopped out the plane at LAX with my dream & my cardigan - Miley Cyrus
First things first, we rented a Mustang convertible for the week. The minute we took it out of the lot, we drove it with the top down, not expecting so much wind to compel our hair to smack us all over our faces. The weather in LA was actually not as warm as we thought it would be, but it's probably because we mostly packed summer clothes. Either way though, NY's weather has nothing on LA's 24/7 sunshine.
After we checked into our Airbnb and changed into fresh, non-airport clothing, we drove down to Hollywood Blvd. to do the most touristy things. We walked along the walk of fame and took tons of pictures in front of the Chinese theater and other sites. It's almost so much like Times Square in NY, but I feel that Hollywood is more dangerous in terms of hobo status and night life.
As the sun set, we drove over to LACMA in time for the best feel of the lights. It was absolutely gorgeous and so breathtaking.
DAY 2:
Look to my left (right) & I see the Hollywood Sign - Miley Cyrus
The next day, we woke up super early to grab some coffee and breakfast and hiked to the Hollywood sign. We got breakfast at this place called Eggslut. Some guy at the coffee stand recommended it to us. We were like "Uhm excuse me, but we're not from here and we don't want the pastries at your stand. Do you know any good places we can eat breakfast?" (Add in the hair twirls and head tilts, haha)
The guy was super friendly. He gave us walking directions to Eggslut and that's when we discovered the Grand Central Market filled with tons of mini food stands. It's like Quincy Market in Boston / Public Market in Seattle.
After breakfast, we drove to the start of the trail to the Hollywood Sign. I think we walked for about 6 miles to and from. We were all completely exhausted afterwards, but by the time we walked back down we realized that it was only like 4PM. Time passes by super slow for some reason out in the west coast. I find it so crazy because NY and LA have the same amount of time in a day. However, I feel that it's so much easier to wake up in the morning on the west coast despite what time you sleep at night.
So because it was only 4PM by the time we were done hiking, we decided to make a spontaneous visit to the Santa Monica Pier. I have absolute no words for this. The view was just amazing.. it was the first beach we visited that weekend. The view is exactly what you see on the wall panels when you shop in Hollister. Absolutely amazing..
It was only by coincidence that we happened to see the sun set that night on the pier. That was the start of our sunset stops. We walked along the Santa Monica streets after the sun set and stopped by this really cute Mexican place that gives you blankets if you sit outside! We were originally going to drive back to DTLA to have dinner, but because of the cute blankets, we decided to have a drink and snack on some pita chips there.
DAY 3:
I don't wanna know, know, know know.. Who's taking you home, home home home.. - Maroon 5
Friday was our big day! We took a road trip down south to San Diego. But first, we made a stop at Huntington Beach.. and to our surprise, there were a whole bunch of gorgeous surfer dudes scattered everywhere. I needed to keep my shades on so that they didn't know I was staring at them running around so effortlessly with their surfboards tucked under their arm. When you talk about "plenty of fish in the sea," there are definitely plenty of fish at the Huntington Beach waters. SO DREAMY!!
When we finally made our way down to San Diego, we went to check out the Gasslamp Quarters. One of my friends recommended that we should go around that area. It's almost like NY's St. Marks, except more high end I would say. We didn't feel like grabbing any drinks so we just walked around to some boutiques. It was SO hard to find parking around everywhere we went to so we had been parking in paid lots. Coincidentally, we parked by a Mustang sibling and I could not resist taking a photo because of just how cool we were 8)!
At the first boutique we went into, we asked the lady who worked there if she knew any cool local places that out of town-ers should check out. She recommended that we took a ferry over to Coronado Island and venture to this big hotel called Hotel del Coronado. She told us that there was an ice skating rink on the beach there and a very huge Christmas tree in the hotel. I think "ice skating" was the activity that caught our attention. So we spontaneously went with her suggestion and took the ferry.
The view from ferry was absolutely GORGEOUS! Every photo I took beyond the point of sunset that day does not do any justice of San Diego's beauty. The ferry ride was about $10 for a round trip and took a little less than 10 minutes to get to and from the island.
There was so much holiday festivity going on at the island. I think we went there on a day they were having an event. It looked like there was a Christmas parade going on.. and there was a section that we passed by full of dogs!! This dog above looked so funny because it had super long legs. You can't really tell from this picture, but every dog there looked so unique.
Pretty much everyone who lived on that island were either retired couples, families with little kids or just people going for a short getaway... with their dog.
Ice skating was $30! But we walked for about an hour to get to that ice skating rink so we decided to just give it a spin anyway since we came a long way. If you think about it though, who even gets to say that they went ice skating on a beach.. in California?! I'm so glad that we do that. As you can tell though none of us (especially me) were prepared to ice skate at all. It was actually pretty chilly that night. We went to get some hot chocolate afterwards to warm our bodies.
The ride back to our Airbnb was smooth and calming. We listened to Christmas and throwback songs along the way.
DAY 4: BEVERLY HILLS... that's where I wanna be! Living in Beverly Hills. - Weezer
Saturday was our last full day in LA so we decided to drive up to Beverly Hills to hang with the celebrities. We did the most cliche things there.. we stopped by the DASH store and went to Urth Cafe, which is apparently where Kylie Jenner gets her coffee. Oh my.. at the Urth Cafe, there was a very handsome paramedic waiting in line ahead of us and I could not help but snap a photo of him for personal keeping. :3 He looked like Stephan from the Vampire Diaries.. literal jaw dropping moment I had right there.
We walked around Rodeo Drive and window shopped at places we could not afford. Still a bunch of fun though! We parked at a 2 hour free lot so we took advantage of our stay there.
Right before the day ended, we decided to take a drive to Malibu beach to watch our last sunset. Absolutely beautiful...
Later that evening, we met up with one of my junior high school girlfriends who lives in LA. She brought out her boyfriend and some of her friends from DTLA. We met up at a lounge called Seven Grand and eventually made our way to a club called Honeycut. It felt so great seeing her again!! But also so weird meeting up with her in the west coast when we've practically grown up together in the east coast.
My girls and I left at around 12:30AM PST and took an Uber to a tattoo shop in Hollywood to get our ears pierced!! I have a picture of it saved on my phone, but I won't post it up here. I think I've thrown in way too many photos into this recap already. When people ask me if I brought back any souvenirs from Cali, I'd tell them that I got my ear pierced. :)
DAY 5:
I want you forever even when we're not together.. scars on my body so I can take you whenever. - Machine Gun Kelly
My flight back to NY was at 2:29PM PST. We woke up early to clean up our Airbnb and pack our things. We grabbed brunch at a local place and stopped by In-N-Out before heading to the airport. We also had an extra banana left from when we were going to San Diego so we decided to give it to a homeless guy. There was a bit of traffic entering the freeway and there was one hobo walking by with flowers. We looked at him and asked "Hey do you want a banana?" He looked so happy and lit up.
I think most of our time during the trip, we kept having the homeless in our minds that whenever we would have leftover food, we'd pack it and attempt to give it to one of them, but it never happened. So when we gave away the banana we felt like our mission in LA was finally complete.
So I've already posted a recap photo on my Instagram with the realest caption. But just to restate it here.. I would never want to imagine how my LA trip would've went with any one else. My girls and I would just burst in random laughter throughout the week because of something hilarious we'd experienced, and only us 3 would get it! On our last night, we literally all were lying on the floor of our Airbnb cracking up at all the unbelievable shit that we did. Now that I'm back home, those jokes don't make me laugh as hysterically anymore. But I still smile at the thought of our next trip together.