La La Land

Neither Rachel or I had ever been to Los Angeles before, so what better way to spend an 8 hour layover than getting out to explore the city? We decided to avoid the horrid LA traffic and kept our exploring to the coast. Our first stop was at the famous Kogi food truck, the Korean barbecue truck which is credited with starting the whole food truck craze in LA, and has now spread through the U.S. We started driving towards Venice Beach, but thanks to a tip from Alanna we went to check out the canals that give the city it's name. I had no idea that there was such an intricate canal system and that Venice California resembled Venice Italy in anything more than name! But wow, what a neat neighborhood. We had such a great time strolling along the canals and peaking into all the cool homes. We even stopped by an open house that was going on in a really cool modern house on a corner lot, with a cool $4 million it could be ours!

 Next we headed to Santa Monica Pier, first stopping by the workout equipment on the beach and trying our hand at the ring swing. We strolled through the amusement rides on the pier and saw the western end of Route 66. We ended the night by checking out the shops over Santa Monica Boulevard with our buddy Sheryl Crow!