Hi, I promised that I would at least have one post about our vacation to CA in March and I’ve finally found the time to get around to it.
My sister and I spent a week in Covina, CA with a dear friend of ours, armed with an itinerary for a week’s worth of sightseeing.
Here is a list of what we crammed into a week in CA:
1. Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple
2. Beauty and the Beast Broadway
3. Getty Villa and antique store in Malibu
3. LA’s Little Tokyo, Angel's Flight, and Grand Central Market
4. Getty Museum
5. Natural History Museum
6. Page Museum/La Brea Tar Pits
7. Horseback riding
8. Malls, Asian plazas for stores with K-dramas, CDs, etc.
I think our list of visited restaurants and cafés is longer than our sightseeing! So much yummy food....
1. BJ’s restaurant and brewery
2. Dim sum restaurant
3. Akasaka Japanese Fine Cuisine
4. Pink’s Hot Dogs
5. In & Out burgers
6. Sugar Rush café
7. Pinkberry yogurt
8. Frisco’s restaurant
9. Genki Living – Japanese crepes
10. Porto’s Cuban Bakery and Café
11. Korean BBQ
12. Taco Express
13. Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles
14. Daphne’s Greek Café
15. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
16. 85 Degrees Bakery
17. Jurassic Restaurant – Taiwanese
Dim Sum: Nothing says culture shock like a dim sum restaurant if you have never been to one. In the years that I have traveled to CA to visit, I've been to this restaurant twice and it still gives me culture shock!!
Pink's Hot Dogs - downtown LA: One of my sister's request while in CA was to visit Pink's in LA. We went after the Beauty and the Beast Broadway. It was worth the wait for the hot dogs.
Sugar Rush café - cinnamon and raisin toast with banana syrup: Our friend Amanda suggested this little café, which is great for breakfast. The banana syrup is freshly made with every order of toast.....yummy!!
Pinkberry for yogurt in Little Tokyo, LA: We stopped here on our way through Little Tokyo. We do not have a Pinkberry in Mobile, but we do have other yogurt places that have popped up recently.
Genki Living - model for crepe: After a sandwich and fries at Frisco's, we stopped by the Life Plaza for crepes at Genki Living. The photo is a model of the type of crepe that Amanda and I shared. It is a neat little shop, you can watch them make your crepe. You can choose from the models or suggest your own fillings.
Potato ball - Porto's Cuban Bakery: On our way to the Getty Museum, we stopped by Porto's for breakfast/lunch. It was delicious. The potato balls are to die for!!
Turkey on croissant with guava chips: My sandwich at Porto's! I loved the guava chips. My sister and I both agree that the next time we visit CA, we will have to stop at Porto's again :)
Lemon whoopie pie with raspberry filling at Getty Museum: The museum has a large cafeteria area with sections set up for different ethnic foods and self-serve cases with drinks, chips, and sweets. I chose a lemon raspberry whoopie pie as a snack after touring the museum.
Burrito at Taco Express: One morning we had Mexican for breakfast before going into LA to see the National History Museum and the tar pits.
Chicken/Cheese Omelet at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles: My sister suggested this restaurant after she and my friend were done with their two hour horseback ride to the Hollywood sign. I've never been to a chicken and waffle restaurant before this; it was very good. My sister actually had the chicken and waffles, which I sampled...yum!
Daphne's Greek Café: We had Greek for lunch on the last day we were in CA :)
Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf: Coffee after Greek food. Anther one of my sister's requests for the vacation. Yummy! I wish we had one in Mobile!!
85 Degrees Bakery: This is a Taiwanese bakery in Irvine, CA. It is quite popular in Taiwan, but there is only one branch in the United States. If you don't get there early, you could be in line for more than two hours. I think between standing in line, ordering our baked goods, and paying for them, we were in the store for about an hour. I have mixed feelings about the bakery. I loved their pineapple buns and taro buns, but I think you can still get good baked goods at your local Asian bakery without making a trip out to Irvine.....unless you really want fresh hot taro buns.
The last place we stopped at before our flight back to AL was Jurassic Restaurant, which has the craziest interior I've ever seen. It is a Taiwanese restaurant with scantily dressed waitresses serving food in a room decorated with faux palm trees, vines, and dinosaurs to go with the Jurassic theme. I really should have taken a picture of the restaurant, but I didn't think about it at the time. They did have some great pineapple fried rice!
All in all, our trip to CA was lots of fun, though I think next time we will skip the itinerary and just wing it!! I can't wait to go back again :)
Until next time ^____^
