September 30 - Los Angeles, CA

pork belly food market

tour meeting point

Weather – rain when we got up, on and off until
about 1:00, sunny late afternoon, 20º

Steps – 16,269

Bradbury building

Food tours have always treated us well – Seattle, Barcelona, Bologna…all 10/10, we thought we’d better try what a Los Angeles food tour had to offer. Today’s wasn’t much more than a 5/10 unfortunately. It was OK, but just OK. In addition to trying some food, we were interested in the location for this tour - Downtown LA. If we didn’t check out downtown today, we didn’t think we’d be back. Downtown LA is about a 30 min

random downtown LA

drive from Beverly Hills where our hotel is. An
11AM start meant we had a bit of a lazy morning before heading out.

This walking tour met at a bakery just like our Seattle food tour. This is very practical…we can use the facilities and grab a coffee to go. Our first taste on the tour was an almond croissant from this bakery – it was very good! I’m not usually one for almond flavoured anything, but this may have turned me.

pumpkin ravioli stop

This tour was a combo of food, walking, and info. Every now and again, our guide Scarlet stopped to chat. Before we knew it, we arrived at LA’s Grand Central Market, for Filipino

Central Market

pork belly and a beer (unfortunately we were on our own for drinks, but maybe that was a good thing.) I’m not the biggest fan of pork belly…too fatty, but the sweet-Asian flavour was very tasty…needless to say, I helped Chris eat his. This market
was thronging with activity…people, sounds, and smells. Our visit here was perfectly timed…it poured for about 10 minutes when we were safely under cover.

meh donuts

tacos

Next, we wandered a bit down LA’s Broadway…many old theatres with

random interesting building

cool architecture, but kind of run down. Currently, there aren’t any shows playing at all. We stepped into The Bradbury Building – LA’s oldest commercial downtown building, very interesting ornamentation and iron work. Next was an Italian place for pumpkin ravioli, I thought I’d
have a double order, but Chris ate his. Then we had tacos (I had pork and Chris had steak) washed down with a beer. Lastly, were donuts from Donut Friend. Donut Friend was more like Donut Acquaintance…I’ve had better. If I’m going to

eat a donut, it had better be worth it…this was not unfortunately.

After the tour we checked out the area around LA’s Staples Centre and found a bench to eat the donut we schlepped here from the end of the food tour. We then grabbed an Uber back to Beverly Hills. Before heading up to our room for a bit of a siesta, we visited BevMo for some ship wine. We have all inclusive booze on the ship, but not via the mini bar in our room. Don’t get me started on how annoying that is…but we got a couple of bottles for our balcony on the ship.

blogging and Gump

The rest of the afternoon was spent blogging, watching Forest Gump (how I love this movie) and chilling with a beverage from BevMo.

fondue!

Dinner was cheese fondue and a bottle of wine at Monsieur Marcel in LA’s Original Farmer's Market. This place was about a 30 min walk from our hotel. This was the perfect pre and post dinner distance for a walk.

hotel mall and downtown

September 29 - Los Angeles, CA

Walk of Fame

Weather – morning was super cloudy and gloomy,
but not cold - 19º, high of 23º, sun came out late afternoon, definitely humid

Steps – 26,084! 19.6 Km

Our original thought for the day was a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour. We’ve been on many of these over the years over the world. While they are VERY touristy (we acknowledge we are tourists who want touristy things) they give a great overview of a place while providing transportation to far-flung places we can’t quite walk to, and we are

no caption needed

ahhhh, America!

very capable and happy to walk…FAR…today may actually be a record – I can’t actually remember how many steps we had in England once…over 20,000 for sure.

Anyway…after some research, we realized LA’s HOHOs probably weren’t that great. We decided to

Michael Jackson died here

walk to Hollywood, check out the Walk of Fame, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Boulevard, get some lunch and do a celebrity homes tour, oh and people watch…there’s plenty of people watching.

Laugh Factory

Our hotel is in East Beverley Hills, almost West Hollywood, about 6K south of Hollywood or 90 minutes walk. This was a lot. Plus…Getting to Hollywood takes at least one block of very hilly walking…no gym necessary today. We knew what we were getting into, but our 2-pint lunch was a sight for sore eyes, by the time we were sipping it was actually 9K!

I wasn’t looking for a 2-pint lunch, but it was forced upon me. OK, not exactly FORCED, but drinks were 2for1. This is the second time I’ve had a second drink FORCED upon me (remember Miami Mom?) this time we weren’t surprised. Sure we could have each had one, but that would have meant that we would have had to drink the same drink…it’s not 2for1 of any combination…it’s 2for1 of the exact same drink. Chris wanted Guinness and I will drink pretty much anything EXCEPT Guinness.

might do some shopping

After lunch was a 2-hour, 8 person, open-top vehicle tour of celebrity homes. We saw the Hollywood sign, homes of the Kardashians, Justin Timberlake, Quinten Tarantino, and Brono Mars, and Jennifer Lopez. We also drove up Rodeo Drive and down Sunset Strip. This all was

narrated by our drive/guide giving stories and gossip. This was the perfect tour…not too long, not too many people and to places we’d never see on our own. Bel Air was definitely the crème-de-la-crème of the fancy-schmancy neighborhoods. But…no actual celebrities were spotted.  If I had to choose, I’d choose Bel Air for my LA pad…the streets were narrow, so that trees from both sides formed a canopy – very charming. Who knows what the houses actually look like…mostly we saw gates and high walls, but the area…pretty nice.

By 4:15 we were done with the tour and headed back to the hotel. This was just the right time for happy hours all along Sunset Blvd and we were a bit parched. We found a charming wine bar with great staff, great prices ($5 for a glass of rosé) and great volume of vehicles zooming by.

Whisky a Go Go

We had absolutely no desire to stop for another glass until Hunter the door guy at a West Hollywood bar convinced us to have one more $5 glass of wine. Chris was over-dressed for this place…the fashion for guys was muscle shirts and short-shorts and the fashion for women…well, there weren’t many women.

Chinese Theatre

One quick stop at the CVS across the street from the hotel for a giant beer to share, a few snacks and we were in for the evening. It was only 8:00, but we were done.

Stacey…it’s only day 2, but so far I have no regrets on the carryon front. Not too much room for shopping, but I’m never a big shopper, did bring an emergency tote bag that currently is taking up little room and can be used if I NEED to check the carryon on the way home. Don’t want to be forced to, but can if a shopping spree breaks out.

$5 wine!

Lori…thanks, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to your mom too!

trek to Hollywood

September 28 - Calgary to Los Angeles, CA

Weather – 19º when we arrived in Los Angeles, with just a touch of humidity

Steps – 20,517. I have to admit, most of these were accumulated before the vacation started…walking to and from Renfrew.

We made it to Los Angeles with very little excitement. Our evening flight was delayed a bit, but nothing terrible. Once we lifted off Chris and I toasted vacation with a bit of bubbly and beef jerky! I figured I needed a bit of protein to get me through the 3-hour flight sitting behind 2 howling gifts from God. These kids were something else! I assume their parents were mortified and did all they could and didn’t want their kids wailing for 3 hours, but WOW! We’ve been on flights with screaming kids, but never with the stamina of these kids. I wonder if they were missing their mommy-night-nights?

bedtime snack

I was prepared for a nightmare at the LAX airport. I had heard that it was huge and hard to navigate. It was huge, but in the end fine. Definitely not the worst airport experience – talking to you São Paolo. Only having carryon may have smoothed the experience…the freedom of just walking off of a plane and out of the airport is glorious!

We had a bit of a hike (10 min) to the Uber pick-up spot, but we could have taken a shuttle. Finding an Uber at the Vegas airport is harder on the head than this was. This was pretty well organized with different waiting spots indicated by letters and numbers…made finding the driver pretty easy.

Speaking of Uber…we had a wonderful Uber driver. Hendra, our driver from Indonesia, talked just the right amount, which for us is lots. Especially in a new place, drivers have plenty to share about what’s what. Hendra has family in Montreal, so we talked about Canada. We’ve been to Indonesia, so we talked about that, and he was adamant that we knew about pickpockets and bag snatchers – I think we are always aware, but it was sweet to hear him remind us. 30 minutes after we left the airport, we arrived at the hotel around 11:45, checked in, dodged the partiers spilling out of the hotel’s club, showered, ate the welcome chocolates and plum and passed out.

I might have passed out because of the cloud I slept on…this was the softest hotel bed I’ve ever slept in – softest mattress, softest sheets, softest duvet. Based on the softness of the bed I expected cloud-like pillows…nope, they were fine, but the bed oversold the pillows. Nevertheless…I may have woken up once in the night, or I might not have, I can’t remember…that is rare for me.

PS…happy birthday MOM!!

September 27 – vacation prep

Bags are packed, lamp timer is set, plants are watered, fridge is emptied, and we’re checked in. In less than 24 hours we should be boarding a plane to Los Angeles for the next 2 weeks.

This only time I’ve ever spent in LA was a weekend trip to Disneyland about 30 years ago!! Of course, part of this trip is a 7-day California coast cruise bookended by 3 days at the beginning and end in LA – I’m not sure how we’d actually cope with a vacation NOT including a cruise. The weather forecast looks perfect for travelling – highs from 27º in LA to 19º in San Francisco, lows should be around 13º, at this point there is only one day of rain forecasted. Not quite beach or pool weather, but perfect for wandering, touring, and having a few meals al fresco.

From the moment we returned from our last trip I’ve been determined to travel light. This trip involves no checked bags despite the need for ‘cruise clothes’ and 2 whole weeks away! Unlike the last cruise we were on in the summer, we don’t have endless, included laundry. Nonetheless, we’ve already ‘bought’ 2 bags of ship laundry. One backpack and a wheely bag each is all we’re taking…should be no reason to return to the house for the forgotten bag…should there?? We can count to 2, can’t we?