Take Me Out to the Hockey Game

This weekend was Dan's dream come true - his favorite hockey team, the NY Islanders, came to CA to play the Anaheim Ducks and the L.A. Kings. So guess who was at both games proudly supporting the enemy team? Friday's game against the Ducks was action-packed, but the Islanders lost in overtime, 5-4. We stayed the night up there and met some friends of ours, Trish, Briklyn, and their daughter Annabelle, for breakfast near Anaheim. The last time we saw them was at their baby shower before Annabelle was born, so it was fun to catch up with them and meet their sweet daughter in person!

After breakfast, we drove to L.A. and spent a few hours touring the downtown public library (we're complete nerds, I know) and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Actually, the library is very cool - it's humongous and they have a couple of small art galleries inside, plus murals and mosaics all over the walls and ceilings of each room. We stopped there because 1) it had super cheap parking and 2) we wanted to consult a tour book on L.A. to see if there was anything we shouldn't miss since we had the day there. Once we got inside we were so impressed, we toured the whole library before leaving. The tour book we found highly recommended a visit to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which is a modern architectural masterpiece. We wanted to get an audio guide headset which would tell us about the history & construction of the building as we did a self-guided tour, but we missed the 2:00 deadline for audio guide rentals. So we toured it anyway and just made stuff up. :) The building has been featured in several movies, so it's a pretty well-known landmark in L.A. We saw "The Soloist" with Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, and it played a huge part in that story.

We still had a few hours until the Sat. night game started, so we drove to Santa Monica where there's a famous pier with an amusement park, and the pedestrian-only 3rd Street Promenade. The Promenade is a lot like 16th Street Mall in Denver, with shops, restaurants, and tons of street performers. We spent a while walking around, ate some dinner, and headed back to L.A. for the Kings vs. Islanders game. Our friends, Dave and Cynthia, met us there, which was good for me because the game was boring, so at least I had Cynthia to talk to. L.A. scored one goal early in the 2nd period, and the Islanders lost again, 1-0. Oh well, we still had a great time making Dave & Cynthia nervous by cheering for the Islanders. They thought the L.A. fans would be less than civil to us for some reason - can't imagine why, since L.A. is known for its fine, upstanding citizens. :)

We had a great weekend, and we learned about some places in L.A. that we'd like to check out this summer when they have some outdoor concerts. I'm always up for new weekend getaway ideas!

Sporting orange & blue at the Anaheim/Islanders game

Our friends, Trish and Briklyn with their daughter, Annabelle

Making an absolutely necessary stop at this guy's favorite store in Anaheim, Hockey Giant

Some of the art & architecture inside the L.A. downtown library

Visiting the Walt Disney Concert Hall

A rooftop view of L.A. from the Concert Hall

The Walt Disney Concert Hall

L.A. has awesome, random artwork around town

A very foggy view of Santa Monica Pier (we decided to save it for another sunnier day)

Walking along Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade. If you click on it, you'll get to see a wacky guy doing yoga-body-art-poses ... or something. Everybody's a little wacky in L.A., though

Our friends, Dave & Cynthia, were a little embarrassed to be seen with the enemy at the Kings/Islanders game. There was no escaping, though, we had them surrounded! hahahaaaa!