I always like to take a trip for the 4th of July (well, other than during 2020 because of the pandemic). Several years ago, I kind of started a random tradition: I would visit a friend over the holiday, and the Baltimore Orioles would just happen to be playing the home city team. This happened during my trip to Seattle and a visit to Wisconsin. When I looked up who the Orioles were playing this year over Independence Day, it was the Los Angeles Angels. My sister lives in L.A., so I figured that's where I should go!
After a long morning of flying, we laid low at home, eating a Sunbasket lunch and watching the new Full Bloom show on HBO Max. I had just seen Maurice Harris on the Try Guys, so I was excited to see his series. After just chilling out (and taking a much-needed nap), it was time to head out for the baseball game!
I love the big baseball caps! And you can't tell, but I'm wearing my patriotic O's shirt.
I had never been to the Angels stadium before, so that was fun to check out. They sell a lot of monkey stuffed animals in the gift shops; I'm not sure what that's about. And they only had one food stand that sold chicken tenders. One! I feel like those are just as standard as hotdogs these days. But in the end I had something better:
Helmet nachos. Yes, it's a thing, and yes, they're delicious.
Another weird animal thing at this stadium: We're all used to hearing Queen songs at sporting events, but not quite like this video they showed on the Tron:
But about the actual game. The Orioles were ahead for a few innings, but then the Angels came back, winning by one run. We saw their superstar Shohei Ohtani hit two home runs and steal a base. He was certainly the MVP of the game, and he brought home a win for the Angels. Here's a recap of the whole game if you're interested.
On Saturday we mostly hung out in my sister's neighborhood. She took me for a walk in the Sepulveda Wildlife Area, since I always enjoy nature walks. It's interesting to see the different kinds of plants and animals that live in a drier climate than what I'm used to. I especially liked seeing some local squirrels run through their burrows, and we saw two female Allen's hummingbirds! Even though it was hot (and our shoulders did get a bit sunburned), it was nice to walk around and get our steps in.
We got to see more beautiful nature the next day at the Rose Garden at USC. I was in heaven! All of the roses were so beautiful; I must have taken a hundred photos. The varieties were all so cool, and they had fun names like "Secret," "Twilight Zone," "Dark Desire," and more. Here are just a few of them:
This was my favorite of the day!
This bee was voguing for me!
This plane is at the entrance to the California Science Center.
Our next stop was the California Science Center. On an earlier drive, I saw a poster for a Lego exhibit there, and I just had to see it! "The Art of the Brick" exhibit did not disappoint. Nathan Sawaya creates amazing pieces of art from LEGO. I'll let the pieces speak for themselves:
Recreation of the Girl with the Pearl Earring
It's hard to tell in the photo, but the waves are 3D!
A 2D LEGO "painting" of the artist's girlfriend
Photo credit: Tony Castillo
There was an entire zoo section! I liked the flamingos a lot!
One section featured photographs by Dean West that imposed images of LEGO creations into the picture. In this one, the dress is made of LEGO!
While the LEGO exhibit brought us to the museum, we wanted to check out what else there was to see. I'm not particularly interested in space exploration, but I was definitely into seeing their "Ecosystems" exhibits. The kelp forest one was my favorite. It felt like a miniature aquarium! We got to see so many cool animals; we even had the chance to touch sea urchins and sea stars. I could have spent hours in there just watching the animals do their thing.
Photo credit: Tony Castillo
That's what the bottom of a sea star looks like!
Since we were in the area and it wasn't quite lunch time, we decided to check out the California African American Museum instead. It's a smaller museum and free to visit. I liked the interesting art, but I was disappointed that I couldn't make a donation at the museum. Even online, there's no simple donation form: you have to email someone to inquire about making a donation! Why would a museum make it so difficult to get themselves some money?!
Taylor and I went with her friends Darren and JP. Darren had never seen Dirty Dancing before!
We ended the 4th of July with an outdoor movie screening at the Hollywood Cemetery (sounds creepy, but it's just a big lawn!). Cinespia, a local movie theater, puts on these screenings, and this time they were showing Dirty Dancing, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. We had our little picnic set-up and enjoyed free snacks from Whole Foods and Smirnoff popsicles. Then it was show-time! I loved how the audience would react to the movie, like swooning when Patrick Swayze is first on screen. And right at the end when he lifts Baby up in the air, a single firework went off at the perfect moment. As the credits were rolling, the real fireworks show began, and it was fun being able to lay on the grass and just watch the bursts of color in the air right above us. So cool! It sounds like they host these outdoor movies throughout the summer and into the fall; if I lived in L.A., I would go to these all the time!
I think Taylor's friend Darren took this photo. How cool!
Vegan tacos, a generous portion of guacamole, and a raspberry margarita from Sugar Taco. Yum!
Whenever I visit my sister, we always eat at great restaurants. We had breakfast one morning at Marmalade Café; everything on the menu looked so good! I think I had been there before on a previous trip, but I honestly would eat there every time I see my sister (plus, they have a Groupon!). We also enjoyed vegan tacos at Sugar Taco, and you could have totally fooled me with those veggie meats! Right around the corner from her place, we enjoyed dinner from Rustic Spoon (a Thai restaurant with a farm-to-table name), and after the museums we went to the diner House of Pies, as featured on Jerry Seinfeld's show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (read about the episode here). My sister and I lamented on the fact that our stomachs are only so big: we wanted to eat everything! We didn't get to go to all the restaurants we had talked about, so we'll keep them on the list for my next visit.
Bavarian chocolate banana cream pie with the best whipped cream!
No comments:
Post a Comment