California Love: Day 2

Toast Café

We woke up at like 5am LA time since our bodies hadn’t adjusted yet so we had to wait to leave for breakfast since nothing was open yet. We ended up taking a scenic walk to Toast and it was amazing. Seriously, I probably could have eaten there every single morning. The food was delicious, the service was great and the place was so cute. A must go if you love breakfast foods or being happy.

Runyon Canyon

One of my favorite parts of the trip was hiking Runyon Canyon. I like hiking and being outdoors anyways and this trail was a little challenging. I did end up slipping and falling, but only once, which is impressive for me. I also love a good view and boy did this hike have some good views. It was stunning. Sadly it was a little overcast and the Hollywood sign was a lot farther away than I thought so we couldn’t get any good pictures of it.

Downtown Los Angeles

I did not like downtown at all, it was just boring and dirty and there wasn’t really anything going on there. I much prefer the other parts of LA we visited.

The Broad Museum: I really wanted to go to the Broad, sadly the line was wrapped around the building when we got there and before we left. It was insane, it’s a new museum and literally the only thing that actually looked fun to do downtown so that’s probably why.

Grand Central Library: Absolutely gorgeous, a bright spot in the middle of a big city. It was beautiful inside and out and it was huge! 

Grand Central Market: It reminded me of a bigger, busier Krog Street Market. We grabbed lunch there at Olio Pizzeria and it was delicious. Honestly we picked the shortest line, we were starving and there were lines everywhere. 

Mumford Brewing: I love breweries and so I was super excited to try and LA one. I wasn’t super impressed, we walked the arts district and the space was super cute. The people that worked there weren’t the friendliest and the beer was just oaky. 

Skid Row: Well after the brewery we went to grab the closet bus back to our apartment and made the mistake of walking to skid row. It is apparently the largest population of homeless people in a block and it’s not a place you want to be. We immediately turned around and walked to the next closet bus stop.

The Wiltern STS9 Concert

We really wanted to go to a concert while we were out there, but there wasn’t really anyone preforming that we wanted to see. So we ended up getting tickets to STS9 since they’re from Georgia and we’d heard the Wiltern was cool. The place was amazing, absolutely beautiful inside. STS9 was great too; the light show that accompanied their performance was just as impressive. We didn’t make it the entire show though because we were so tired, the jet lag was real.

Don't miss tomorrow when we head to the coast and experience the rare sight of California rain! 

xx Kristen

California Love: Day 1

Four hours on a plane, two Moscow mules made with coke and one woman mistaking us for high schoolers later, we arrive at LAX.

Getting Around

Public transpiration: We were too young to rent a car so we ended up buying a Tap Card for a weeklong pass on any bus or metro in the city. It was only $25 and ended up being a great investment. We were a little out of place at times and we ended up spending a ton of time waiting on buses, but we saved a lot of money.

Uber: When we didn’t ride the bus we Ubered. We saved this for any time at night for safety purposes and when we go stuck in the rain trying to get to Venice Beach. Since there were two of us it wasn’t that bad splitting the cost.

In N Out

So good, so worth the hype and relatively cheap. We went straight to In-N-Out once we landed. The only thing is that the place was packed. The high school across from it had just gotten out and I’m assuming that location is always packed anyways.

Home Away from Home

We did Airbnb and could not have been happier. The apartment made us feel like locals and the location was perfect. We were right of Melrose Avenue and could walk to food, shopping and a bus stop. Our host was absolutely amazing and his place suited us perfectly. If you’re looking for a place in West Hollywood to stay, check it out.

Hollywood Boulevard

We hit the tourist trap first, it had to be done. We saw the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theater, did a little shopping and avoided the guys pushing their mix tapes rather aggressively. We were so tired that we just stopped in at Buffalo Wild Wings and called it a night.

I also want to take this first blog post to say how absolutely wonderful everyone we met in LA was. We were both a little worried that they would be rude or indifferent for some reason. However, they were helpful and kind and surprisingly nice. It really made the experience as a whole all the more enjoyable.

Look out for day two tomorrow as Jessica and I take on downtown Los Angeles!