Los Angeles

If you missed the beginning of our California trip, catch up HERE! Our second day in Los Angeles began much better than its predecessor (thank goodness!). Robert woke up feeling 100% better and both of us were starving after no dinner and an early bedtime the night before. A quick Yelp search landed us a few miles down the road at Jacks and Joe in downtown LA. I loved the cute name (you know how I feel about pancakes) and we hit them just before the breakfast rush and were immediately seated at the end of a long communal high top that snaked through the center of the restaurant.

The menu was full of delicious sounding pancake combinations with adorable names, my best/worst nightmare.

Although I consider banana pancakes to be manna from heaven, I had seen a yelp photo of the most delicious looking breakfast burrito I’d ever laid eyes on and couldn’t get it out of my head. I was bummed out and confused not to see it listed on their menu, so I asked the waiter about it. Apparently California has a thing with “secret menus”…I’m looking at you In N Out…and Jacks and Joe was no exception. I don’t really understand this whole secret menu phenomenon, but it makes me both excited and nervous all at the same time.

The server explained to me that regulars sometimes ordered said breakfast burrito (and or loaded hash browns) since the kitchen had all the ingredients on hand, even though it wasn’t on the menu. I got the impression that the kitchen staff found the secret menu orders kind of annoying and he didn’t really want me to order it (maybe because I was clearly not a local and only a sneaky yelper) but you guys…that photo…I had to have it!

I can’t even remember what Robert ordered (probably french toast) because I was way too into my burrito. It had Portuguese sausage in it which was absolutely divine, chorizo, bacon, hash browns, cheese, big chunks of avocado and an OVER EASY EGG! This basically made the burrito have it’s own delicious sauce that ran out all over it when you took a bite. So. Good. It was also the size of my head which made lunch unnecessary.

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Remember back in October when I was planning our trip to California? Well we went… in December (and had a fabulous time!) and here I am in April finally getting around to writing about it…insert embarrassed emoji face here.

Robert has the week between Christmas and New Years off every year which lines up perfectly with my Christmas break. We decided this was the perfect time for a trip, and California was not only a destination on both of our bucket lists, but it was also far enough away and big enough to justify spending an entire week there. In true Laurin fashion I had planned our trip down to a T, we would fly into LA, spend two days there and then drive up the coast to San Francisco, stopping in Carmel for a night to break up the drive.

We headed to the airport the day after Christmas, said goodbye to Renly and boarded our flight to Atlanta. We were both hungry when we landed in Atlanta and decided to grab some lunch before boarding our flight to LA. We unknowingly cut it a bit close which ended up working out in our favor. When we arrived at our gate, the flight attendants were in a tizzy trying to accommodate a group of French teenagers who were flying standby. Only one of the group spoke English so they didn’t want to be split up. When Robert and I arrived, they had already given our seats away to some of the group and ended up putting us in the only two available seats left, which just so happened to be in first class. Win!

After a second lunch, some wine and a delightful nap since our seats laid completely flat, holla, we landed in LA, well rested and excited to start our trip! After waiting in line at the rental car company for the better part of forever, we made our way to our hotel, the Figueroa in downtown LA.

The boutique hotel had a lovely lobby.

The rooms were small and somewhat sparse but clean, decorated in a sort of boho-chic theme. Robert is used to larger, more traditional hotels and didn’t love the Fig, but I thought it was quaint.

The staff recommended a local Mexican restaurant for dinner, El Cholo.

Robert and I both enjoyed our meals and went to bed early, full from dinner and ready to hit Hollywood the next morning! I woke up bright and early the next morning only to find poor Robert had been up vomiting the entire night. He is convinced it was food poisoning, but before you cross El Cholo off your list you should know that ALL of Robert’s family had the stomach bug prior to us leaving, so who really knows. He was a pitiful sight so I walked a few blocks to a grocery store to buy him some gatorade and a few slices of toast. After a few more hours of sleep, Robert rallied and we headed out to Hollywood Boulevard.