I might have mentioned this but Elda and I originally planned on going on Chicago, but then something happened and I wasn't able to go to Chicago anymore. In solution to that, Elda decided to come to LA to pay me a visit.
Elda would be coming on May 10, 2013 at
noon. I was ready to pick her up after my spring break work, but then
the managing director of Graphic Design department requested that I
attend the departmental orientation to share some tips for the new
students. And that happened at noon. I only came in the beginning
before leaving to LAX to pick Elda up at around 12.30 pm.
For your information, that was actually
the first legit day of me driving on freeways on my own. I don't
usually have enough balls to take freeways and as an alternative for
that, I always take local routes, which sometimes can be a solution
to the jam in freeway, but it commonly takes more time than freeways.
Or sometimes, I drive in freeways with a companion.
Anyway, after nearly one and half hour
being stuck in LA's infamous jam, I made it to LAX, pulled over to
pick up Elda in a rush despite there was a police giving a ticket to
a parked car behind mine. I knew that Elda was hungry after 8 hours
of flight all the way from Michigan. So I drove to Simpang Asia to
offer her the first taste of LA, in Indonesian way!
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| Elda's Chicken Porridge |
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| My Mie tek tek |
We
sort of remembered our times the last time we went to LA, and that
was with Aymee. I have also never been to some parts of LA ever since
I started my term in Art Center, so that actually marked my first
time eating in Simpang Asia after
I moved to LA.
After
the dunch, Elda and I headed to Queen Mary, the famous retired cruise
ship that's now docked in Long Beach and open for public. Apparently,
it was not as easy as we thought to get there since we got caught in
the traffic in the freeway.
It took us about almost an hour to reach Long Beach from where Simpang Asia was. I was a bit pessimistic if we could make it there on time since it was almost six and we didn't know the place's closing hour. Well, even if we might not be able to go in, say, if it's closed when we got there, we could still take pictures of the ship's exterior.
Thankfully, we were able to make it on time and rushed to get the ticket before it was closing in an hour. One of the ticket packages we got included a tour of ghosts and legends. In case you don't know, RMS Queen Mary is also known for being haunted and some ghost sightings have been reported over the years. Elda and I are afraid that the ghost and legends tour will lead us to the ghost encounter itself, so we decided to skip that tour even though one of the packages we paid for included that tour.
Without further ado, we went inside the historical ship!
When we got in, I still couldn't believe that we were actually inside a ship. A freaking ship. I just got excited to explore around. Apparently the ship isn't just merely a ship, but it actually has a functioning hotel that uses the rooms in the ship. Those rooms were actually used back in the day the ship was still cruising in the sea. Awesome huh? That's why when Elda and I got in, the first thing we saw after the entrance was a front desk table like the ones you usually see in hotels, with people carrying luggages checking in as well as bellboys.
It must be expensive to stay there even for a night huh?
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| Can you believe that this is a gym? |
Later on, we stepped out of the deck!
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| "Near, far, wherever you are I believe that the heart does go on" Just had to do this. |
Not to mention, along the way, we found some cool things in other parts of the ship. This old scale, in particular, is somewhat interesting. But it wouldn't work unless we put in a quarter.
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The ship is so
fascinating! I can't help but to think that every single part of it
reminds me of the world's most famous cruise that tragically met its
faith on April 1912 – RMS Titanic. Although RMS Queen Mary might
resemble the ship, the ship that's now docked in Long Beach was built
years later after Titanic sank.
Most parts of the
ship still dated back in the mid 20th century, so it was
amazing to be able to walk within what remains of the history.
Before it got dark,
we decided to take off from Long Beach, heading to West LA, where The
Grove is located! Honestly, I've never been to The Grove
myself but I've heard a great deal of stories about that place.
So I can't frankly wait to see it myself!
Again, we had to
swallow the bitter pill that we were stuck in the miserable LA
traffic. We finally reached The Grove when it was already
dark. The place was more of an outdoor mall – a shopping promenade
– with grassy area in the middle surrounded by branded stores with
a fountain the middle of it. I had to say I was infatuated with the
cozy atmosphere and the jazz music played in the speaker. I wish Elda
and I could chill in one of the cafes at the sides.
We also found a hotel that's connected to The Grove. Lucky people who get to stay there. Imagine you walk down the hotel lobby and find yourself in a place as awesome as The Grove.
At that moment,
Elda needed to find a backpack since hers just got ripped apart in
the airport. Without a backpack, she wouldn't be able to carry all
her belongings back home. So it's pretty critical. We quickly hopped
from one shop to another to find a fitting backpack. Finally, she
found a nice one that was big enough to accommodate her belongings in
GAP.
Oh and by the way, we bumped into a cool clothing store with two nice outfits on display. Elda caught a glance of the sweet pink dress in the first place. I thought it was sweet too! Especially the pink color isn't somewhat too vibrant nor too pale. The sleeves are pretty too. However, after Elda uploaded this picture below, I began to notice another outfit that's captured next to the dress. Yep, that's the black dress that I'm talking about. It's hot, daring, and cool at the same time. I mean, who doesn't fall in love with that split long sleeve??? (if only I have the money and the guts to wear that outfit).
After strolling
around and taking pictures, we headed to the next destination before
it got too late. Yes, we were going to have Korean BBQ! I was
thinking while Elda was in LA, she needs to try LA's famous Korean
BBQ. There are no specific places which BBQ is the best, because
there are literally many good All you can eat Korean BBQ all over the
place in LA'S Koreatown. One of my favorites would be San Ya in the
heart of Koreatown.
The line was pretty
long when we got there, as usual. But lucky, my name got called and
we got our seats soon! Time for Korean BBQ frenzy!!
Strangely, I
usually ordered more and more portion, but this time, I got full
really quick that I only finished one huge portion of marinated beef
and beef brisket. I usually asked for more. Hmm. But anyway, it was
still fulfilling.
It was kind of late
already at night (I wouldn't know it was late until the waitress came
up and asked us if we still needed something else because they were
having last orders) and we know we still had two more places to go
to. Next up, we were going to LACMA's well-known Urban Lights
installation! LACMA remains an attraction even though it was late
at night, and what became the center of attention is not the museum
itself at night, but an installation consisting of rows of street
lights. These street lights used to lit the streets of LA before
David Burden restored them to be later assembled into an
installation.
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| Jumping picture, success! |
This place might be
not as much as interested compared to the glamour of LA such as
Hollywood and other sparkling tourism spots. But this installation
still remains one of the best photographic objects all over LA. Even
I saw some couples were doing photoshoots, taking pictures of every
single corner or angle of the installation.
PEEK
A
BOO!
The night fell
already. I had fun taking pictures with Elda as we went crazy along
the way. When we were about to go back to the parking lot, the
entrance where we came in was closed and locked already. So we had to
make a detour around LACMA to go to the car entrance. Apparently, we
were the last visitors ever to exit LACMA's parking lot before the
security locked it! Lucky us!
Then, we headed up
straight to Pasadena right at 12.30 am. Wew, that was a long day,
wasn't it? Elda would stay over at my place during her visit. I spent
the day before her arrival cleaning up every inches of the apartment
and providing her a what-was-supposed-to-be cozy mattress. We thought
we could have time to chat before sleeping like what most girls do in
sleepovers. But apparently we were too tired (even Elda slept with
her glasses still on xD) and we had an even longer day on Saturday.
More exciting
places coming up!
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