Holiday Time Shenanigans

As you read on the blog last week, we were in Solvang and Buellton the weekend before Christmas, eating, drinking, and making merry.  Chris normally takes the entire space of time between Christmas and New Year's Day off from work (his building has a plant shutdown, so not much else can get done), and this year, I joined him.  We spent a lot of time just hanging around the house in our jammies, but we did venture out a few times for some fun activities.

On Boxing Day, we headed to nearby Belmont Shore (still technically within the city of Long Beach, even though Belmont residents don't really like to admit it) to take a ride on the holiday light trolley!

Ding!  Ding!

All aboard!

Earlier that month, I'd found a Groupon for the trolley, which takes you around the local area on a 30 minute ride to look at the holiday lights.  This area of town, which also encompasses Naples and Alamitos Bay, has some amazing houses that are truly decked out.  Last year, we rode hydrobikes and saw these houses from the water, and we couldn't wait to do so again, albeit this time without nearly as much physical fitness.  Our guide did a wonderful job narrating our trip, and we enjoyed the experience.

The floating "trees" in Alamitos Bay - 

we didn't know that these are actually paid for

with private donations collected throughout the year.

The amount of money people donate

determines the number of trees each year.

This is a neat area of town -

all of the houses border canals

(the developer wanted to name it Venice originally,

but Venice Beach already existed,

so he settled on Naples instead),

and at the holidays, people stroll up and down the canals,

just looking at lights.

Once the tour was over, we hopped off the trolley and strolled to our dinner destination, Saint and Second.  It's one of our favorite spots in Belmont Shore, and it was delicious as usual!

Two days later, on the 28th, we put on our walking shoes and hopped on the light rail's blue line, heading north into downtown LA.  DTLA has tons of amazing museums, and while some of them cost a fair amount, one of the newest, the Broad, is free.  Since it's new, it's insanely popular, so we reserved tickets a few weeks ahead of time for a 12:30 entry.  Before heading to the museum, we figured lunch was in order, so we hit up the Modern Times Dankness Dojo.  Modern Times is actually a San Diego brewery, but they have a lot of distribution here, and we've become quite taken with their hazy IPAs and wild/sour ales.

Chris with our first tasting picks

Beer glamour shot

We did some eating around on the menu, and we enjoyed all sorts of various and sundry nibbles while gazing at the art on display all around us.

Hands off!

Eventually, more than full of great food and beer, we hiked up the hill to the Broad.  

I see it!  It's that big cube on the left.

As I mentioned above, the standby line was huuuuuuge, but we breezed right past everyone due to the tickets we reserved ahead.

Not my picture, which is probably obvious.

But seriously, this is what the line looks like.

Just reserve online, people!

It's so easy and free!

The Broad has all sorts of contemporary art, and we saw the usual suspects - Warhol, Lichtenstein, etc - and enjoyed the experience.

Chris under the giant table

Not my picture - thanks, internets!

We didn't get to see the Broad's biggest attraction, the Infinity Mirror Rooms; those had another sign-up queue that you couldn't start until you got into the museum, and by the time we entered at 12:30, our room entrance time was estimated as 5pm (actually, I got the text that we could get in as we were stepping off the light rail back in the LBC).  We did enjoy seeing everything else, however, including the building itself.

Peeking out at the street

This is a window in a stairwell that shows you

the giant, secure storage area where

they keep the art not currently on display.

I wonder if they do tours back there,

so you can see the art slide in and out.

That would be so rad.

AND!  You guys, we had our first honest to goodness free range celebrity sighting at the Broad!  We'd just walked out of the giant table room, and as we were wandering through another gallery, I passed this guy and lady who looked remarkably familiar.  He said something to one of his kiddos, and I was like, yes, that is indeed an Australian accent, that is indeed famous chef Curtis Stone!  He was there with his wife Lindsey Price, who is an American actress, and in a true "celebs, they're just like us" moment, they were dealing with two cranky kids who didn't really want to look at art anymore.  We didn't bother them while they were parenting, but I took this picture off the internets:

This is pretty much what they looked like,

but add a healthy dash of "harried parent" in there, too.

By this point, we were about done with the Broad, and we strolled back down the hill to the light rail stop, passing one of my favorite art pieces in the city, the AT&T mural.  Chris thinks it's super weird that after seeing all of the amazing art and architecture we have in DTLA, one of my favorite spots is on the side of a telecom company's building, but whatever.  It's blue and it makes me happy.

I fell asleep on the light rail ride home, but Chris remained vigilant (a good thing - both people can't nap on the light rail - that's not safe), and we arrived home without issue.  Back to the jammies for the rest of the day!

Later!

Amy