Even though I had just seen my sister in DC for my own birthday (read that blog post here), we continued the celebration when I visited her in Los Angeles last week. Clearly my MO is to live it up, and we definitely did! These were the best parts of the trip:
I learned about this show a couple months ago by seeing a tweet from Jim Gaffigan. As soon as I saw that post, I KNEW I had to buy tickets. I couldn't miss this show! Last Thursday, my sister and I went to the Hollywood Bowl for the performance. I was impressed by how organized everything was: the shuttle bus to and from the venue, the kiosks at every food stand to speed up orders (although you can bring in your own food, which is really nice and rarer these days), and any lines went by pretty quickly. The Bowl was built in 1922, so it's been an institution for a long time, having hosted Billie Holiday, the Beatles, and now these great comedians!
The opening act was a jazz band called Endea Owens and the Cookout. They sounded pretty good (Endea plays the double bass, which I love), and the back-up singers were riffing, which was cool. I felt bad for them because no one was paying any attention to them, but I understand the comedians needed somebody to (attempt to) warm up the crowd. And at least they can say they've performed at the Hollywood Bowl!
After the music ended, the four comedians came on stage: Gaffigan, Sebastian Maniscalco, Nate Bargatze, and Jerry Seinfeld. They did a ruse with pulling numbers from a hat deciding the order they'd perform in, but it went just as I suspected: Bargatze, Maniscalco, Gaffigan, and then Seinfeld. I had seen Maniscalco years ago,* and I've seen Gaffigan at least five times, so I was most excited to see the two acts that I had never seen live before. Bargatze actually might have been my favorite since I wasn't familiar with any of his material, but his jokes about his lack of education cracked me up. Here's a clip:
Maniscalco was next, and while I enjoyed the jokes about taking his family to the Universal theme park, his physical comedy always makes me feel awkward (making yourself look ugly makes me cringe, not laugh). And Gaffigan's set was identical to when I saw him this March in Savannah (although still funny, especially when his jokes about having children, which only solidify my decision not to have any). And while I understand Seinfeld has a schtick, his negativity really wasn't that funny. He talked a lot about hating everything and his enjoyment of complaining. Huh? But I did appreciate his messaging about people being too obsessed with their phones and being so consumed by technology that they miss out on real life experiences.
I thought it was great to see so many big-name comedians in one night, and at such a cool outdoor venue! My only regret is that we were not prepared for the cooler weather once the sun went down. We each had a light jacket on, but I would have been so happy to have a windbreaker for my lap, a blazer on, and a fake fur coat (i.e. what I wore to see Stevie Nicks and Billy Joel in M&T Bank Stadium in February; read that blog post here). Brrr!
Nature Walks
On the day I arrived, we took a walk around Lake Balboa, which was such a good idea after sitting on a plane for more than five hours. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we saw many different ducks and geese, and even Canada geese goslings (just like on my nature walk the other day; read about that here). The ones in the photo were a little older, but we saw another pair of geese in the water with SEVENTEEN babies! That's crazy!
On the second day, we took a hike in the morning at Westridge-Canyonback Wilderness Park. There was a six-mile loop option, but we decided to do the shorter path, which was still a good 90-minute walk. We heard so many birds (although I didn't realize you have to download the bird lists in the Merlin app before you want to use it, so that was useless), and lots of pretty flowers! Definitely worth the dust aaaaaaaaall over my black sneakers ;)
Here are some of the pretty flowers we saw:
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| This is a sticky monkey-flower. Who knew there was such a thing? |
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| Google Lens says this is a Gazania, which is actually native to Africa. |
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| This is an arroyo lupine. It looks a lot like the ones in New Hampshire, but much shorter. |
Work Outs
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| Taylor is SUCH a good instructor! I was so impressed. She kicked our butts! |
Ok, it might seem strange to list exercising as a highlight of a vacation, but we did two really fun workouts! My sister teaches at Row House, so it was so cool taking her class (especially since she took one of my Pure Barre classes in October). I am used to using a rower at Orangetheory, but doing a workout that is primarily rowing was a whole new test of fitness. I was sweating so much, and my legs felt like jelly afterward. Whew!
I had also found out a few weeks ago that a new Pure Barre studio was coming to Encino, which is not far from where my sister lives. Although the studio isn't quite open yet, they offered a free outdoor class in Encino Park. I could predict which moves we would do since we didn't have the barre, but it was still a great workout: I was getting my shake on! After class there was also a rep from Harvest Bar offering acai bowl samples, and Stretchlab was there giving 15-minute assisted stretches, so those were some added bonuses. And Taylor ended up deciding to join so she could get their Founders rate!
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| Two fitness instructor sisters. How cool is that?! |
The Fall Guy at Alamo Drafthouse
I had only seen a movie poster for The Fall Guy, so I really didn't know what it was about. But my sister wanted me to experience the Alamo Drafthouse, which is one of those movie theaters that offers actual meals and alcohol and has the big, cozy chairs that recline. It was kind of nice having real food at a theater instead of just candy or popcorn, but it is a little tricky to eat a salad in the dark! The movie itself was better than I expected (I thought it might be kinda dumb). I especially enjoyed the chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, and it was pretty cool seeing so many stunts (my sister described the movie as a "love letter" to stuntmen). And the movie just opened last weekend, so that was fun seeing it opening weekend.
Dodgers vs. Braves Baseball Game
I hadn't seen a baseball game yet this season (except for a spring training game in Sarasota in March), and since I'd never been to Dodger Stadium, we thought it might be fun to see a game. We went right after the movie, since we were already in the same part of town. We took some photos with larger-than-life bobbleheads and then found our seats, which were between home plate and third base (pretty good!). We also got to see Shohei Ohtani play, whom we saw in Anaheim in 2021 (see that blog post here); he hit a home run each time we saw him! I will admit that we missed a third of the game waiting in line for Korean fried chicken; I ended up leaving the line and getting a fried peanut butter-jelly-banana sandwich (delicious!). But we got to see the home team win, so that's always good!
Just another great trip out to L.A. to see my sister! We always have so much fun together. She's coming back east in June for my mini-wedding, so looking forward to seeing her then!
*Read more blog posts from a few other comedy shows I've seen:
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