My first trip to LA went wrong in every way. For five years I avoided the city until a recent conference led me back to the city and an incredible weekend which completely changed my view of Los Angeles. I arrived Friday morning and left Sunday evening. Saturday was booked up with meetings and a conference so I had to pack my sightseeing into thirty-six hours (and it rained for most of that time).
DAY 1
8:35 a.m. Arrive at LAX. Pick up rental car and head to the first stop on the trip. Grand Central Market. Due to the rain, I did not get to explore the downtown area as much as I wanted, but I saw enough to be satisfied.
9:45 a.m. Grand central station. Get in line for Egg Slut. It is usually a long line, so plan about an hour and a half to two hour. The food is worth the long lines. I ordered the Fairfax and fresh orange juice.
11:30 a.m. Have a walk around Grand central market. Grab a coffee to go from G & B-coffee (if you are up for dessert McConnell's fine ice cream is a good one.
11:50 a.m. Head across the street from the market to the Bradbury building. You might recognize the interior from the movies Bladerunner; Gangs of New York and 500 days of summer.
12:15 p.m. Due to the rain, I decided to skip the walk to the Broad museum and Walt Disney concert hall and drove out to LACMA.
1:00 p.m. Arrive at LACMA to see the Urban Light exhibit outside the museum.
1:30 p.m. Time to do a bit of shopping at the Grove. I did not plan for the rain or the drop in temps when I was packing for LA. I picked up some warm clothing for the rest of my time in LA.
2:30 p.m Shopping done and time for nourishment at Unami Burger. I am very particular about my burgers and Unami delivered to my tastes. As a cherry on top, the burger is served with sweet potato fries and house made ketchup that I was tempted to bring back with me.
4:30 p.m. One more attempt to find the pink wall and the angel wings on Melrose. An hour of driving around before giving up.
6:00 p.m. Time to get my mind in conference mode. I found the perfect spot to wind down at Verve coffee roasters.
DAY 2
It poured all day Saturday. It would have been impossible to explore the city even if I did not have conference commitment. Thankfully, the sun came out on Sunday and I had to pack a ton onto my itinerary before my evening flight.
8:30 a.m. A very early start to the day to get as much done before my 5 p.m. flight to DFW. I started the day in Venice on Abbott Kinney boulevard with breakfast at Gjelina. I highly recommend the Moroccan egg bake.
9:30 a.m. A leisure stroll down Abbot Kinney. It was still early so a lot of the shops were not open. However, intelligentsia was open and ready to satisfy my coffee fix.
10:45 a.m. Getty Villa. It was a toss up between spending the morning hiking to the Griffith observatory to see the Hollywood sign and exploring Getty villa. I chose the villa and spent an incredible morning exploring every nook and corner of the villa. Due to the drought the CA at the time, the water was shut off in the villa and all the fountains were off. I think that took away from the experience a bit, but it was still a worthwhile time.
1:15 p.m. Venice Beach for a stroll along the boardwalk; street performances and people watching (the.best.people.watching), ever!
2:30 p.m. Head to the airport. L.A you have been wonderful. Until next time.
Add-ons: A lot of my itinerary for Friday was cut off because of rain. Some things I wanted to get through - explore Olvera street in downtown LA and Griffith observatory for the Hollywood sign
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