We recently realized that although we have come to LA for a lot of things, we have never done the tourist things here. So we booked a few nights at The Shay in Culver City for a little getaway. The view from the hotel was beautiful when the sun was setting over the city.
After checking into the hotel, we went to Chinatown for dinner. The kids hav been missing the really good food we had in New York’s Chinatown, so we went to see if LA could compare. We played strange but true while waiting for our food. It was delicious!
We went back to the hotel and spent some time in the gym. It was surprisingly well appointed. The kids had a great time trying things out.
Liam found a perfect reading nook in our room, and the little two broke in the beds with some acrobatics.
Our room included breakfast, which was at the restaurant on the roof. We sat at a table that was kind of set back in its own nook, and it felt like we were in another world. We played a game called The Game while we waited for our food. The food was great, especially the fruit plate.
We started the day at the Melrose Trading post. It’s a flea market that takes place on Sundays, and it was located on the campus of the high school my mom attended. There was a really cool mix of artists selling their original works, vintage clothes, handmade items, antiques, and absolute junk. We bought some art, and Bill found the coolest belt made out of a seatbelt and bottle caps.
We headed toward Hollywood, stopping for lunch at Oui sandwich shop. We played coup while waiting for our hot, melty lunch.
We drove by TCL Chinese theater, but the kids didn’t want to stop in that super touristy area. We drove by and went to the FunkoPop store. The area was still touristy, but less crowded. They had a lot of really cool things inside the store.
They had an option to create your own FunkoPop that looks like you. Willow didn’t end up buying hers, because she felt like it didn’t really look like her, but the boys did get theirs.
After the FunkoPop store, we walked to Amoeba Music. We had so much fun going through the records, and River found a used clear vinyl copy of Smoke and Mirrors by Imagine Dragons. Liam secretly bought Willow a Taylor Swift poster she wanted.
We looked at the stars on the sidewalk, and we saw some that Bill and I recognized, but none that the kids were excited about. We saw automated food delivery robots, which was really cool. They navigate the sidewalks on their own. This one was sitting still, and the kids thought it was the coolest thing.
After a stop back at the hotel, we went out for Indian food. Most of the other families appeared to be of Indian descent, and the food was sooooo good. Next, we headed to Salt and Straw for dessert. It’s an ice cream shop near the Culver steps that has unusual and delicious ice cream flavors. We got almond brittle with salted ganache, peanut chocolate krinkle, snickerdoodle, and caramel ribbon. The honey lavender was really good, but nobody ended up getting it. We found out that there’s one that just opened in Newport Beach, so we plan to go for sure!
We enjoyed the ice cream outside in the Culver Steps area.
