Day 8 :: 28 January 2007 :: West LA
aka "I really frakking hate palm trees"
So Dina's big move was Sunday. As a way of helping, we gave Bonnie the Tribeca and took her car instead. We went to do some sightseeing in the West LA area, planning to meet up with Bonnie and Dina for dinner afterward. We were supposed to meet up with John and Kerry for breakfast, but John2 wasn't feeling well, so we rescheduled that.
We got a little lost getting to the La Brea Tar Pits, but it was nice to get to see and/or drive along some of these streets I've always heard of, like La Cienega, Wilshire Blvd, and Rodeo Drive. So the tar pits were really neat. I like the little tar "lake" near the Wilshire Blvd side with the concrete mammoths in it. It's quite real while still being fake. If that makes any sense, of course. It was very interesting to see the various skeletons and such that were unearthed in the digs. Unfortunately, we weren't there in time to go out and see Pit 91, which is the big excavation pit that's been ongoing since 1969. We really wanted to see it, but it wasn't meant to be. Another repeat trip for next year, that's for sure.
We couldn't quite figure out which building across the street from the tar pits is the SAG building [where Dina works], but I'm happy knowing that I was basically across the street from it. After the tar pits, we headed over to see Dina's new apartment and help out a little with the initial rounds of unpacking before heading over to the Farmer's Market for dinner with Bonnie, Dina, and two of her friends. As we were getting into the car, we saw that if you looked down Dina's street, you could see the Hollywood sign. Of course, it was surrounded by frakking palm trees. I believe I said far more than once how much I hate palm trees that day, and on the trip in general.
The Farmer's Market was really neat. It was like being in a warmer version of the Pike Street Market. So many great little shops to peruse, and all the food! *swoons* So much food, so little time. *veg* We also got postcards, maps, a frakload of stickers, and I got a crochet magazine. Walking back to the car, we passed through the open air shops closer to the mall. We were lucky enough to find a kiosk with crocs. We bought some little decorative bobbles for our crocs [which I live in BTW] and got a brochure for the crocs website. You can bet we'll be buying more from that site. And, to continue the joke from DLR, we took pics of where our car was in the parking garage.
After that, we drove around a bit to get toward home, and ended up in WeHo via Santa Monica Blvd. Jenn had wanted to take me thru WeHo, but couldn't remember how to get there after so many years, then we just happily stumbled into it. And then we found one of her fave shops, Pleasure Chest. We bought a few things there, and yes, the cliché of buying toys at a sex shop in WeHo has now been achieved. *veg* We also hit this neat little place called Drake's that Jenn liked, and bought a few buttons and stickers there.
It was really neat to finally be driving along in WeHo for the first time in my life, and I'm ever so happy we dumbly, luckily stumbled across it. That definitely helped with my clichéd first trip to LA.