A Little Bit of Los Angeles - {Art in the Streets}

My last blog post about our trip to LA was not all positive. Yes, we spent a lot of money on getting our car towed and had a rough patch while we were there, but it wasn't all bad. In fact, there was some money that was very well spent on the 'Art in the Streets' exhibit. If you haven't had a chance to see it and you are in the LA area, DEFINITELY go.

I have to say that my husband is a bit of a trend spotter; he was into mustache tattoos before they were popular, liked Johnny Cupcakes before anyone knew who he was and appreciated Banksy before 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' was released. He saw his first graffiti film when he was in elementary school and has been intrigued ever since. So when we went to the exhibit, he was in art heaven.

Here are the shots I took in the exhibit...so amazing.

Labels: art, Art in the Streets, Banksy, Los Angeles, Street art

The Elder Quest Continued...Carmageddon

Yesterday we went to LA to check out some art exhibits, have lunch and hopefully find Pliny. Well, the day started off well enough, we had breakfast at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles which was awesome, went to the Art in the Streets exhibit and then for some reason after that our day just kind of went downhill. Two of the places we had wanted to try and eat were closed for lunch. So after much wasted time we went to Umami Burger. We love Umami, but that's just it, we had eaten it before and wanted to try something new. After lunch we drove to La Brea where the Tim Burton exhibit was showing. Unfortunately, while the exhibit was really neat and had a lot of original artwork in it, it was $20 a person and only took us 30 minutes to get through it (with TONS of people going through it with us). We were not allowed to take any pictures either which totally bummed me out, but not as much as getting our car towed did....

The funny thing is, when we parked we looked up and down the meter for signage, but it just said 8am-4pm. When we came out after 4:00pm (after less than an hour of being gone) all of the cars on the street were gone..including ours. A $20 cab ride, $110 release fee, $115 tow fee, $158 ticket and 45 minutes later, we had our car back.

We started to just drive back to San Diego feeling a bit defeated, but after 10 minutes of sitting in rush hour traffic we thought it would it be better on our spirits to finish out our plans and get dinner.

After visiting Johnny Cupcakes we ate dinner at The Foundry where we ate the best grilled cheese and potato soup. Food definitely lifted our spirits, but at that point still no Pliny the Elder.

So what have we learned? Always check hours of operation and ask someone nearby if where you're parking is a tow zone. Oh and the term 'Carmageddon', everyone in LA is obsessed with it.

Here are a few pictures from our day. We took a gaggle of pictures at the Art in the Street exhibit which I'll post after we get home, but for now here's a few Instagrams.

Labels: Art in the Streets, Carmageddon, Los Angeles, The Foundry, Tim Burton, Umami Burger

The Quest for Pliny the Elder

So recently I sent Jim a Huffington Post article on the top 50 beers in the world. He of course saw the number one beer and HAD to try it. The problem is, the number one beer on the list is Pliny the Elder, made by Russian River in Santa Rosa, CA and it's not distributed in Arizona. To give you a little background on my husband, he doesn't like beer but if we're in a brewery he'll drink it. He doesn't like wine but if we're at a winery he'll drink it. We make a special trip to the Ghiradelli store when we're in California because it's the best, and we're near it. Of course when he found out that Pliny the Elder is only distributed to a handful of states, we went to California to get it (that's only half true, we were already going to see a concert, but it sounded more dramatic that way).

Now just because we are in a state that distributes Russian River, doesn't mean that it's on every street corner. We already checked out a BevMo here with no luck. We will be staying in San Diego but are currently driving to LA for the day. We're hoping to get lucky (and probably disappointed due to all of the build up) but we are excited either way.

Since we have no photos of the hard to find brew yet, I'll leave you with some pictures of Lucha Libre Taco Shop, the small shop where we ate dinner last night. It's pretty sick (as in good).
My 'Vegy' taco

The Seafood, Mahi Mahi taco

Ron Burgandy says 'trash here'

We'll keep you posted! 

Keep it real,

Roo

Labels: food, Los Angeles, Lucha Libre, Pliny the Elder, Russian River, San Diego, Tacos