LOS ANGELES - A Californian Summer - Part Seven

There’s no other way to describe it. LA is cool. There are whole hashtags used for describing LA in 3 words but one seemed to fit. It’s a diverse, urban, sprawl. It has everything a City could ask for with palm trees and sunshine, beaches and buzz and the only thing causing more drama here than the celebs is the traffic. Let me be perfectly clear. If you come here, you WILL need a car and it’s best to assume any drive will take at least 40 minutes because of the traffic!

I feel like if i came back here every experience of the City would be different. We came not with the tourist stars of Hollywood on our list but with neighbourhoods, cafes, shops and instagram recommendations a plenty. though we did drive down Hollywood Blvd early one evening just for the eyeopening experience of characters roaming around. Personally, I wanted to drive down Mulholland Drive, explore Laural Canyon and architecture like Schindler’s ‘The Lovell Beach House’, hike the mountains, take a swim in the Annenburg Pool House, take a show at The Hollywood Bowl, visit the museums and feel my way around the City. In the end we hardly ticked anything off my list but what we did manage to cram in was equally cool.

The areas of LA are diverse and it’s hard to work out the best area to stay in. Prices are high and walking from one street to the next can feel a little like walking from civilisation to the wrong part of town. We decided the best fit for us was an Air BNB outside of LA above the Topanga mountains not far from Calabassas. If you check out a map of LA you’ll realise choosing a place to stay is hard because it’s just so damn big. We were pretty happy with the house we choose for its homely feel, price and calm away from the action, but if i came again i’d love to try another area to stay like Beverly Hills for a different experience.

Places to go, People to see, shopping to do. (Where we actually visited)

We arrived on Friday afternoon and headed to our accomodation to unpack. I love to build in Air BNB stops on longer trips as it gives us a chance to get basic essentials like washing and drying clothes. Then we headed out for dinner in our new City. Not knowing where to start, we headed to The Grove. An outdoor shopping experience with restaurants and cafes and great parking onsite.

SHOPPING

The Grove - 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90036 - A great purpose built shopping experience in LA, meaning you can park and walk around without having to drive in between streets. Shops include Charlotte Tilbury, American Girl, Nike Store and other high street quality retailers. We ate at La Piazza which i’d highly recommend. We loved it so much we ate here again when we returned to buy Lola her ‘American Girl’ doll! That store has to be seen to be believed. A multi level store where you can pick a doll like you, take it for high tea, to the hairdressers, get it’s ears pierced and purchase a plethera of accessories. It is magical for little girls but don’t expect a cheap experience!

Rodeo Drive - (You know the famous expensive street Julia Robert’s character gets turned away from in Pretty Woman!) We drove here expecting a nightmare to park but we managed to be surprised with free Valet parking right in the centre at Two Rodeo Drive. This is designer shopping heaven or maybe even just window shopping heaven! But it is also fully surrounded by some beautiful streets like Beverly Drive & Canon Drive with more affordable vibe. You can shop everything from sunglasses to toy shops and spend a whole morning just strolling for sure. James Perse was our favourite shop ‘experience’. This shop is a slice of heaven on Earth. The design is minimalist and beachy with surfboards and an outside beach area complete with sand! The kids mostly hung out playing in the sand and sitting on the chairs I wish I had in my garden.

Melrose Avenue - This is a beautiful avenue which is walkable though long and home to the infamous Paul Smith and its pink instagrammable wall plus stores like Stella McCartney and coffee shops and smaller independents too. Just off of here is Melrose Place - A cute little green shopping area just next to Melrose Avenue, with little boutiques like Isabel Marant and Chloe. We drove this area in the car and jumped out at a few spots for coffee and handmade ice cream from Salt and Straw with its bizarre but good flavours. I’ve earmarked this to return to next time we come, maybe without all 3 kids in tow!

West 3rd Street - not far from The Grove, is another great street where we visited Anine Bing, and the Vanderpump dog shop! We also got delicious Fonuts (baked donuts) and the best coffee I had in LA at Groundwork Coffee. I love a little Bing joy. The store is beautifully designed architecturally and visually. I think I could wear everything in the entire store and that’s rare. They were really welcoming to the kids who were happy to sprall around on the pink velvet sofa and we had almost a private shopping experience. I came away with a few key pieces that are my favourite items from the whole trip.

Abbott Kinney - in Venice If you are searching for street art in Los Angeles, Abbot Kinney and the surrounding streets of Venice is the place to come. Feels like every wall is a work of art, but it’s also home to lots of local designers, French labels like Maje and some independant and vintage boutiques PLUS loads of gorgeous cafes and restaurants. We ate in The Butcher’s Daughter - Our first solely vegetarian restaurant. Not that you’d mind if you were a total carnivore. The food was so good.

Whole Foods - These are the organic supermarkets of dreams. Plastic on veg is a distant memory and everything you ever wished to see in a a beautiful food space is here. If you are staying somehere you can cook, come for the best supermarket experience of your life. And they have pink trollies.

STUFF TO DO!

The Griffiths Observatory - 2800 East Observatory Road, Los Angeles, CA 90027 This was one of our first spots. not only is it architectually stunning, educational and home to the planetarium which I definitely recommend if you can get a ticket, it also holds a great view of the City and the ‘Hollywood Sign’ in the background. Parking can be tricky on the surrounding roads so my advice is to go early to beat the crowds.

The Broad - 221 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012 With parking underneath the building or Valet on the street next door it’s an easy place to visit on a busy city street. I love modern art. It can be moving but also fun, and yeah there’s always something you probably could have knocked up in your back shed in under an hour floating around there somewhere probably worth billions but I just love the experience. When we visited we managed to see #soulofanation art in the age of black power 1963-83’ which was particularly poignant. I learnt so much about The Black Panther and had to explain to the kids that even today some of the issues faced have not moved on that far particularly in America. We also saw two of Yayoi Kusama pieces here which was a total delight after her first mirror and light room captivated us on a visit to Copenhagen last year. If you visit any special exhibitions here reserve your tickets a week or so ahead. They are FREE for the main exhibition spaces and it saves you queuing over 45 minutes to get in.
Its also a great area for architecture hunting. Lots of beautiful concrete and it sits next to the Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by Frank Gehry, which you buy tickets for musical experiences but is worth coming even just to see the building itself.

I made everyone walk downhill from the Broad Museum for 20 minutes to the Little Tokyo district just so we could get charcoal pineapple ice cream. We had fun sharing an electric scooter to explore the area renting out we rented out and then got an Uber back uphill back to the car though! Too many little legs but the ice cream was totally worth it!

Bae’s Little Tokyo - 369 E 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Other Areas to explore
Venice - We spent our morning in LA here, mostly in Abbot Kinney i wrote about above. It’s also home to the iconic Venice sign, the beach, the iconic muscle beach and some seriously cool skateboarding. You can also walk or bike the Venice canals. I’d say you need a day here at least to appreciate the area. We parked in Abbott Kinney, shooped and ate then tried to visit the beach area on foot, but got lost walking to find it and ended up in a dodgy part of townso we bailed and went back for the car. The airport was looming so we cut our losses and added it to the list for next time.

Santa Monica - Another area that needed more time than we had. We spent a few hours one evening driving and exploring the Pier for the most beautiful sunset. We had dinner in one of the sportsbars on the pier and watched the cornhole championships. The pier is quite rough and ready at night with some tasty characters, but fun to experience once. It’s a whole area in itself and needs far more time to appreciate everything here.

Where we stayed.

2 bedroom family guesthouse in Tarzana with parking via Air BNB.

Cost £1028 for 4 nights.

Quite frankly there’s so much to do here in LA - you’d never see it all even if you tried. We also spent a day at Universal Studios and Disneyland and a few magical days in Malibu - coming later in the week but first tomorrow - check out our trip to Palm Springs!