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Fathers Day 2013

We had a great time celebrating the best dad in the world this weekend! Ed woke up and got to enjoy his very favorite Weisswurst sausages for breakfast — with sweet mustard, of course — straight from Bavaria, thanks to Andreas, who is visiting us from Germany. Ed couldn’t have been happier.

After breakfast, we headed out to the Concours d’Elegance in Beverly Hills. Each year, they close down Rodeo Drive, line it with expensive, unusual and exotic cars, and allow for some serious oohing and ahhhing for those of us not in the 1%! It was a blast.

Since we were right around the corner, we decided we had to take an ice cream break, and headed over to Ice Cream Lab. They make the ice cream right there in front of you. Since we couldn’t decide on one flavor, the four of us shared four different kinds. It was perfect!

Afterwards, we decided to head over to Amoeba to get a little record shopping in, and since Andreas mentioned he still hadn’t had an American burger yet on his visit (we’ve been filling him with Mexican food!), we decided he had to experience Umami Burger. As you’d expect, it went over very well!

Ed said it was a great day, so we consider our celebration of the world’s greatest dad a huge success!

Six years

We spent the better part of the day on October 7th up in L.A. doing some of our favorite things to celebrate SIX years as Mr. + Mrs.

//Our Itinerary//
Hammer Museum: Graphic Design: Now In Production
Architecture+Design Museum: Eero Saarinen
Canter’s Deli (matzo ball soup + bagel chips are a MUST!)
LACMA: Stark Bar
Sundance Cinemas, West Hollywood: Detropia

Perfect day. e+c=<3

Art appreciation and a taste of Detroit

We often consider our membership to LACMA similar to an Annual Passport at Disneyland. We go so often, it’s paid for in a few visits, and it’s nice to know that we can pop up to L.A. to take a quick peek at a new exhibition and leave for lunch, or spend the majority of the day walking around, spending time outside and visiting our “friends” up on the walls.

One of our faves is Ed Ruscha, and there is a new exhibition on view now called Standard. It was “Carmegeddon” weekend in L.A. and we arrived quicker than ever, and the museum was practically empty! No pics were allowed inside, but I snapped these two before the guard yelled at me. (Oops.)

It’s getting harder and harder to snap pics of this kiddo — she is always on the move!

After seeing Ed, we headed downstairs to the awesome Metropolis II, which is a favorite of all three of us. (We posted a few pics and video of another visit here.)I love the sheer design of it, Ed loves anything having to do with miniatures, and Miss Ruby is fascinated by all the commotion and moving cars!

A few more shots from our visit, including “The Rock” in the Levitated Mass exhibition.

The grand finale for the day was heading up to West Hollywood to try out Coney Dog L.A.! Ever since my cousins exposed us to the famous Detroit style hot dogs, we’ve been slightly obsessed. (Read all about our Coney face-off in Detroit here!) While Coney L.A. didn’t hold a candle to Lafayette in Detroit, it was a great homage to a Coney Island Hot Dog Shop and they really did keep things authentic. They had the Michigan vs. Ohio State game on … and they even had Faygo Red Pop!

Art + Hot Dogs = a great family day in L.A.!

Battle of the Coney Dogs!

If you didn’t know, Michigan is home to a very specific style of hot dog: The Coney Dog. Everywhere we went in Southeast Michigan, we saw restaurants called “Coney Island“. I was completely confused by this – I had no idea what a Coney Dog was, and I had absolutely no idea why there was a Coney Island shop on practically every street corner in Michigan (because isn’t Coney Island in NY?!). Well, my cousin Rachel + her husband, Brian broke it down for us and decided to hook us up with an original Coney Dog face-off between the infamous American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island in downtown Detroit! You’re either a fan of one or the other – you can’t be a fan of both!

Needless to say, Ed + I were excited for the challenge. These two establishments are right next door to each other and have a serious rivalry going on. The original was Lafayette, which was opened up by two brothers in 1914. They had a dispute, one of the brothers left, and opened up shop with American in 1917, right next door. That’s some serious history. Brian grew up in a family that pledges allegiance to Lafayette, and we couldn’t wait to see which team we’d be favoring …

We started with American and each of us ordered one original Coney: that’s a hot dog with chili (no beans), mustard and onions.

(Top left: American’s Coney Dog, Bottom right: Lafayette’s Coney Dog)

The vibes inside couldn’t be more different.

Lafayette was pure old school – a counter, limited number of tables and chairs, no frills. American was bright, all red, white + blue and happy Americana all around.

I guess it’s no surprise we ended up favoring Lafayette. Aside from the old school vibe, something about that hot dog was just better. A little juicier when you bit into it, a little snappier with the bite. We thought the chili sauce tasted better at Lafayette, too.

All in all – we love a Coney Dog. We will look forward to another one at Lafayette when we return to Detroit!

My Second Father’s Day!

Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m a dad. And it feels surreal that Father’s Day, a holiday that I’d observed all my life to honor my dad, is now MY holiday. So what did we do on MY holiday? We had fun. LOTS of it.

Everyone knows that I live and breathe cars, but a lesser known fact about me is that I love to use alternate forms of transportation whenever I get the chance. I also love to eat. So, what did we do as a family for Father’s Day? Well, we did both – and LOTS of it too!

We started off the day with an epic (for us) family bike ride (there’s our first alternate transportation for the day). We had recently gotten a bike seat for little Ruby, who now pines for any chance she can get to go on a bike ride. Carrie did some research to find the best breakfast burrito (my favorite breakfast food by far) within biking distance. A joint called Golden Eagle seemed to have some serious cred, so that was our destination.

As you can see, I loved it…but Ruby, a big fan of tortillas herself, wasn’t going to leave without getting a bite for herself.

No doubt, it was a tasty burrito. Big and tasty. And fortunately, all that biking took the guilt out of eating such a decadent burrito.

After riding home, it was time for the next leg of our epic Father’s Day. For a long time, we’ve wanted to get a ride on the Long Beach Aqualink, which is a fairly large catamaran that transports passengers along the city’s coastline. It’s actually part of Long Beach Transit and costs a paltry five bucks for a really great 35 minute ride from Alamitos Bay to Shoreline Village. Our second form of alternate transportation of the day, then!

Some awesome shots of the ride, including this awesome one of Carrie’s feet in a very Wes Anderson-like composition:

We had every intention of riding the boat back to Alamitos Bay, but a few minutes after getting off the boat and walking through Shoreline Village, it was quickly apparent Ruby wasn’t feeling well. Yep, Ruby had gotten seasick! So, we picked up our third form of alternate transportation in the form of the Passport bus. Ruby was into it. She insisted on getting her own seat.

We thought about calling it a day after this already epic journey. Most sane parents would have. But we decided to press on. After all, I also happened to be lucky enough to be testing a 2012 Chrysler 300C that weekend – one of my favorite cars at the moment and in my possession!

Thanks to a recent episode of No Reservations about the food scene in Penang, I’d been craving Mee Goreng, a spicy fried noodle dish popular in Malaysia and Indonesia. And one of the few places to get it around here is at Singapore’s Banana Leaf at the Farmer’s Market on Third and Fairfax in Los Angeles. So, after everything we had already done, we got in the 300C (our fourth and final – and face it, the most awesome – form of transportation that day) and headed up to LA for some deliciousness.

What a great day. I think I like this Father’s Day business a lot. Thanks Tiger and Ruby for making it such a great day!