A 4-day visit to Santa Monica turned into a week-long adventure across multiple parts of Los Angeles due to a cancelled flight back to Boston. The universe (or JetBlue) just wanted us to spend some more time in L.A., which I’ve now dubbed “The City of Extremes.” As in: Extreme wealth. Extreme poverty. Extreme traffic. Extreme avocado. L.A. was just too much, and a shock to the system after the quiet isolation of Covid Winter II.
It was both Aisha and my first time in Los Angeles, and our first flight since 2019. Given how long we were (accidentally) out there for, I think we made the most of it! Though somehow we didn’t end up seeing a single celebrity.
DAY 1
Santa Monica Pier & Beach
The SANTA ANA WINDS (all caps because everyone was talking about them while we were there) thwarted our plans for this being a suntanning-and-reading-by-the-ocean kind of vacation. But since our hotel was pretty much across from Santa Monica Beach, we headed there first anyway.
We walked along the beach path where there were lots of bike riders and roller skaters and doggies. We did the touristy thing of checking out the Santa Monica Pier, which has amusement rides and an arcade and restaurants and all kinds of kitschy charm, including a sign for the end of Route 66—though how a car would drive up to the very end of the route is still a mystery to me.
DAY 2
Venice Beach & Canals
The SANTA ANA WINDS blew even stronger when we got to Venice Beach. I’m sure the beach is very cool, but it was hard to see with all the sand blowing in my eyes. Someone was graffiting a palm tree and the spray paint was blowing everywhere and I was like… now that is someone committed to their art.
Less windy were the Venice Canals, which—what the heck? How had I never heard of this place before? We went on a whim and it ended up being one of the coolest spots we saw while on the coast. It’s like a grid of houses—some of them extremely gorgeous—along man-made water canals with walking paths all through the neighborhood.
At night we had dinner at Chez Jay, where we didn’t see any celebrities, but we did see an unusually large congregation of blonde white women holding a birthday party.
On our walk back to the hotel, we encountered a robot blinking and rolling down the street on its own. A couple Chez Jay martinis in me, I was sure I was just seeing nonsense until a guy came up to us and was like “Sorry to bother you but WHAT WAS THAT THING??” And we were like “LOL IDK TOURISTS!!” Found out later that it was a Postmates bot. Wild!
DAY 3
The Getty Villa & WeHo
The Getty Villa is a free (yes FREE) museum in the Palisades. Gorgeous gardens, Greek and Roman architecture, and a reflecting pool were the main draws for us. We were both totally blown away by how many indoor exhibits the museum had as well. Overall a great visit with a tasty lunch at the museum cafe, too.
We had to get back to Santa Monica so I could log into my online writing class (no full vacation for me here). While I was in class, Aisha went back to the windy beach and got approached by many Santa Monica Seagulls.
After a much-needed nap, we met up with some friends and went out in West Hollywood (or “WeHo” as I learned it’s called). When people said that WeHo was Gay L.A., I was expecting maybe something like the Castro in SF. I should’ve known that, like everything about in L.A., it would have its own extremeness to it. I’ve never seen so much booty on a Wednesday night. A WEDNESDAY. As we hopped from bar to club to bar and I kept asking people, “Don’t you have to work tomorrow?” and the answer was largely “yup” but it turns out the people in L.A. don’t sleep! Wow! Some time around 1am as Aisha and others were ordering slices of cake from a random bakery display tucked between the two dance floors at The Abbey, I thought, “This city is on a totally different timeline.”
DAY 4
More of Santa Monica
Woke up on the “last” day of our trip to an email from JetBlue that our flight was cancelled! Oop! To take our minds off the stress of waiting for JetBlue support to call us back (we waited 3 hours, wow!), we explored Santa Monica a little more. We got breakfast at Interstellar Cafe, and the waffle there was out of this world (pun intended). Maybe my favorite meal of the whole trip. We walked 3rd Street Promenade which is supposed to be a thing to do in Santa Monica, but it was all ritzy shops, and kind of eerily quiet too. My favorite part of it was the dinosaur bushes.
Once we found out that the soonest we could get home was Monday morning, we had to scramble to figure out the logistics—notifying our jobs and our friend taking care of Kitty, all that fun stuff—PLUS figure out where the heck we’re going to stay for three more nights! Welp, when stuck in Los Angeles.. might as well go to Hollywood?! We booked the Loews in Hollywood and went back out to Santa Monica Pier to get dinner and ride the Pacific Wheel because why not?!
DAY 5
Hello Hollywood!
We hotel-hopped to the Loews on Hollywood Boulevard for the second unexpected leg of our trip. I had researched nothing about Hollywood before arriving, but our hotel room overlooked the Hollywood sign and the Magic Castle, which I’m now obsessed with (if you are a magician who can get me an invite, please DM me).
Hollywood Boulevard is an outright sensory overload. We walked the Walk of Fame a bit, saw a snake among other outrageous things. Then we were like, hey, let’s take one of these many Hollywood sightseeing tour buses! We booked with Access Hollywood Tours and we ended up having an amazing PRIVATE tour because no one else got on the bus. Sounds sketch, but our tour guide Dave was awesome. He took us up Mulholland Drive and through Beverly Hills to see all the celebrity houses. Did you know Drew Barrymore is renovating Harry Houdini’s house??
DAY 6
Dolby Theater & L.A. Warehouse Party
The NAACP Image Awards were this weekend, and so there was a “pink” carpet rolled out at the Dolby Theater next door to the Loews. After spending some time by the pool, we went exploring, trying to see if we could spot Morgan Freeman or Issa Rae who were reported to be going to the event. While we saw lots of fancy tuxedos and dresses (including a dog wearing a gown, I kid you not), turns out the awards ceremony was VIRTUAL this year, and so no celebs were actually there. Psych! The area surrounding the Dolby Theater was under some HEAVY construction, so we didn’t stick around.
Just as well. We had to save up our energy for a party in downtown L.A. that started at 10pm. Not just any party, but a queer San Junipero (as in the best Black Mirror episode ever) party in a secret location in an unmarked alleyway and warehouse downtown. I just… where else besides L.A. does something like this happen? Thankfully we tagged along with a great group of queer friends and folks who led the way. And vax cards were required for entry which only added to the whole San Junipero dystopian vibe. The party was so much fun, and officially made the whole “flight getting cancelled” debacle worthwhile.
DAY 7
Sunset Boulevard & Chill
Good Lord, by day seven, L.A. had me cooked. And, given this extended vacay, we were now out of clothes! Aisha and I went to the Target on Hollywood Boulevard (found David Bowie’s Hollywood star out front - woo!) and bought some extra underwear and socks. Travel isn’t all glamour, folks.
Then somehow Aisha and I mustered the energy to walk down Sunset Boulevard to In-N-Out Burger, which neither of us had tried before. Everyone kept talking about how amazing the burgers are, how we had to try it. Maybe it was our cooked brains or the fact that there was an altercation with security (what fast food joint needs security?!), we both agreed that it didn’t live up to the hype. Turns out we were supposed to order it “animal style?” Well no one told us!
We spent our last night in L.A. by the Loews pool, overlooking the renovated Hollywood & Highland arch, which I had no idea looked much different not too long ago.
Hollywood & Highland & Ready to Go Home