My friend and I both expressed a desire to travel to Los Angeles at some point in the near future, and by early 2019, we were booking hotels for not even a month after I’d return home from Punta Cana. (Thankfully my job comes with a decent amount of vacation days!)

At first, we were both looking forward to a less-busy, more low-key vacation in California, but the more we researched, the more we planned. The next thing we knew, each day we’d be in the city was a new adventure jam-packed full of fun.

Day One: The Dog Cafe

The first day of any vacation is sort of a write off, isn’t it? We landed in LAX around 1:00 pm (but to us, it felt like 4:00 already) and headed to the hotel so we could drop off our bags. We went to the nearest IHOP for some food and a Walgreen’s so we could pick up the essentials, then took a short rest before our first actual activity of the trip: visiting the LA Dog Cafe.

My friend is an animal lover, and I can’t not pet a dog, so you can imagine the Dog Cafe had to be on our list of things to do. It was only a fifteen minute walk from our hotel, and once we arrived, we ordered a tea and then spent an hour chatting and petting dogs. Definitely a nice ease-in to our vacation!

Day Two was spent at the WB Studio Tour and Universal Studios, but that was such a busy day full of adventures, but that’ll get its own post!

Day Three: Santa Monica Pier

Despite all of the very Hollywood things we had scheduled to visit, the thing I was most excited about in Los Angeles was going to the beach. I love sun, but it being October, this Canadian girl was already wrapping herself in a winter coat back home. Landing in LA at a warm 20 degrees Celcius was the best. Every Uber driver we had apologized for the cold weather, but I was in shorts and tank tops most of the trip, so I was happy.

Santa Monica Pier was kind of touristy, but we enjoyed our morning stroll across the boardwalk before it got too packed. Once we’d seen all there was to see on the pier (various shops, stalls, restaurants, and the amusement park), we found a good place near the water and sat in the sand for a while. It was lovely knowing it was October and I could still soak up some rays!

We managed to walk all the way to Venice Beach for lunch, and then walked all the way back to Santa Monica to sprawl in the sand some more.

Day Four: LA Farmer’s Market, LACMA, The Grove & Griffith Park

This was probably the most exploring we planned to do in one day on this trip, but I’m so glad we managed to fit everything into such a short amount of time, because it all seemed so necessary.

We did some shopping at the Grove and grabbed a couple tacos at the LA Farmer’s Market (I have to say, the one regret I have about this trip is not having eaten more tacos), then decided to go our separate ways and visit the museums we wanted to see. I’m a huge contemporary art fan, so I spent some time wandering the LA County Museum of Art – which was really neat and had some great exhibits.

Once we were museum’d out, we grabbed an Uber and headed to Griffith Park.

*Obligatory photo with the Hollywood sign*

I 100% expected to get a photo with the Hollywood sign on this trip, so I’m glad we made our way to Griffith Park so we could Do The Thing and Get The Photo. But honestly, my favourite thing about visiting the park was the observatory.

Griffith Observatory was beautiful to explore and provided gorgeous views of LA. But before long it was time to re-nourish and time for me to head out on my own for the evening.

One of the best parts of the day was spontaneously buying tickets to see one of my favourite comedians, Mike Birbiglia, perform his new show The New One (now on Netflix). I’ve never gone to a comedy show on my own before, but I’d highly recommend it. You aren’t worried if the other person finds certain jokes funny or offensive or bad, you’re alone in a crowd. So you laugh at what you think is funny. I have to say, I’ve gone to a ton of comedy shows in 2019, and this one was the absolute best.

Day Five: Grand Central Market, The Last Bookstore, and The Broad Museum

Day Five would be our last in LA, and we couldn’t leave without exploring downtown a little bit. The first stop was the Last Bookstore, which was incredible. The store itself seemed to have everything, but the vibe felt like an old library full of magic. It was great.

After the bookstore came Grand Central Market for lunch. I visited PBJ.LA and got an espresso peanut butter/raspberry jam sandwich (heckin’ YUM). Once our stomachs were full, we hit the Broad art museum and I got to see a ton of beautiful pieces by some incredibly talented contemporary artists. The best part was that admission was free and this is probably one of the best art museums I’ve been able to visit.

Shortly after the Broad, we hopped in an Uber to Anaheim for our day at Disneyland (which will get its own blog post). The rest of Day Five was spent wandering Downtown Disney, which is basically a ton of Disney shops just outside the entrance to the park. It was a great way to get us amped up for our final day of vacation!

If exploring LA taught me anything, it’s that I’m far more independent than I thought. My friend and I had a great time wandering the city together, but if we wanted to do things the other didn’t, we just did them. I managed to go to a museum and see a comedy show in a completely unfamiliar city on my own.

Not that I didn’t think I could, but I definitely thought my anxiety would kick in and hold me back a little more. I didn’t feel awkward taking so many photos, or worry about looking like a tourist. I just did my own thing, and it felt great.