Back at the beginning of January, we set some family goals. One of them was going to the temple as a family at least 3 times. With Erin being away at BYU most of the time, we had to strategically plan our temple trips. We found out about the LA temple patron apartments and booked a room way back in July (they only have a few rooms, so we had to book early). This is the first time the kids and I had ever been inside the LA temple. What a great way to start our LA staycation!
After we were done in the temple, we changed and headed out to see some sights in LA. We decided to check out Rodeo Drive and on the way there, we found one of Rick's favorite restaurants, Pei Wei. It's like a faster food approach to PF Changs. You have to ask for forks there - some of us aren't so good with chopsticks.
Once our bellies were full, we walked over to Rodeo Drive. It was so fun to window shop and critique all the clothes, accessories, and art. It was especially beautiful with all the Christmas lights.
Somehow I think Erin (and I) won't ever be getting a ring quite like these!
Window shopping made us hungry, so we treated ourselves to Baskin Robbins before going back to the temple to see the Christmas lights and visit the Visitors Center.
In the morning, we chose a couple places to visit that we hadn't been to before. Our first stop was Venice Beach. We've always heard that it was a great people watching place, and that was definitely true! We saw amazing skateboarders, lots of homeless people, plenty of "doctors" ready to evaluate you for a medical marijuana card, amazing graffiti-style artwork, and sketchy shops. We also had plenty of unpleasant smells - pot (lots and lots of it - I wonder if you can get high on second hand smoke?), unclean people, and urine. After about an hour, we had had our fill (Erin never wants to go back) and loaded up the van to head to Olvera Street.
Olvera Street was a pretty cool place, even though it was smaller than we expected. It was fun to shop around at the vendors' booths and see all the wonderfully kept old buildings.
When we were on our way out, we came upon a drum and dance performance. It was a real treat!
In the gazebo was the most beautiful nativity scene that I've seen this year. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures, much to the dismay of my children!
On the walk back to our van, we passed this amazing succulent wall.
And just like that, our mini staycation was over. It was short, but great!
