A Visitor from the East
For the past few days, yrmencyn (hereafter Mike), was in town to visit. Mike is one of my dearest friends and the first of my friends that has been able to come out to LA for a visit.
We had a blast. An exhausting, fun, full of good food and public transportation, not to mention a few surprises, blast.
Wednesday
I picked Mike up at the airport around 6 and we made our way back to my apartment. After dropping off his luggage, we went up to Beautiful Downtown Burbank for Thai food and hung out at a nifty independent coffee house that I will definitely to start patronizing more. There were some comedians doing a show including some guy that works at Republican fundraisers. There's a brilliant marketing plan..a conservative comic playing a coffeehouse.
Thursday
The next day was a tour around Downtown Los Angeles. We saw: Olvera St., The Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, Disney Hall, Little Tokyo and the Japanese American National Museum where a nice old Japanese lady taught us some simple origami. We actually managed to see the museum twice because I accidentally left my wallet on the table after tipping the lady for teaching us origami.
Friday
We went out to Santa Monica on Friday and had lunch on the pier after the world's longest bus ride. We walked 3rd St where we both picked up CDs at Hear. I really don't want to like that store because it's owned by Starbuck but, damn, they have an amazing selection. After a little more consumerism we head back towards Burbank but stopped at CityWalk first. We didn't stay there too long as it was its usually crowded self and so moved on to awesome Greek food in Burbank (The Golden Chicken for you curious locals)
Saturday
Saturday was all about Hollywood. We headed there by noon to try a get tickets to the matinee of Wicked. The only tickets they had were way out of our price range so we tried for the lottery. For every showing, there are 26 front row seats for $25 each that they raffle off. We didn't get in the 2pm show but we figured we'd come back a 6pm to try for the 8pm show. In the meantime, we wandered back and forth between Vine and Highland on Hollywood for a bit. We had lunch at Vert a Wolfgang Puck-run brasserie at Hollywood and Highland. So very, very good! Eventually it was time to try our luck at Wicked again and through the power of positive thinking ;)..we won! I saw the show when it cam through town the first time but this cast blew that one completely out of the water. It was simply amazing on both the acting and singing fronts. There was some adventure getting home but we eventually did, happy and thoroughly tired.
Sunday
We took it fairly easy yesterday, spending a lot of time at Weds. evening's coffee house reading. I did take Mike to Ikea and that was amusing to watch. I swear that place is like an amusement park for adults (that are into home furnishings). Instead of going out to eat las night, Mike was gracious enough to cook a delicious dinner, since I missed the "Mike cooks" portion of the OSU experience.
Monday
Today we took it even easier than yesterday. We did check out a bbq place not too far from where I live, down near Griffith Park called Pecos Bill's. It was recommended on one of the food blogs he reads and it was very tasty. After that, it was time to head to the airport and say goodbye.
The day-by-day account only gives part of the picture because it can't really show all the laughter and conversation that was had. We admitted to each other last night that we both had both had been worried that we would have nothing to talk about or that things would be awkward. In the last three years, we had only seen each other for a handful of hours around rosepurr and thndrstd's wedding and many things in our lives had changed in that time. It makes me indescribably happy that our friendship is stronger than ever.
We had a blast. An exhausting, fun, full of good food and public transportation, not to mention a few surprises, blast.
Wednesday
I picked Mike up at the airport around 6 and we made our way back to my apartment. After dropping off his luggage, we went up to Beautiful Downtown Burbank for Thai food and hung out at a nifty independent coffee house that I will definitely to start patronizing more. There were some comedians doing a show including some guy that works at Republican fundraisers. There's a brilliant marketing plan..a conservative comic playing a coffeehouse.
Thursday
The next day was a tour around Downtown Los Angeles. We saw: Olvera St., The Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, Disney Hall, Little Tokyo and the Japanese American National Museum where a nice old Japanese lady taught us some simple origami. We actually managed to see the museum twice because I accidentally left my wallet on the table after tipping the lady for teaching us origami.
Friday
We went out to Santa Monica on Friday and had lunch on the pier after the world's longest bus ride. We walked 3rd St where we both picked up CDs at Hear. I really don't want to like that store because it's owned by Starbuck but, damn, they have an amazing selection. After a little more consumerism we head back towards Burbank but stopped at CityWalk first. We didn't stay there too long as it was its usually crowded self and so moved on to awesome Greek food in Burbank (The Golden Chicken for you curious locals)
Saturday
Saturday was all about Hollywood. We headed there by noon to try a get tickets to the matinee of Wicked. The only tickets they had were way out of our price range so we tried for the lottery. For every showing, there are 26 front row seats for $25 each that they raffle off. We didn't get in the 2pm show but we figured we'd come back a 6pm to try for the 8pm show. In the meantime, we wandered back and forth between Vine and Highland on Hollywood for a bit. We had lunch at Vert a Wolfgang Puck-run brasserie at Hollywood and Highland. So very, very good! Eventually it was time to try our luck at Wicked again and through the power of positive thinking ;)..we won! I saw the show when it cam through town the first time but this cast blew that one completely out of the water. It was simply amazing on both the acting and singing fronts. There was some adventure getting home but we eventually did, happy and thoroughly tired.
Sunday
We took it fairly easy yesterday, spending a lot of time at Weds. evening's coffee house reading. I did take Mike to Ikea and that was amusing to watch. I swear that place is like an amusement park for adults (that are into home furnishings). Instead of going out to eat las night, Mike was gracious enough to cook a delicious dinner, since I missed the "Mike cooks" portion of the OSU experience.
Monday
Today we took it even easier than yesterday. We did check out a bbq place not too far from where I live, down near Griffith Park called Pecos Bill's. It was recommended on one of the food blogs he reads and it was very tasty. After that, it was time to head to the airport and say goodbye.
The day-by-day account only gives part of the picture because it can't really show all the laughter and conversation that was had. We admitted to each other last night that we both had both had been worried that we would have nothing to talk about or that things would be awkward. In the last three years, we had only seen each other for a handful of hours around rosepurr and thndrstd's wedding and many things in our lives had changed in that time. It makes me indescribably happy that our friendship is stronger than ever.