snaps episode 02: venice beach & west la, california

Decided to take a short lil weekend trip to LA to see my frat family ^_^ we all got together for an alumni meetup, went bowling, and ate KBBQ. I also saw my friend Emilio and he took me to Venice Beach to see the boardwalk and the canals. It was a pretty good weekend.

I experimented with a different kind of editing for this series, something fitting the eclectic, beachy vibe. Like an '80s film camera kind of feel (since I don't have a film camera). It's a little Instagram for me, and I kind of prefer my regular editing style (@edwardkb, @j9ryl, @agameoftones, and @depthobsessed are my current favorites/inspirations) but I feel like it pairs well with the pictures.

The canals were gorgeous. Imagine living in one of these houses and being able to just laze around on a boat in your free time, or sail over to your neighbor's dock for a picnic on their patio. Goals.

The next day, Chianna and I went to Porto's for breakfast. If you can call fruit tarts, Cubano sandwiches, and fried mashed potato balls "breakfast."

Franklin met up with us (four hours late, but what else is new) and we went to the California Science Center, which was a mix of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and the Birch Aquarium (non-San Diego people probably have no idea what that means). But it was cool. We got to touch starfish and sea cucumbers! We were by far the oldest people there; most of the patrons were kids with their parents.

I laughed for so long at this little guy because he looked so disgruntled

The fam decided on Quarters KBBQ in DTLA Koreatown for dinner. Of the BuzzFeed Tasty fame. And oh my GOD. I've never been a food snob, but I don't think I can ever go back to all-you-can-eat KBBQ after I've had this. The steak still haunts my dreams. And the pork. And pretty much everything else on the table ugh.

We saw heyclaire here! She was so pretty and gracious and waved to us even though she was clearly confused because Annie called her when she had already walked halfway through the parking lot. We didn't get a picture because we were both too flustered. Chianna and the boys of course had no idea who she was.

We got boba and shaved ice after (did you know they had Gong Cha in LA because I did not!).

We got ramen for lunch the next day at Tsujita, a ramen place so popular that they opened an identical shop right across the street. Not a copycat. Literally a copy of the exact same ramen spot. It was so good, probably top five bowls of ramen I've had in my life. I wasn't amazed by the ramen I had the last time I was in LA (which was almost a year ago; I'm literally never in LA), but this was delicious. Chianna's sister and I both thought it was the broth—it was thick and rich and flavorful. Omg. As much as I don't like LA, it has so much good food.

On that note, I expressed this to my friend Daniel when I visited New York, and he noted that there's a difference between cities like New York and LA. He said New York is an "insider/outsider" city, which means that while there are "secret" spots, you can pretty much go anywhere in the city and have fun. But LA is an "insider" city; you have to know all of the places to go and all the things to do, and you can't really just wander around because it's so spread out. I'd never quite heard it articulated like that, but it was spot-on.

Chianna really likes plants, so we went to a nursery

Chianna and I spent pretty much the whole day watching Friends on Netflix, but we did leave the house at night for dinner, which was macaron ice cream sandwiches from Milk. I got a Froot Loops-flavored one, which was surprisingly delicious. The ice cream even tasted like Froot Loops, but it wasn't too sweet, so now I'm on a mission to find a recipe for it to make at home.