Los Angeles. Day 3. Such a Lovely Place.
“There she stood in the doorway
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself
’This could be Heaven or this could be Hell’”
Well, I woke up at 4am, and I couldn’t even tell you why. It was before the kids even got up. The kids didn’t get up until 6, 630.
We got ready to go and weren’t sure what to do for breakfast so we ended up going downstairs to one of the quick service places. The kids got fruit loops. Hallie had to buy two boxes of fruit loops because one wasn’t enough and obviously, she opened both and didn’t finish either. Robyn, Tzvi and I got a weird avocado toast thing that was on bagel crisps with avocado cream and eggs and everything bagel spice. It was weird, but edible. [Tzvi: it ended up making me so nauseous.] Hallie wanted to sit outside because she didn’t like the smell in the restaurant, but we ended up next to a garbage which also kind of smelled.
When we were done we headed to California Adventure. What's so great about this hotel is that you can walk right into California Adventure from the hotel – there’s basically no line and you’re right in the middle of the park. A huge huge benefit.
The first thing we did, because it was right there, was go on the Little Mermaid ride. Hallie was scared of Ursula, but once we got on the ride, she was fine. Madeleine loved it. Fun for the whole family.
Then we headed over to Cars Land and got a lightening lane for Radiator Springs Racers. It was so fun. I think the left side always wins, because I went twice and both times the left side won. Hallie was a little scared but she had fun.
While Robyn and I rode Radiator Springs, Tzvi took the girls on the Tow-Mater spin ride, which they loved.
We then did Guardians of the Galaxy – first me and Tzvi, and then me and Robyn. Also awesome. The first time I went I lost my sunglasses, and they had to send a person to go get them, but I got them back.
After that, Tzvi started to crap out. [Tzvi: I was so nauseous from that avocado cream toast, and riding the Cars rides and Guardians (which is an up and down free-fall ride) just destroyed my stomach. While Steph and Robyn rode Guardians I just laid down on a bench and hoped the kids didn’t wander away.]
We ended up walking and stumbling on Princess Anna, so the kids were excited to meet her and take pictures. It was cute, but I still think our local Anna is better.
For lunch we went to Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta. I got some salad but it was drenched in dressing, so it was a little too much.
After lunch Madeleine took a nap and Hallie and I did a bunch of rides – the Golden Zephyr, the swings, the jellyfish jumps. She had such a good time. We were on the swings and she was like, ’I’ve never flown before.’ It was just so cute and so nice to see her enjoying it, especially because I had Madeleine who was whiny and Tzvi who was complaining, so it was nice to have some positivity out of Hallie and someone actually enjoying themselves.
From there we went to the bread bakery, which is always fun, and bought a loaf of bread. Then we went to Ghirardelli, which usually gives out free samples, but it seems they’ve stopped that, so that was depressing.
Then we headed over to Pixar Pier, where Robyn and I rode the Incredicoaster, which is great. Eventually Madeleine woke up, so we did Jessie’s Critter Carousel and Toy Story, which were both fun. I didn’t win because I was incapacitated – my arm was already sore from holding Madeleine the last day and a half, and I had Madeleine on my lap, and I was actually beating Tzvi until the last round when Madeleine started crying and pushing away the controller, so I will take the loss, but I will not say it is a fair loss and I don’t believe Tzvi won fair and square.
Then we went to the Ferris Wheel and saw that the line was only 10 minutes, so we said great and got on line, but it ended up being a full half hour, and what was so annoying was the whole time we kept seeing people walking on and skipping the line by presenting a little yellow slip of paper. When we finally got to the front of the line we asked what the yellow passes were and they said it was a disability pass. I didn’t really get it though, because there’s no reason you can’t sit in a wheel chair or scooter and wait on this line, unless it was like a mental disability like anxiety, in which case I should’ve skipped every line because I had to deal with Tzvi. Anyway, we got on the Ferris Wheel; I was really glad we did it and it was really fun.
Finally, we got ice cream which Hallie had been whining to get for a while, and Madeleine got an ice pop. Then we headed over to Soarin’, which Madeleine couldn’t do, so we left her with Robyn to go look for a Woody doll. Whenever we wait on line for Soarin’ we always hear the music from the American President, so we got to listen to Tzvi recite all of the lines from the end of the movie, which was lovely. Soarin’ is a simulated plane ride around the world over several monuments, and as we flew over the Great Wall of China we explained to Hallie what it was, and she said, ‘I hope we don’t get Corona virus.’
We did a little bit of shopping and bought the girls lollipops. I also got a popcorn and ate it all myself. That was nauseating. Finally Robyn and Madeleine came back with two Jessie dolls – one for each girl.
Then Tzvi ushered me out and I was sad. [Tzvi: It was 5:15pm by then. It had been a full day.]
We walked back into the hotel, got all of our luggage from the bellhop and called an Uber. We got a black Chevy Suburban, which thankfully fit all of our stuff. The ride to LA was actually pretty easy and took less than an hour and a half – not bad for mid-day traffic. The girls were quiet and watched their tablets, and Tzvi and I watched the Mets.
Finally we made it to West Hollywood and checked into our hotel, the London West Hollywood at Beverly Hills. I still have no idea what that name means. West Hollywood and Beverly Hills are two separate cities in Los Angeles adjacent to each other. We stayed at this hotel back in 2019 when we came for Austin and Rachel’s wedding. So basically I come in and I’m just remembering that the last time I was here I had to leave because I had a kidney stone, so that’s stressful. Maybe this will be my do-over. The hotel is an ”all-suite” hotel, but that just means the rooms are huge, not that they’re actually multi-room suites.
We had ordered dinner from Lenny’s Casita on Pico, a kosher Mexican place that’s opened since we were last here. Sherry and Mark picked it up and then came to eat it in the hotel with us. The food was great, but we ordered way too much. Tzvi and I both got crunch wraps, but that was a mistake because they were massive and we could’ve shared one. We also had the corn ribs, which were kind of weird. Mark got a churro waffle for dessert, which was actually delicious.
After dinner we got the girls to bed. We were exhausted and our feet were killing us.
Good day.