For every year of our marriage we have used our vacation time to go back to Texas and visit our friends and family. We always have fun on our trip, but we were ready for a change. We wanted to visit someplace new and different. Also, our family has the ability to visit us often and they usually come up every few months. So far none of our friends have come here to see us, which is disappointing, but the door is always open for them.
Our flight to L.A. was early so we were up and out of the house at the crack of dawn. I had hoped Samuel might sleep on the plane since he is a very curious, adventurous "lap baby" now. I guess he was excited our trip too since he was much more interested in trying to climb over the seat and play peek-a-boo with people in the row behind. He was particularly interested in the newborn baby behind us and kept talking about the "be-be." Right as the plane was descending and preparing to land, he fell asleep. Of course!
He also slept all the way through the terminal, into the baggage claim, let me pass him to Allen so I could use the bathroom, then let Allen pass him back to me so he could get the luggage. He finally woke up right before we caught the bus to pick up the rental car.
The line at Avis was impossibly long, so it took about an hour for us to get our car. Allen and I took turns "entertaining" which really translated into chasing Samuel all over. I discovered their Sirius/XM radio interactive display, which played live music, and Samuel was temporarily occupied by turning the dials and pushing the buttons. He also did a little dancing and charmed the other people in line.
Once we had our car we went to see our first attraction, Randy's Donuts. You might be thinking, "what's so special about a donut shop?" Well, this particular one has been featured and parodied in many T.V. shows and movies. Most recently there was a scene in Iron Man 2 where Tony Stark is sitting inside the giant donut eating donuts. I'm not sure how it became so iconic, though, since we thought the donuts were pretty average. After a long flight and a long line that lasted through lunch, we were pretty hungry and still thoroughly enjoyed them. Samuel and I shared the wheat & honey in the car on our way to the hotel.
It was still too early to check in to our hotel so we took some time to look around the area, which is Koreatown. We chose that area since it is central to downtown, Beverly Hills and Hollywood. We figured it would be easy to get around, but it's already pretty overwhelming to be in such a big city and then most restaurants and business names in our immediate area are in a different language. We finally settled on a small shopping strip with some chain restaurants and stores. We had an actual lunch at Samurai Sam's then got a few groceries before going back to the Shelter Hotel to settle in.
For dinner we went to a nearby artsy area called Larchmont. We walked up and down the street first and ducked in to a few unique shops like a specialty toy store and independent book seller. The restaurant where we ate, Larchmont Bungalow, is a casual bakery cafe type of place. It was a perfect low-key meal. Allen and I had creative hamburgers (his was Greek and mine an apple, onion and brie stuffed turkey burger), which Samuel shared, along with a fruit plate. They served the strawberries whole and he had no problem digging right in and devouring them like a little chipmunk (which made for a big juicy red mess)! For dessert we tried their specialty, a Blue Velvet cupcake.
While at the restaurant we had our first near-celebrity encounter when Allen spotted someone he recognized from some movies the 90s (Crimson Tide & Eraser). The funny part is that this actor has so completely fallen off the radar that neither of us even know his name. He definitely had a celebrity vibe even though he probably hasn't been in anything notable for 15 years. I guess if we ever watch his movies we can at least find out his name - haha!
