los silver rock park city

i just got back from a whirlwind of a trip to los angeles. this is how the story goes.

my dad and i stayed at his friend's house near eagle rock. looking out the back of his house you could see pasadena, eagle rock, and towards some mountain ranges in northern la county. it was a beautiful view and the weather was great for january, cold for la.

with the help of a tour guide, we were able to explore los angeles from downtown to the hills to hollywood to the sunset strip to melrose to rodeo drive to the shakespeare bridge to the neighborhoods of studio city, los feliz, echo park, and silver lake.

here are the highlights of my trip:

1. my dad's friend, scott, drove us around and showed us a lot of the city's fun facts like where di caprio grew up, where general hospital shoots, where he and ryan seacrest had a radio interview together, etc.

2. my brother took us to a great coffee shop called chango in the echo park neighborhood. this artsy area in an ethnic neighborhood had a great energy. i loved this coffee shop and the people hanging out there.

3. we went on top of the historic gaylord hotel which was across the street from the former historic ambassador hotel (of which my brother and uncle had found a matchbook my grandpa got when he was in the military in the 40's). being on top of the gaylord you could look west and see towards the ocean, look northwest and see hollywood, and look north and see griffith park.

4. my brother took us on a little tour after eating at the gong-show of a diner called philippe's and explored a sweet area of warehouses that my brother did a shoot for a movie and where the american apparel factory is. we saw about 4 movies being filmed on this drive.

5. we went back and had a great dinner scott made for us including asparagus, lamb, artichoke salad, and a lemon curd dessert with lemon glaze and fresh blueberries...all with great red wine of course.

6. sunday for brunch we ate at the hopping griddle cafe on the sunset strip. the wait was about an hour just to sit (for three of us) but the food was phenomenal and the endless french press coffee was excellent.

7. we toured more of the area and went over the hills to studio city. studio city was great as we had some coffee at aroma cafe. tom made some perfect froth for my cappuccino and my brother's latte. we went to the quaint back just to hear someone ask a man enjoying his coffee, "you wrote 'the deer hunter,' didn't you?" he modestly replied, well, me and a few others. we then left and saw the brady bunch house.

8. we then met up with patrick's friends, mallory and her boyfriend thomas in downtown la to go...ice skating. it was the worst ice i've ever been on, but it was great ice skating in la with palm trees around me.

9. my dad and i explored more in hollywood, the beautiful benedict canyon, mullholland drive (where we saw about 50+ paparazzi waiting for someone - it was speculated that victoria beckham was in the area looking for a new house since her husband just got picked up by the galaxy), the historic griffith park, and more of the neighborhood of los feliz.

10. we went over to santa monica and venice beach and saw the beach - i'll definitely be back to that when i go back in march.

so that was my trip and the 10 highlights. it was a phenomenal trip and la is the new love of my life. sure, it has it's glamour, but the neighborhoods and nooks and crannies of the neighborhoods are what i now love.