Los Angeles: Day 4

The morning of Saturday, June 16, we were very excited at the prospect of finally going to the beaches. After packing all our stuff, we went with Elena to get some coffee and breakfast at Coffee Bean. Sorry Starbucks, but we have a new love affair with Coffee Bean. Lynea ordered an iced chai latte with a parfait while Lauren ordered an iced dark chocolate latte with a parfait. We were VERY impressed with the drinks and decided we had to go to more Coffee Beans while we were in California.

Our new love

Lynea's iced chai latte in the back and Lauren's iced dark chocolate latte up front

After, we began another long journey to get to Santa Monica Beach using LA’s public bus system. On the first bus we took, we met a nice lady who was very interested in our educations, especially Lauren’s Gerontology experience. She discussed the potential idea of Lauren starting a non-profit organization that she thought would make millions. We told her we wanted to go to Santa Monica Beach, and she tried to help us figure out which bus stop to get off at. Unfortunately, so did 2 other people. When we reached the stop we were supposed to get off at, all 3 of these ladies began arguing about where we needed to get off, therefore causing us to become thoroughly confused.  We got off at the next bus stop, which then changed our entire travel route that we were following on Lauren’s iPhone. On the next bus, we sat across from a homeless man who was ranting about the dangers of texting and driving. The bus driver told him several times to calm down, warning him he would be kicked off the bus if he didn’t calm down. We finally made it to the beach around 1pm. We walked by the pier and set ourselves up on the beach in front of a pavilion that was playing club music. We laid out for a couple hours before exploring the pier. We came across a guy who had several parrots with him that he had trained to fly on to people and “talk”. We also passed by people who were doing demonstrations for a trapeze school. After exploring the rest of the pier, we walked to the bus stop and met an older lady from Malaysia. She told us she had been traveling around the U.S. since early May, attending families’ weddings. She was very sweet and wished us a good journey as we got onto the bus.

Waiting for the bus... story of our lives

Beach babes

You might notice Lauren's awkward tan lines beginning in this picture...

A view of the Santa Monica pier

Elena had mentioned a good place to get food called Bay Cities Italian Deli. After we left Santa Monica Beach, we took the bus and walked to the deli. There was a long line of people waiting and we had to take a number to order our food. Lynea ordered the “Godmother” with the works (Italian meats, tomato, onion, lettuce, etc) and Lauren ordered a turkey and cheese sandwich. We got some drinks and took our sandwiches outside where a bunch of tables were set up. After finishing our sandwiches, we were standing up and about to leave when Lauren noticed Joshua Jackson walking towards a table with a group of friends. She made awkward eye contact with him as he walked by. After she noticed her mouth hanging open, she quickly turned back to Lynea and said we had to stay. Lynea did not immediately recognize him but she also made awkward eye contact with him as he passed by because he has pretty eyes. Lauren then explained to her that Joshua Jackson was Charlie Conway in the Mighty Ducks trilogy, and was also in Dawson’s Creek and Fringe. After staring him down (very discreetly of course), Lauren decided it was her chance to become the paparazzi. She made Lynea pretend to pose for a picture while she actually took a picture of Joshua. Only after she took the picture did Lynea inform her that the flash was indeed still on. Oops! We waited until he left with his friends (like the stalkers we are) and then finally were on our way to the next adventure waiting for us. We deemed this trip to LA successful due to our celebrity sighting.

The beginning of Lauren's paparazzi career

We had heard that Venice Beach was a fun place to go to see interesting people. However, immediately after getting off the bus on Venice Beach, we were scared for our lives. We walked towards the boardwalk and did not feel comfortable with the people around us. There were many places to get a medical marijuana prescription in between your typical boardwalk shops. We’re sure the people who suggested visiting Venice Beach meant to visit it during the day and not in the late hours that we were there. After walking down the boardwalk for just 5 minutes, we turned around and headed towards civilization. Along the way, we got yelled at by a homeless man who wanted us to count his money and was angry when we did not stop. Woops, sorry buddy! After walking over a mile, we found another Coffee Bean. Lauren desperately needed to charge her phone since this was the only way we had to get around LA without getting lost. After ordering our drinks, we noticed that all the outlets were taken and sat outside keeping an eye out for people leaving. After a few minutes, someone finally left and we pounced (yes, pounced) on the table that had the outlet. Lauren let out a sigh of relief as she plugged in her phone to be charged. The guy sitting next to us noticed how we quickly grabbed the table and introduced himself as Ellis. We told him about our trip and this blog. Ellis and his friend (who’s name we still don’t know) asked if they would be in our blog, to which the answer is obviously yes. To Ellis and friend, here’s your shout out! ;)  Ellis asked us about what we each studied in college. He asked us about fun facts from our majors and Lynea told him how some turtles breathe cloacaly** (AKA they breathe through their butts). Lauren told him stories about old people she had previously worked with. He and his friend told us about their jobs and XMAP, which is an app that gives you hints about where to get “treasures” that are hidden in different cities around the country. We figured this to be similar to geocaching (which neither of us has ever done).

After talking to them for a couple hours, we decided it would be in our best interests to start heading to Elena’s parents house since it was already late. This adventure started around 10pm and was our longest (and most dangerous) bus ride yet. The first bus we took did not take the normal route and we somehow ended up at the LA Union Station. We re-routed the GPS on Lauren’s iPhone, which told us to take the metro to yet another bus stop. Once we got to this alleged bus stop, we waited several minutes before finally deciding to call a cab. By this time, it was already close to 1am and we really just wanted to go to sleep. The cab took just a few minutes to arrive and we got back to Elena’s house by 1am. This was the longest 3 hours of the entire trip thus far. Elena and her family had kindly set up the pull-out couch for us and Lynea chatted with Elena briefly before we got ready and finally fell asleep after a long night.