there's a place off ocean avenue

I had the opportunity to live a middle school dream this weekend. And an adult dream.  But it's been about 10 years in the making.  A couple of weeks ago, Anna texted me that we should go to the Yellowcard concert in LA and escape Utah for a weekend.  I was like uhduhyeahgirl and so Thursday Anna, her sister Ellen and Ellen's friend, Brenna, and I hit the dusty trail for Los Angeles.

Friday we went to my favorite breakfast place, the Egg Plantation.  They have 101 omelets and the best strawberry stuffed French toast.

Then we headed off to the city.  We drove around looking at the touristy things and found where George Clooney supposedly lives.  We couldn't stay away from the beach another day, so we stopped by Marina del Rey for a little bit.

We had dinner at Cabo Cantina on the Sunset Strip and waited near the front of the line at the house of Blues for the concert.  There is nothing like a concert.  I was telling Anna that I want to still go to concerts when I'm 60, but then I realized that I might die if I do it when I'm old because I'm still sore from doing it when I'm 21.  Plus, I'll definitely lose my hearing.  I wake up the next day with what I call a concert hangover (don't worry, ma, no actual drugs are involved in this process): ringing and plugged ears, headache, soreness all over my body, exhausted, raspy voice.  Love it.  SOOOO worth it.

Go Radio and Every Avenue opened and that was a fun start.  I don't know what it is about musicians, but holy moly Charlie Brown, sign me up for the next tour!!  Also, it was extra fun because it was the last show of the tour and so the bands were playing pranks on each other the whole time.  For example, YC came out during Go Radio and flipped all of the drummer's cymbals upside down.  The two openers came out at YC's last song and danced with them on stage. Extra dose of fun. We got the signatures of some of the band members after the show, including LP, the drummer for YC.  The venue was awesome, the people were crazy, the set choice was super, and I finally saw YC in concert.  Don't get much better then that.

{in like with Every Avenue's guitarist}

{Ryan Key, lead singer/guitarist of Yellowcard}

{LP's drum solo}

{also in like with Yellowcard's bassist}

{oh, and did we mention the guitarist for Go Radio??}

Saturday, we slept in forever and then went to the Plantation again with my grandparents. Can't get enough of that place.  Then the girls headed off for Santa Monica where we played on the beach and strolled down the pier.  Ellen and I chased some birds (hopefully I can get that video soon--they started chasing us haha). It wasn't as warm as we had hoped, but it sure as heck wasn't snowing!  I held a bird and it kissed me on the lips.  I got hit on by a creepy street performer during one of his performances.  We took Anna on her first ferris wheel ride and it was so fun!  We ended the visit by finding the 3 story Barnes and Noble on the 3rd Street Promenade.  I died and went to heaven.  We thought it would be fun to see "Breaking Dawn," too, buuuut that was an interesting movie. A lot of blood and an angsty shirtless R.Pat.

{"there's a place off Ocean Avenue"}

{Santa Monica pier and beach}

{we love the beach}

I had so much fun this weekend.  As we drove closer and closer to Provo today, I got sadder and sadder.  Then I remembered Thanksgiving with my family is in two days and I recovered :)