sunday (10/21) :: day 2
We woke up in the morning and grabbed some breakfast at the hotel my parents were staying at before heading to Azusa to pick up the little girls for the day. We decided to check out Old Town Pasadena because of the shopping and food options in that area and we ended up spending the entire day there.
Old town is pretty cute, and although the buildings are certainly historical the area is not exactly what you would think, it is a lot more modern. I really liked it though. On our way to the shops me and the girls noticed a Halloween store and went inside to check it out for some reason. We quickly found political masks and were tempted to play around for a while. Eventually we did make it to the main shopping area after navigating an insane diagonal crosswalk system (you can go diagonal, genius!). Me and Leah found this awesome not so little coffee shop called
Intelligentsia that I would totally frequent if I was a local. They also served beer, wine, and some food that all looked delicious. I kind of wish that I would have bought one of their
Bear Republic mugs as a Cali souvenir. Next time.
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| [[ playing with political masks downtown. ]] |
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| [[ old buildings. diagonal crosswalk. bike shop. me. statue. restaurant & shopping areas. ]] |
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| [[ intelligentsia coffee shop. exposed bricks & concrete everywhere. ]] |
The area we were in was surrounded by tons of eclectic restaurants and alleys with little courtyards for outdoor seating, so we picked a Greek restaurant called
Cafe Santorini that overlooked one of the courtyards. I got their "Vegetarian Mezza Tasting" which included humas and many other items like
Saganaki, which is fried cheese,
Dolmadakia, which are rice and vegetables rolled in to grapevine leaves, and
Spanakopita, which are small cheese and spinach pastries. Mine came with a few more dishes like some sort of sweet pureed squash and oil dip, and a small salad with chopped up pesto, cilantro, onion, and tomatoes. They also provided us with freshly homemade pitas and an assortment of olives. It was amazing, definitely my favorite meal of the trip. Me and Leah shared a grilled calamari salad as well, and the rest of my family got an assortment of seafood pastas.
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| [[ cafe santorini. our delicious lunch. pumpkins in the alley outside of the restaurant. ]] |
After lunch we spread out and did some shopping. Me and Leah stopped in to the Apple store for a little while to charge our phones, and then after stopping in a cute little store called Cotton On and picking up some basics for myself, I took the girls in to the largest Forever 21 I have ever seen. It was two stories, like the ones we have here, but it was easily three times the size. I even took some panoramics while we were in there. I ended up buying some things for Meagan, so of course I had to walk away with a few of my own as well, like some leopard shoes that I now can't stop wearing and a big cozy grandpa sweater.
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| [[ cotton on. forever 21. ]] |
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| [[ iphone panoramic of the giant forever 21 store in pasadena, ca. CLICK TO VIEW LARGER. ]] |
By this time we had been shopping around all day and were all tired and hungry again. While me and Meagan were finishing up in F21, Jenna decided that we should go to
Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles for dinner because we were after all around Los Angeles, and it is famous staple. We went to the Pasadena location since it was the closest, and got three orders of the half chicken and waffles with some cornbread to share. I was definitely skeptical, but it was surprisingly delicious! I normally do not like mixing salty and sweet dishes, but for some reason a bite of chicken with a syrupy waffle just worked. When in LA I guess...
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| [[ roscoes chicken & waffles for dinner. ]] |
Initially we had planned on driving by The Rose Bowl during the day so that we could hike around the grounds which are supposed to be beautiful, but we ended up spending the entire day in Old Town. Since we were so close, we decided to go by it before dropping everyone off despite the dark. Though it was hard to really get a grasp of the surrounding area, we did notice some gigantic houses circling the stadium, and were able to get a ton of pictures of the sign all lit up. Of course, we could not resist posing a little bit as well. Then me and Leah said goodbye to the parents who were flying home early in the morning and were dropped off at her friend Catherine's place for the night.
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| [[ nighttime visit to the rose bowl in pasadena, ca. ]] |
