Trip to LA

So I’m leaving town on Wed to go to Toronto to see The Who and I just realized I haven’t blogged about my big adventure to LA yet.

A few months ago I told Gerry that I wanted to go to LA to see The Go-Go’s play at The Hollywood Bowl and he suggested riding his motorcycle down and making it a bit of a road-trip. I said … you go ahead with that. I’ll fly down and meet you. Ha ha.

So Gerry left about 6 days before me and rode his Harley all they way down the coast to LA. I flew. Ha ha. I’m a fairweather rider and it has to be perfect conditions for me to get on the back of the bike. I enjoy riding but it’s only fun for me for about an hour. 🙂

I met Gerry at the condo we rented from Air B&B. It was our first time using Air B&B and it turned out pretty good … the womans condo that we rented had a pool! YAY! And was within walking distance to The Hollywood Bowl.

It’s weird staying at a strangers house. They give you the key and you do your thing … She had very INTERESTING art hanging on the wall.  🙂

The first thing we did was go to The Le Brea Tar Pits. It’s one of those places that Gerry’s always wanted to go … he loves dinosaurs and everything prehistoric so we hit the museum.

The museum was pretty small but interesting. I did think it was sad that the tar pits outside still catch wildlife. Lots of birds/rats/etc still get stuck in the tar. 🙁

Gerry enjoyed himself immensely.  🙂

The second place we went was Real Food Daily. I love that place.  🙂 On this trip I was trying my best to be Soy Free and Gluten Free and unfortunately Real Food Daily is not the place to accomplish that. It was really hard to find ANYTHING for me to eat on the menu. I ended up with steamed vegetables and rice. …  🙁 I was miserable.

This sadly became the theme of our trip to LA. I didn’t realize how Soy-centric LA was but it seemed that every restaurant we went too – soy was the main ingredient. I was becoming really frustrated, miserable and hangry (a combination of hungry and angry).

So we decided to go raw and went to Cru in Silverlake for dinner. It was a beautiful restaurant and the food was lovely but for some reason every single dish we ordered was slathered in cashew creme. It as a VERY rich meal and my tummy wasn’t too happy about it but then the Key Lime Pie arrived and I managed to push through. Ha ha.

By day 3 I was so grumpy and I was whining about the lack of good food on my twitter feed and I got a tweet from a girl who told me to go to Native Food. So we hopped on the bike and rode out to the location on Gayley Ave. I was greeted by a wonderful young lady who took me through the menu and showed me what I could order.

I dig Native Foods mantra …

I ordered a Portobello Mushroom Burger and it was delish. I think the bun was GF… or maybe at that point I had given up hope at finding SF/GF meal and had a wheat bun. Regardless … it was THE BEST MEAL of my trip to LA.

I know asking for SF/GF can be a stretch but I really thought I’d be able to find something to eat at all these vegan restaurants… I guess maybe it’s time for these places to look beyond soy because I know I’m not the only one who has a problem with it.

Oooh. We also ate at Cafe Gratitude and it was AWESOME. So awesome that I forgot to take any photos. ha ha. They had little to no soy on the menu (hooray) and I ended up eating the I AM MAGICAL and Gerry had the I AM AWESOME. It was a stellar meal and the next time I go to LA it’s the first place I’m going to hit up for food.

We also did a lot of walking in LA. I know. I know… nobody walks in LA but we did. We walked from the start of the Hollywood Walk of Fame all the way to the end. We walked through the insanity of Hollywood Blvd and looked at all the stars. All the tourist trap places. It was kind of fun …

And of course I had to stop by my beloved Go-Go’s star and make sure it was being taken care of…  🙂

Speaking of the Go-Go’s… the show was AMAZING!! I mean… look at who was on the bill! Outstanding right??

It was a glorious night under the stars at The Bowl. What a great venue to see live music.

I also got to take Gerry to the after-party (thanks Jane and Leah) and show him the madness of all that. It was really great to see old friends and catch up with them at the party.

But LA wasn’t all about food. We also went to a couple of museums – my fav was the Who Shot Rock N Roll exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography. The only thing missing from that exhibit is the cover to Beauty and The Beat. How they missed that cover is BEYOND me. I mean … come on. It’s a no brainer.

On a whim we went to Universal Studios. I’ve wanted to see the animatronic Jaws thing since I was a kid. Theme parks are not my Dad’s thing … instead we would take me to a museum, an art gallery or a play instead. At the time I hated it – but as an adult I really appreciate that he did that. My parents are awesome.  🙂

I don’t know what we were thinking going to Universal Studios on a SATURDAY!! The place was packed and so unbelievably noisy. I’ve never been to a theme park before but are they all that noisy? *laugh*

We did the Tram Tour that takes you past the Bates Motel, through the Jaws set (who spit water on me and scared the shit out of me). You also get to see the backlot where they film stuff and go through a tunnel and watch a 3d King Kong fight dinosaurs. Out of everything we did at Universal Studios that was my favourite. I love seeing behind the scenes stuff …

Speaking of behind the scenes I saw Matthew Lillard all dressed up as Shaggy just hanging out talking to a security guard on the backlot. Why do I ALWAYS see Matthew Lillard. I see him everywhere… last time I was in Vancouver I saw him filming in the street. That guy is everywhere.

Gerry also went on the Jurassic Park ride. I can’t do rides because they mess with my equilibrium and I have a neck injury from a car accident so I had to sit that one out … plus who the hell wants to do an 85 foot drop. NOT ME!!

We also went to the Water World show. It was hilarious. So many explosions. So much bad acting.  🙂

Now that I think about it … we had a lot of fun. Not worth the price of admission but if you’re into doing rides then I think it might be worth a visit. Once. I don’t think I’d go back.

Our trip to LA was a short one … it was time to see the Go-Go’s play another show! Yessss!! Gerry hopped on his bike and left early to meet me in San Jose and I hit LAX to catch my flight to San Jose.

Onward!