Thursday, January 15, 2015

Taking on SoCal: January 7th - 8th, 2015

With our month-long winter break coming to an end, a little spontaneity was in order. Let's rewind to last week, a handful of friends and I took on Southern California (at least what we could in two days..). I mean, where else would a bunch of college kids go? After weeks of nonstop work over Christmas and New Years, I was so glad to finally catch a break.

5:00am Wednesday morning, some of us didn't get much sleep, but we were on our way...only to be pulled over an hour and a half later, but our experiences with California police during this trip is a whole other story.



We definitely chose the best time of the year to go to Six Flags. All California students were already back in school so #nolinenoproblem. Nothing beats being able to ride all of the good rides back to back (:. After a good 5 and a half hours of walking up and down the park with little to no sleep, you can bet that we were all pretty tired, but let me tell you, my nap in the car going to dinner was the best 30 minutes of my life. We headed to Korea Town in LA for dinner, and yup, I have never eaten so much Korean BBQ in my life.





From here on out, the rest of our trip was pretty much food, food, and more food...but that's okay, right? Before heading to wherever we were staying (we barely knew at this point), we headed to Milk. I can at least speak for myself when I say that I was so excited to finally try it, and I was so glad that they hadn't run out of Thai Tea ice cream sandwiches yet or else I probably would've cried.

We stayed at a small inn in central LA. It wasn't bad, it wasn't amazing, but it worked. Ya know, college kids on a budget. Just to let you know, 6 people in a one-bed room is completely possible... difficult, but possible. After a bit of sleep, we were onto the next adventure in Little Tokyo.



Our first stop of the day - Curry House. All of us love Curry Zen, here in Vegas, so we had to see how this place stacked up. I ordered tofu curry with minced ground chicken and spinach and garlic rice. It was really good, but my heart still belongs to Curry Zen <3. 




A good friend of mine (hi, Kevin) told me about a macaroon shop in Little Tokyo so naturally, I had to stop by Lette Macaroons to pick some up for my mom. After all that curry, of course we had to get some dessert, and really you can't beat $1 mochi ice cream keke. 

More wandering around Little Tokyo shops and Daiso lead to some unnecessary, yet completely necessary souvenir shopping, because why not splurge a little, right?

Our next adventure took us to Hollywood, a first for me. Did a little sightseeing, a little shopping, and for some reason while the girls were browsing around, the guys decided to buy a mixtape...it made for an interesting car ride to our next stop.



It was already past 6, but Hilary and I definitely couldn't leave LA without finally seeing the ever so popular lights outside of LACMA. So glad to finally be able to cross this off of my non-existent bucket list. 




We definitely didn't want to head back home on an empty stomach, so the search for food began. Our first stop, The Original Ramen Burger to tie us over until we actually decided where to eat. In my opinion, it probably wasn't worth the price, but seeing as we don't have anything like that here in Vegas, I'm glad we tried it. 

We finally decided on Guppy House, and my tummy was pretty satisfied. Actually, I wasn't the only one satisfied, the guys definitely had a good time staring at the good looking waitress lol.

If you thought that was it...nope! One more stop to go and it was Half & Half Tea House, another first for me. Probably wasn't the best idea to get drinks right before the 4-hour drive. By the time we got to Barstow, we all really had to go to the bathroom, but Half & Half was so worth it haha. 

11pm, and we were on our way back home. I'm so glad that we were able to experience so much on this trip in only 2 days, but now with a hole in my wallet, it's time for some R&R at home...just kidding, I had work the next day. It's good to dream though, right?

Until next time, Cali. It's been real.

-LT