Not-So-Sunny SoCal
Sunday, June 17th - Wednesday, June 21st, 2017
Southern California
Hello hello!
Sunny Southern California. The perfect place to spend a weekend. Except when it's cold... In June? Are you a little confused? Because I was. Grady and I were hoping to spend a few days on the beach, but alas, the 65-degree weather was just not in our favor. Still, we were able to make the most of our couple days in San Diego, LA, Manhattan Beach, and Hermosa Beach.
Dad, Grady and I woke up very early on Sunday to catch a flight to San Diego. There are a couple things you might want to know about standby to understand this early flight. First and foremost, the Hawthornes take a lot of inconveniently timed flights (think 6 am or redeye) because we get whatever seat is open on a flight. More people are likely to miss a 6 am flight than they are a 6 pm one. Second, flying to Southern California on standby can be a little interesting. On one hand, there are a lot of airports in SoCal that you can fly to direct from MSP. On the other hand, a lot of people want to fly to those airports. Either because SoCal is a destination in itself, or because a lot of these airports, being on the west coast, (and LA specifically, as a Delta hub) have a lot of connecting flights to destinations across the Pacific - China, Japan, Hawaii... Luckily, we didn't have any trouble getting to San Deigo.
Mom was flying in from Arizona, where she was visiting family, and met us at the airport. As Sunday was Father's Day, we spent some time pampering Dad with some gifts and visiting family in San Deigo. From there we moved on to Manhattan Beach, a suburb of LA.
Mom had some work to do in Manhattan Beach. So the rest of the family took advantage of the close proximity and spent Monday doing some sightseeing in LA. We hit the GRAMMY Museum, the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, and the La Brea Tar Pits. And we drove by the Walt Disney Concert Hall (regrettably, we didn't have time to go to Disneyland in Anaheim. Driving by the pretty unrelated concert hall was as close as we got.)
Tuesday, Grady and I explored Manhattan Beach and later Mom joined us to explore Hermosa Beach.
Vlog - June 19 & 20
Here's where we went:
2215 India St, San Diego, CA 92101
I am the worst possible person to review a brewery since I can't drink... Because of that, I hate it when someone suggests we go to a brewery (*cough* Dad, looking at you *cough*) but this one wasn't so bad. They had places to sit down and a full menu (I've been dragged to enough breweries in my life to not take that for granted.) I can tell you that the hamburger I ate was really good, and I enjoyed sitting out on their deck.
800 W Olympic Blvd A245, Los Angeles, CA 90015
I knew I wanted to go to the GRAMMY Museum, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect. You enter on the first floor and immediately take an elevator to the 4th floor. From there, you walk out into a rectangle room, where they projected clips from the most recent Grammy Awards, and had 5 or 6 Grammys on display, one for each of the designs. (It's been redesigned a few times over the years apparently.) They had different areas dedicated to different genres. There were a few memorabilia type deals- clothes, sheet music, photos, that kind of thing. To be completely honest, I didn't know a lot of the artists so I couldn't fully appreciate the memorabilia. I forgot how wide-ranging the awards are.
There were five special exhibits while we were there, one dedicated to John Denver, one to Ella Fitzgerald, one to Mary Stuart, one to Kris Kristofferson, and one to Monterey International Pop Festival. They were pretty small though. In fact, I didn't even distinguish the Kris Kristofferson or Monterrey International Pop exhibit from the permanent collection. Since 2011, there's also been a Micheal Jackson exhibit, but it was closed for cleaning while we were there. My favorite part of the museum was seeing the handwritten lyrics from various stars, and playing some electronic instruments they had out. Those were great because they were real instruments and mixing tools that you could try out. All in all, it was fun and interesting for sure, but maybe not a must see, unless they have a special exhibit that has really piqued your interest.
111 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012
We didn't go in the concert hall but drove by it. The architecture, thanks to Frank Gehry, was really neat and fairly iconic. I was glad we detoured to see it and take a photo, but without Los Angeles Philharmonic tickets, I didn't feel the need to go inside.
1714 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
I read about the Time Travel Mart on one of my favorite travel websites, Atlas Obscura. It's described as a convenience store for time travelers going to the past or future. It has strange little nicknacks, like robot milk, dinosaur eggs, laurel leaves, etc. The actual store was honestly a little disappointing. I was hoping for something a little more eccentric. But the store is actually part of the non-profit organization, 826LA, who's mission statement states that it is "dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write". Based on that information anyway, I do support the cause, so it was still worth the visit. Plus, added bonus, it was right next door to an independent bookshop, complete with a disproportionate ratio of Mac laptops and writers.
5801 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Visiting the La Brea Tar Pits was fun because it's someplace my grandma and my dad both remember visiting when they were young. It runs right up to the LACMA too, so you could easily visit both in the same day. The pits themselves were interesting to see, although we didn't feel the need to walk around and see all of them. The museum had bones they'd pulled out of the pits, and explained a lot about the history of the pits. It was, however, fairly small, and a little tired looking. This is a site that's been renovated a lot over time, and I think it's maybe time to redo the museum. There weren't very many digital or interactive spaces, which are becoming increasingly important in keeping a museum relevant and engaging (in my opinion anyway.) There were some dated animatronic mammoths and sabertooth tigers, which might engage the youngest visitors for a few minutes. Overall, it was interesting, and I really did enjoy seeing the bones. (Mammoths are seriously HUGE!) But it was a bit dated (not in information content - to my knowledge - but in display.)
3501 N Sepulveda Blvd, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
The hotel was overall pretty nice, although there were some things that were a little off during our visit. First, The bathroom was a bit dirty in the cracks and corners, and we didn't have enough towels. (Not a huge deal.) Second, one of the bellhops told us to pull our car into a handicap spot to get out of the way... But I'm not sure that that's entirely legal. Even if it is, not sure it's moral... (Again, not a huge deal though, we just pulled into a regular spot instead.) Last, there was construction going on, but it wasn't an inconvenience. No noise, because it was all going on in another wing. The area was a little off-putting at first because it doesn't look like someplace you'd find a nice hotel. Lots of busy roads, chain shops, and restaurants... It was kinda bleak looking from the outside. But we learned that it was a nice 20 min walk to the beach, and it was actually pretty convenient being right across the road from the mall. What I really liked about the hotel though was the restaurant - It was so good! Seriously. We went twice. And we normally don't go to hotel restaurants at all. I wish I could have some of their meatball sliders right now. So A+ in that regard.
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Since it was cold when we visited, we didn't exactly feel like laying on the beach. But that didn't stop other people from fishing, surfing, playing beach volleyball, or sunbathing. Even cold, it was pretty busy. We walked out on the pier and watched the surfers for a while, and soaked up the pretty ocean views.
Manhattan Beach Pier, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
I shouldn't say we visited the aquarium because it was closed when we got there. It was pretty small from the outside, and the hours were pretty darn inconvenient (2 pm - 5 pm...? Why?) Still, I'd like to come back and see what it is.
1120 Manhattan Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
It seems like every kid in Manhattan Beach was in here. It was busy and chaotic and crowded. We really didn't quite understand where the lines were, and how you ordered, and the staff didn't go out of their way to be very helpful or friendly. (To be fair, it was crazy in there and they could have been equally overwhelmed as I was.) But the ice cream more than made up for those small inconveniences. We tried cream'wiches (ice cream sandwiches). You could choose your own ice cream, cookie, and topping. They were sweet and huge and almost killed me but that didn't stop me from going back a second time, later that same day! In addition to cream'wiches, they also had regular scoops of ice cream, frozen bananas, cupcakes, candy, you name it.
1 Pier Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
Hermosa Beach Pier seems to be the quieter sister of Manhattan Beach Pier. It's also where they filmed that pier scene in that-movie-I-haven't-seen-but-probably-should-cause-everyone-loves-it, La La Land. We decided to walk from the Hermosa Beach Pier to the Manhattan Beach Pier along the beach, and it was beautiful (if a bit longer than we expected) 2-mile stroll. We splashed in some waves, saw some seagulls... A good visit.
22 Pier Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
We stopped at this Hermosa Beach restaurant for happy hour. They had really yummy tacos, buy 3 get the 4th free. They tasted awesome but were not at all a good deal. They were tiny, the tortillas having approximately a 2.5-inch diameter, and they were $2.50 a piece. So go for the tacos, but not the prices.
A trip to SoCal is always fun, and this time was no exception! We've spent a lot of time in the area, so it was fun to try some new things this time. Actually, with the exception of Walt Disney Concert Hall and the La Brea Tar pits, I think everything was a first-time visit for all of us. A trip well spent.
Until next time,
Cristiana
