Trip Report Golden State of Mind: Our August 2017 California Adventure

bee · Aug 26, 2017

Day 5, cont.

Shortly after exiting the freeway we arrived at Hotel Solaire, on the outskirts of downtown LA.

It. Was. HOT.

A nice staff member checked us in (didn't get her name, oops), and she called housekeeping via walkie talkie to make sure our room was ready. While we waited we couldn't help but notice an "interesting" smell in the lobby. It was like something horribly smelly had occurred and someone had TRIED to clean it with disinfectant...

But luckily, our room was ready and we didn't have to stay in the smelly lobby any longer!

I don't speak Spanish but I understand a decent amount. The front desk staff person told the housekeeper that we needed a king room with balcony. And that we got!

After our long day of hiking and driving, I really wanted a nice dinner and some nice wine. I did some research to find vegetarian restaurants near Metro stops on the purple and red lines since we were staying near the Westlake/MacArthur Park station. We came up with:

We left a little early so we could stop by the LA Opera House and the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Emerging from the Metro...

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, home of LA Opera!

Walt Disney Concert Hall

I haven't performed at either of these places since I'm not 1) famous and/or 2) based on the West Coast, but I do have friends who have performed at either or both.

It was again pretty weird to not see many people around. I understand now why New York is "the city that never sleeps." It was only about 7:30 but downtown LA seemed to have gone to sleep!

We arrived at Au Lac about 15 minutes before our reservation and were immediately seated. As I said, I wanted WINE.

We shared the bottle of Chacewater Zinfandel.

We both really liked this wine. It was spicy (I've learned I like spicy wines!) and fruity (but not sweet) and not too tannic. :hungry:

We shared the "Friend Fries" (yucca fries with a tomato-based sauce). The waiter also brought sriracha and chili sauce, which were both great with the fries. These were super delicious! They were perfectly crispy and nicely seasoned.

I ordered the Sweet & Spicy Tempeh. Although some dishes have "chicken" or "pork" in the name, everything at the restaurant was vegan.

M ordered the Bahn Mi.

Tempeh

Bahn Mi

These were both really good. The ambiance of the restaurant was nice as well: modern but upscale. We were surprised there weren't more people eating there but like I said the area was kind of dead. Our waiter was super friendly. He asked where we lived and what we did and he seemed genuinely interested in hearing about our careers. At times I felt like I was interrupting him because he was so friendly and talkative, but I mentioned it to M later and she didn't think it seemed that way.

And with that, it was time to take the Metro back to the hotel and crash for the night!

Up next: Day 6. Tourist stuff in LA!

bee · Aug 26, 2017

riverside said:
Your photos are stunning!! I'm enjoying your TR immensely!!
I'm with you on the windy, narrow roads. Scared to death of them plus I have a huge fear of heights. A few years ago
I was driving through the Finger Lakes in NY & let's just say it was one of the most tense rides of my life--& I wasn't the
one driving either!!

Thank you, and thanks for reading!

Glad I'm not the only one scared of the windy roads!

I was just in the Finger Lakes for the opera gig I sang in July. I must have been in the less scary part off of Lake Seneca but I'll best there are some intense roads around those lakes!

bee · Aug 26, 2017

Day 6: Wednesday, August 9
Los Angeles tourist day!

We slept in a bit today. I think we went down to breakfast at about 8:30. This breakfast was pretty lackluster and overly crowded. I think we only had bananas, coffee, and mini muffins. There were waffle makers in the breakfast area but the lines were long and the space was cramped so we just wanted to get out of there.

We waited until after rush hour to take the Metro so we wouldn't be in anyone's way. Today we really noticed how run down the room was. It's hard to tell from the photos I posted earlier, but the bathroom and carpet were pretty old. Most of the furniture looked nice enough but the bed wasn't very comfortable. And the smell...it wasn't as bad as the smell in the lobby but it was definitely present and not ignorable. Also, the room only had a window AC unit and it didn't have an auto setting, so it was either ON or OFF, and it abruptly shut off during the night.

You get what you pay for! We only paid about $150/night and were very close to the train and the center of downtown.

ANYWAY...

We took the red line to the Hollywood/Highland station so we could see some of the sights and walk along the Walk of Fame.

I always take photos of anything Hamilton-related for my obsessed little brother. Also notice the Spiderman at the bottom :hilarious:

Look familiar??

A coffee shop across the street was calling us!

The Vietnamese-style cold brew was pretty good, if a little sweet.

Time to keep walking the Walk!

We have several Mujis in New York and we love them! We took this for our friend S who discovered Muji in New York while visiting us, and now lives in Japan and gets to go to the Japanese Muji nearby.

This one's for me...

It was getting hot and crowded and we kept having to walk in awkward zigzags to avoid all the costumed superheroes (What is this, Times Square?? [imagine that in my exaggerated non-native NJ accent, please]) so we headed down into the Metro for our next adventure.

Up next: Food! Shopping! Beach time!

Figgy1 · Aug 26, 2017

bee said:
Day 5, cont.

Shortly after exiting the freeway we arrived at Hotel Solaire, on the outskirts of downtown LA.

It. Was. HOT.

A nice staff member checked us in (didn't get her name, oops), and she called housekeeping via walkie talkie to make sure our room was ready. While we waited we couldn't help but notice an "interesting" smell in the lobby. It was like something horribly smelly had occurred and someone had TRIED to clean it with disinfectant...

But luckily, our room was ready and we didn't have to stay in the smelly lobby any longer!

I don't speak Spanish but I understand a decent amount. The front desk staff person told the housekeeper that we needed a king room with balcony. And that we got!

After our long day of hiking and driving, I really wanted a nice dinner and some nice wine. I did some research to find vegetarian restaurants near Metro stops on the purple and red lines since we were staying near the Westlake/MacArthur Park station. We came up with:

We left a little early so we could stop by the LA Opera House and the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Emerging from the Metro...

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, home of LA Opera!

Walt Disney Concert Hall

I haven't performed at either of these places since I'm not 1) famous and/or 2) based on the West Coast, but I do have friends who have performed at either or both.

It was again pretty weird to not see many people around. I understand now why New York is "the city that never sleeps." It was only about 7:30 but downtown LA seemed to have gone to sleep!

We arrived at Au Lac about 15 minutes before our reservation and were immediately seated. As I said, I wanted WINE.

We shared the bottle of Chacewater Zinfandel.

We both really liked this wine. It was spicy (I've learned I like spicy wines!) and fruity (but not sweet) and not too tannic.

We shared the "Friend Fries" (yucca fries with a tomato-based sauce). The waiter also brought sriracha and chili sauce, which were both great with the fries. These were super delicious! They were perfectly crispy and nicely seasoned.

I ordered the Sweet & Spicy Tempeh. Although some dishes have "chicken" or "pork" in the name, everything at the restaurant was vegan.

M ordered the Bahn Mi.

Tempeh

Bahn Mi

These were both really good. The ambiance of the restaurant was nice as well: modern but upscale. We were surprised there weren't more people eating there but like I said the area was kind of dead. Our waiter was super friendly. He asked where we lived and what we did and he seemed genuinely interested in hearing about our careers. At times I felt like I was interrupting him because he was so friendly and talkative, but I mentioned it to M later and she didn't think it seemed that way.

And with that, it was time to take the Metro back to the hotel and crash for the night!

Up next: Day 6. Tourist stuff in LA!

OMG your food looked amazing.

bee · Aug 26, 2017

Day 6, cont.

I guess I didn't take any photos of our journey TO the beach, but I did take some FROM the beach, which I'll post when I get to that part of the story.

We took the red line back to 7th St/Metro Center and transferred to the Expo line, which ends in downtown Santa Monica. Along the way we decided to eat lunch first thing because it had been quite some time since those mini muffins.

We ended up at Santa Monica Place, an outdoor mall with a nice food court. We decided upon Pinches Tacos.

Mexican Corn on the Cob (I know it has a Spanish name, but that's the official restaurant name). SO. GOOD.

My cheese enchiladas and M's vegetarian torta (sandwich). YUM YUM YUM.

This was all excellent and somehow we managed to eat ALL OF IT. Everything was freshly made as we ordered it and full of flavor. We had a lot of quick-Mex meals and this may have been the best one.

Though we hadn't come here with the intent of shopping, we noticed there was a Uniqlo in the mall and decided to check out any potential Disney shirts (since the next day was DISNEYLAND DAY!!!).

Thomas photo for my little brother (who, by the way, is almost a foot taller than I am) who was obsessed with Thomas and other trains as a kid. He's 22 now and almost done with college and has a nice job at a bank but I still send him silly things he liked as a kid. I don't know if he actually likes them or is just humoring me when he responds positively to them. But it's my job as an older sister to remind him that he is my baby brother!

Here's the Mickey shirt I bought for myself:

We also bought a Pikachu shirt for M's brother, whose birthday was earlier this month.

With purchases in hand we walked toward the Santa Monica Pier.

Okay, SoCal people, don't make fun of me for going to the super touristy beach. We're not really beach people (too pale to spend much time in the sun!) so we just wanted to see a famous one and stick a hand or foot in the water so say we'd done it.

I had to take the two photos above because we live by the NJ Palisades and there is a town not too far from us called Palisades Park.

Up next: the ride back to LA

bee · Aug 26, 2017

figmentfan423 said:
OMG your food looked amazing.

It WAS!!

Tuvalu · Aug 26, 2017

Trees ~ WOW. Just WOW. Did I say WOW? WOW.

So proud of you @bee for conquering your road fears!

"But where are the big rides? The big ones?"

bee · Aug 26, 2017

Day 6, cont.

It was time to head back toward Los Angeles. Almost as soon as we arrived at the Santa Monica station an Expo line train arrived.

It didn't take us long to depart.

We passed by the USC campus. Both my brother and I considered going to grad school there at different times. Neither of us ended up going there.

Felix!

I liked the little cartoon conductor.

Up next: YOLO!

bee · Aug 26, 2017

Day 6, cont.

The afternoon had been quite hot. Even as we approached the evening the sun was still blazing, which of course meant we needed...ICE CREAM!

YOLO Sandwiches and Ice Cream was just a few blocks from our hotel.

M's espresso chip cup

UP CLOSE

My cone: strawberry cheesecake on top of espresso chip.

Both flavors were quite good, but we both slightly preferred the strawberry cheesecake.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped by a shoe store to see if they had any hats for Disneyland. We didn't find anything we liked, but we knew we'd find something the next day!

Since we had an early morning planned the next day we decided to order in and go to bed early.

From Luck Thai:

My green curry with tofu

M's panang curry with tofu

These were both very good and spicy!

We packed as much as we could and called it a night.

Up next: Day 7! DISNEYLAND!!!

bee · Aug 27, 2017

I interrupt this Trip Report to tell you that we just found out we have to move. Our building was sold and the new owner wants us out.

Our current place is very cheap and not fancy in the least but it's very convenient to our jobs and to my auditions and we've liked being able to save a significant amount of money each month by living here.

We saw two reeeeeeeeally nice apartments yesterday a few blocks away from our current place. We were immediately in love. The building is brand new and the apartments are almost double the size of what we are in now. They have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dishwasher, lots of closet space, and obviously everything is new and in perfect condition. Move-in would be easy since we'd only be moving down the street, and we love the convenience of our neighborhood so we'd be keeping that. The downside...it's at our absolute maximum budget and we'd have almost no wiggle room.

Back to square one...we have an appointment with a realtor to see a bunch of apartments in other neighborhoods today. These are not new and fancy but they are much more affordable, and still convenient to transportation.

We considered canceling our upcoming WDW trips (Labor Day, Thanksgiving, February Princess 5K), but almost everything is paid for already. We're definitely going to need this upcoming trip, and we'd go to Florida for Thanksgiving anyway to see M's parents, so we decided to keep them all.

Send us all your pixie dust! We know the next couple of months will be stressful but we also know that in the end we'll be in a much nicer place than what we have now!

bee · Aug 27, 2017

Back to the report!

Day 7: Thursday, August 10
DISNEYLAND DAY!!!!!

We woke up around 5:30 to pack up the rest of our things, load the car, and check out. The plan was to leave the hotel by 6:00.

Here is a LOVELY sign we passed each day on the way to the elevator... :cautious:

We never saw anyone in the pool. Wonder why that is...

One nice thing about the hotel was the giant wall of bushes that provided shade to the cars in the parking lot.

As I mentioned, Hotel Solaire was not especially nice. The entrances were outside and, while the neighborhood didn't seem especially sketchy, there was no visible security for the parking lot or guest buildings. The rooms were nothing special and got very hot from facing the sun in the afternoon. The staff were nice but not excellent, and the breakfast situation was the worst of the hotels we stayed at with breakfast. It was fine as a place to be close to the Metro and downtown, but it was our least favorite of all the hotels on our trip and the only one we would not stay at again or recommend to others. You get what you pay for!

I waited about five minutes at the front desk before someone assisted me with checkout, and there was no bell to ring or any other way to let them know someone was waiting. Checkout took longer than expected but we still pulled out of the parking lot about 6:05.

There was not too much traffic leaving LA at this hour, but the further south we got the more the traffic going into the city worsened. We were glad we weren't going that direction!

USC again

It was time for some more Beatles.

As we approached SNA to return the car we exited for gas and breakfast (since we'd left too early for breakfast at Hotel Solaire).

I think we had egg and cheese biscuits and hashbrowns? Oh, and COFFEE!

We returned the car to Alamo very quickly and headed to the Uber/Lyft pickup area. Soon we were picked up by Mandy, a middle school teacher from Orange County. She was super friendly and asked us all about our trip. In less than twenty minutes we were checking in at the Best Western Anaheim Inn on Harbor Blvd.

As we expected, our room wasn't ready, but we dropped off our bags at the front desk and walked toward DISNEYLAND!!!

Up next: D. I. S. N. E. Y. L. A. N. D. ! ! ! !

DisneyGigi · Aug 27, 2017

bee said:
I interrupt this Trip Report to tell you that we just found out we have to move. Our building was sold and the new owner wants us out. Our current place is very cheap and not fancy in the least but it's very convenient to our jobs and to my auditions and we've liked being able to save a significant amount of money each month by living here.

We saw two reeeeeeeeally nice apartments yesterday a few blocks away from our current place. We were immediately in love. The building is brand new and the apartments are almost double the size of what we are in now. They have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dishwasher, lots of closet space, and obviously everything is new and in perfect condition. Move-in would be easy since we'd only be moving down the street, and we love the convenience of our neighborhood so we'd be keeping that. The downside...it's at our absolute maximum budget and we'd have almost no wiggle room.

Back to square one...we have an appointment with a realtor to see a bunch of apartments in other neighborhoods today. These are not new and fancy but they are much more affordable, and still convenient to transportation.

We considered canceling our upcoming WDW trips (Labor Day, Thanksgiving, February Princess 5K), but almost everything is paid for already. We're definitely going to need this upcoming trip, and we'd go to Florida for Thanksgiving anyway to see M's parents, so we decided to keep them all.

Send us all your pixie dust! We know the next couple of months will be stressful but we also know that in the end we'll be in a much nicer place than what we have now!

Sending you guys tons of pixie dust! I am a firm believer, that everything happens for a reason, even if we don't understand it at the time.

Hope you guys find a great place soon!

MinnieM123 · Aug 27, 2017

bee said:
I interrupt this Trip Report to tell you that we just found out we have to move. Our building was sold and the new owner wants us out. Our current place is very cheap and not fancy in the least but it's very convenient to our jobs and to my auditions and we've liked being able to save a significant amount of money each month by living here.

We saw two reeeeeeeeally nice apartments yesterday a few blocks away from our current place. We were immediately in love. The building is brand new and the apartments are almost double the size of what we are in now. They have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dishwasher, lots of closet space, and obviously everything is new and in perfect condition. Move-in would be easy since we'd only be moving down the street, and we love the convenience of our neighborhood so we'd be keeping that. The downside...it's at our absolute maximum budget and we'd have almost no wiggle room.

Back to square one...we have an appointment with a realtor to see a bunch of apartments in other neighborhoods today. These are not new and fancy but they are much more affordable, and still convenient to transportation.

We considered canceling our upcoming WDW trips (Labor Day, Thanksgiving, February Princess 5K), but almost everything is paid for already. We're definitely going to need this upcoming trip, and we'd go to Florida for Thanksgiving anyway to see M's parents, so we decided to keep them all.

Send us all your pixie dust! We know the next couple of months will be stressful but we also know that in the end we'll be in a much nicer place than what we have now!

Well, that completely sucks. I hate how people get treated like that. Been there. Happened to hubs and me about 8 years ago. We lived in a nice, 1st floor rental, in a 3-unit house for almost 15 years. Owner decided to sell, and all three floors of tenants were asked to leave. Just like that--think we were give 60 days to vacate (that 60-day tenant law varies from state to state). Had always paid our rent on time, and we never gave the landlord any problems. Yup, after being good tenants, we were told to get the hell out. Felt like I got punched in the stomach.

The only good thing was just by totally random luck, we found another place that was actually better, and we've been here for about 8 years now. I hope the same for you as well.

bee · Aug 27, 2017

DisneyShe said:
Sending you guys tons of pixie dust! I am a firm believer, that everything happens for a reason, even if we don't understand it at the time. Hope you guys find a great place soon!

Thank you! We were incredibly lucky to find the place we're in now when we were searching remotely (from Florida to New Jersey!) so we're going with "Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened!"

MinnieM123 said:
Well, that completely sucks. I hate how people get treated like that. Been there. Happened to hubs and me about 8 years ago. We lived in a nice, 1st floor rental, in a 3-unit house for almost 15 years. Owner decided to sell, and all three floors of tenants were asked to leave. Just like that--think we were give 60 days to vacate (that 60-day tenant law varies from state to state). Had always paid our rent on time, and we never gave the landlord any problems. Yup, after being good tenants, we were told to get the hell out. Felt like I got punched in the stomach.

The only good thing was just by totally random luck, we found another place that was actually better, and we've been here for about 8 years now. I hope the same for you as well.

Ouch! I'm so sorry this happened to you as well! I'm glad you found an even better place after.

We've always paid the rent on time and been respectful tenants. Our 68-year-old former super has to leave as well and it's going to be a lot harder for her to find a place on her fixed income. M and I are lucky to be young and have jobs and be able to afford something a little better. Here goes an adventure...

ajrwdwgirl · Aug 27, 2017

Sorry you have to leave your apartment, I hope you find a nice one soon!

Zipadeelady · Aug 27, 2017

Your tree's were beautiful! I'm sorry about your apartment. Yea!! Disneyland!!

fractal · Aug 27, 2017

bee said:
I interrupt this Trip Report to tell you that we just found out we have to move. Our building was sold and the new owner wants us out. Our current place is very cheap and not fancy in the least but it's very convenient to our jobs and to my auditions and we've liked being able to save a significant amount of money each month by living here.

We saw two reeeeeeeeally nice apartments yesterday a few blocks away from our current place. We were immediately in love. The building is brand new and the apartments are almost double the size of what we are in now. They have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dishwasher, lots of closet space, and obviously everything is new and in perfect condition. Move-in would be easy since we'd only be moving down the street, and we love the convenience of our neighborhood so we'd be keeping that. The downside...it's at our absolute maximum budget and we'd have almost no wiggle room.

Back to square one...we have an appointment with a realtor to see a bunch of apartments in other neighborhoods today. These are not new and fancy but they are much more affordable, and still convenient to transportation.

We considered canceling our upcoming WDW trips (Labor Day, Thanksgiving, February Princess 5K), but almost everything is paid for already. We're definitely going to need this upcoming trip, and we'd go to Florida for Thanksgiving anyway to see M's parents, so we decided to keep them all.

Send us all your pixie dust! We know the next couple of months will be stressful but we also know that in the end we'll be in a much nicer place than what we have now!

I hope you find the right place soon.

riverside · Aug 27, 2017

bee said:
I interrupt this Trip Report to tell you that we just found out we have to move. Our building was sold and the new owner wants us out. Our current place is very cheap and not fancy in the least but it's very convenient to our jobs and to my auditions and we've liked being able to save a significant amount of money each month by living here.

We saw two reeeeeeeeally nice apartments yesterday a few blocks away from our current place. We were immediately in love. The building is brand new and the apartments are almost double the size of what we are in now. They have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dishwasher, lots of closet space, and obviously everything is new and in perfect condition. Move-in would be easy since we'd only be moving down the street, and we love the convenience of our neighborhood so we'd be keeping that. The downside...it's at our absolute maximum budget and we'd have almost no wiggle room.

Back to square one...we have an appointment with a realtor to see a bunch of apartments in other neighborhoods today. These are not new and fancy but they are much more affordable, and still convenient to transportation.

We considered canceling our upcoming WDW trips (Labor Day, Thanksgiving, February Princess 5K), but almost everything is paid for already. We're definitely going to need this upcoming trip, and we'd go to Florida for Thanksgiving anyway to see M's parents, so we decided to keep them all.

Send us all your pixie dust! We know the next couple of months will be stressful but we also know that in the end we'll be in a much nicer place than what we have now!

Wishing you all the best in your search. Sorry to hear this is going on. What a bummer....

Figgy1 · Aug 28, 2017

bee said:
I interrupt this Trip Report to tell you that we just found out we have to move. Our building was sold and the new owner wants us out. Our current place is very cheap and not fancy in the least but it's very convenient to our jobs and to my auditions and we've liked being able to save a significant amount of money each month by living here.

We saw two reeeeeeeeally nice apartments yesterday a few blocks away from our current place. We were immediately in love. The building is brand new and the apartments are almost double the size of what we are in now. They have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dishwasher, lots of closet space, and obviously everything is new and in perfect condition. Move-in would be easy since we'd only be moving down the street, and we love the convenience of our neighborhood so we'd be keeping that. The downside...it's at our absolute maximum budget and we'd have almost no wiggle room.

Back to square one...we have an appointment with a realtor to see a bunch of apartments in other neighborhoods today. These are not new and fancy but they are much more affordable, and still convenient to transportation.

We considered canceling our upcoming WDW trips (Labor Day, Thanksgiving, February Princess 5K), but almost everything is paid for already. We're definitely going to need this upcoming trip, and we'd go to Florida for Thanksgiving anyway to see M's parents, so we decided to keep them all.

Send us all your pixie dust! We know the next couple of months will be stressful but we also know that in the end we'll be in a much nicer place than what we have now!

Good luck and I'm sure you'll find the perfect place soon.

bee · Aug 28, 2017

ajrwdwgirl said:
Sorry you have to leave your apartment, I hope you find a nice one soon!

Zipitidoda said:
Your tree's were beautiful! I'm sorry about your apartment. Yea!! Disneyland!!

fractal said:
I hope you find the right place soon.

riverside said:
Wishing you all the best in your search. Sorry to hear this is going on. What a bummer....

figmentfan423 said:
Good luck and I'm sure you'll find the perfect place soon.

Thank you all! We have several leads in the search and we're meeting with a real estate broker and seeing some things today. Even though the situation is inconvenient it's certainly not hopeless.

Trip Report Golden State of Mind: Our August 2017 California Adventure

bee

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bee

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bee

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Figgy1

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bee

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bee

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Tuvalu

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bee

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DisneyGigi

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MinnieM123

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