Weekend! (LA Edition)

Last weekend I was down in Los Angeles visiting my friends Myles and Laurel. My first night in town we had insanely good hamburgers at Father's Office. I wish I'd taken pictures but we were so hungry there wasn't time. I was excited to find that they served my favorite beer of all time, Hitachino Nest's White Ale, which I haven't seen on a menu in a long time. Afterwards we went to see The Ghost Writer at the lovely Crest Theater. It was a great thriller with a sense of humor- I definitely recommend it. The next day we got up early to visit the Rose Bowl antique market, and then went to one of my favorite places, Milk, for one of their killer banana-dulce de leche milkshakes (above).


After lunch we visited the Velaslavasay Panorama, which is pretty unique. If you've ever been to the Museum of Jurassic Techonology, this is along those lines. Then the weather got colder and we decided we could use a tropical cocktail, so we went to the new Trader Vic's downtown. It is nowhere near as cool as the old one in Beverly Hills, but the drinks are just as strong. We tried going to FIDM to look at the current exhibit, but they were closed. We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around the house before meeting our friend Darren at Tavern in Brentwood for an outstanding dinner. It was so good that the next morning, Myles and I walked back over there to get lunch at the Larder, their takeout counter/bakery-cafe. It was a beautiful day and it was really fun to walk around a bit, since nobody walks in LA. We walked through the Veteran Center on the way home and I took some pictures.


And then we did something even more unheard of than walking: we took the bus! Yes, public transportation does exist in Los Angeles, and my friends make a point of taking it whenever possible. Myles had some errands to run in Santa Monica, so we walked around there a bit, making sure to stop and look at one of Los Angeles' oldest trees, the Moreton Bay fig at the Miramar Hotel. By the time we got home we were hungry again, so we headed off to Clementine to celebrate National Grilled Cheese Month in style. Clementine offers 5 different grilled cheese sandwiches each week for the month of April, and Myles and Laurel make an effort to try them all (that's Charo's Chicken Chipotle Cheese, below). Because we had a group of five, we were able to sample all of last week's offerings before I had to head to the airport to go home.