Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A day off in Los Angeles


A view from Stough Canyon

Last week, my husband surprised me and my daughter by taking a partial day off to unplug and spend some time with his family. With nearly a full day and an entire city in front of us, the possibilities were overwhelming. Should we go to the beach? Take a drive up the coast? Go to the zoo? Sure, we've had plenty of days off for holidays or vacation - not to mention the weekends - but having an unplanned day off is extra special. It's like finding more time, which I think we can all appreciate!

Since it was closing weekend of the "Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980" exhibit at the Hammer Museum, I suggested we take a visit. I was recently there with our daughter, and we both loved the experience. He had never been to the museum and was quite excited, especially to see our daughter's reactions to the art work. So, we headed over the hill to Westwood and started our day off with some art.

We took our time going through the exhibit, and I had to show my husband my favorite piece. It was called, "The New Jemima" by Joe Overstreet, and shows a toughened Aunt Jemima (of pancakes and maple syrup fame) wielding a machine gun with pancakes flying from it. Then we made a quick tour through the Contemporary Collection as our daughter started getting antsy. We headed out to the terrace and relaxed for a bit while we discussed the remainder of our afternoon.
 Lunch at Deli Mex: Tacos, beans and rice 

We ended up heading back over the hill to have some lunch at our favorite Mexican joint - a little hole-in-the-wall in Sherman Oaks called Deli Mex on Magnolia. The food is fresh (everything is made fresh on-site daily), and the family which owns the restaurant always makes us feel right at home.

After lunch, we decided to end our afternoon with a hike up to one of our favorite viewing spots in Stough Canyon in Burbank. It offers a nice view of the Bob Hope Airport (as well as the valley), and our daughter gets a kick watching the planes land and take off. We sat there and reflected on our day, as the sun cast its setting rays over Los Angeles. We thought, "with the exception of a few details, we nearly had our own 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' adventure in Los Angeles."

A view of Bob Hope Airport from Stough Canyon
That got the discussion going: what if Ferris took a day off in Los Angeles? Where would he have taken his friends? Some place cultural; a restaurant or some kind of food experience; an outdoor or sporting event; somewhere with a view; and somewhere random instead of a parade (or maybe a parade or festival if there happened to be one in progress). As you can suspect, many itineraries came to mind.

"Yes," my husband said to me, "we'll do this again."

Ferris Bueller. A slacker, yet, he had the right idea. So many adventures to be had in Los Angeles. So little time. We were both glad to have found the time on this day.






-Julie




2 comments:

C FLeezi said...

Thanks for the recommendation of Stough Canyon. I'm big on hiking in different places of the angeles crest, but can't say that I've been to Burbank to hike. Sounds like something I have to add to my list! If I had a day off in La I would start off downtown, work my way to Santa Monica, and end up back downtown again to enjoy the evening nightlife.

ella said...

OHMG, Julie you basically predicted the CRV commercial!

"what if Ferris took a day off in Los Angeles? Where would he have taken his friends? Some place cultural; a restaurant or some kind of food experience; an outdoor or sporting event; somewhere with a view; and somewhere random instead of a parade (or maybe a parade or festival if there happened to be one in progress). "

cultural - Natural History Museum
restaurant - Chez Neuf
outdoor/sporting - Santa Anita Racetrack
random/festival/parade - Chinatown for Chinese New Year

Nicely done!!