For the wife’s 31st birthday, we wanted to make it special and travel somewhere fun with her twin sister, Jenna. Our destination was Los Angeles for a quick weekend getaway. However, when you travel with me (Andrei), a quick relaxing weekend getaway usually involves cramming as many activities in as possible.
We stayed at the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica because I was hoping to take a couple early morning trips down to Manhattan Beach or up to Malibu for some surfing. I used to frequent LA and San Diego back in 2019 when I was first learning to surf, and couldn’t wait to get back into it. ONE SLIGHT PROBLEM 😒 It was too cold.
FUNNY STORY TIME: The night before we left, Jessa kept telling me to pack a jacket or sweater. I informed her that I have visited LA many a times and would not require such clothing as an expert to LA climate….. within 3 hours of landing in LA, I found myself shivering and buying a sweater. Lesson: Listen to your wife, even when you think you are right. Here is a photo of me wearing my new “I told you so” sweater.
Luckily, by mid afternoon the sun came out and it was sunny and beautiful California weather. We spent the first day walking along the Santa Monica boardwalk exploring the shops, eating lunch at Bubba Gumps and visiting Venice Beach.
The next morning we woke up bright and early ready to take on the day with no real plans laid out. We started by exploring Beverely Hills and Rodeo Drive. Nope we did not see a single bull or sheep. What a lame rodeo!
After Beverely Hills we made our way over to Burbank to check out Warner Bros Studios, where famous films such as Harry Potter, Dark Knight, and Lord of the Rings were filmed. We hopped on the next backlot tour and learned a lot. We got to see some incredible active backlots such as where Abbot Elementaty Young Sheldon were filmed.
Apparently some girl show called Gilmore Girls was filmed here, but I was more excited to see where they filmed Friends and Big Bang Theory. They even let us sit on the original set for both of those shows!
Following an excellent tour, we swung over to Universal Citywalk … we did not actually go into Universal Studios, but watched the finale of the SEC championship where sadly Texas lost to Georgia… again 😒.
The next day, was the day we were most excited about… Instead of doing your typical Disneyland or Universal or Knottsberry, we wanted to check out Six Flags Magic Mountain. IT WAS EPIC! We had the flash pass ultimate, which meant zero waiting… however, we still ran to our first roller coaster for the fun of it.
Here is a casual list of the 24 rides we did in chronological order totalling up to 13 miles of track we rode.
X2, X2, Viper, Revolution, Tatsu, Full Throttle, Wonder Woman, Batman, Riddler, Riddler, Gold Rush, Crazanity, Titan Spin, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Batman, Twisted Colossus, Scream, Twisted Collossus, Dive Bomb, Ninja, West coast racers, Tatsu, and X2
Kids when you read this one day, you will realize how much fun your mother and father had at amusement parks and no matter how hard you try you won’t be able to keep up with us in our prime. GET READY CAUSE WE AINT SLOWING DOWN.
As you can see we had a very great day at Six Flags, which we highly reccomend for anyone visiting LA. SKIP DISNEY COME TO SIX FLAGS BUT MAKE SURE TO BUY THE FAST PASS.
Oh yeah, another random fun thing to remember is that during our trip we took a self driving car. This was so foreign and new to us… I am writing this down so that when our kids read this in the future they go huh? That is so normal why is that weird. REMEMBER DEC 6 2024, SELF DRIVING CARS ARE NOT NORMAL! I feel like I’m reading something out of an Isaac asimonov novel 🙄
Overall, Los Angeles was an excellent trip with excellent company. We are glad that Jessa got to spend her birthday weekend with her twin sister… and me of course. It was full of great experiences and lessons alike. If you don’t remember or read anything from this post remember the following : WHEN THE WIFE TELLS YOU TO PACK A SWEATER YOU SALUTE AND DO AS YOU ARE TOLD. 😬
As they say in Hollywood.. THAT’S ALL FOLKS…. Stay tuned for our next adventures coming soon.
