“I do love America. And L.A. is a very short commute to America it’s like half an hour on the plane.” This Craig Ferguson’s quote is a fairly accurate portrait of L.A., a unique (my euphemism for weird) place that has a lot to offer.Initially, we had set out to just see the first annual Vegan Street Fair and check out some foodie places. We ended up adding Natural Products Expo West and many other happenings to our list of things to do, see and eat. And we’re glad we did!
Since we crammed so many fun things into our brief visit to the City of Angels, coming up with a Top 10 wasn’t easy. But we did manage to offer you a small tasting of some of the best things we did. As always, the list is in no particular order.
The Top 10 Things We Did in L.A.
1. Vegan Street Fair. We’re proud to have witnessed the first of what should be many Vegan Street Fairs in L.A.. Despite the rain and crowds, we thoroughly enjoyed sampling vegan goodies from the L.A. County area and mingling with the locals. You can bet your butt we’ll be there again next year!
2. Natural Products Expo West. Sheer madness is the ideal way to describe Natural Products Expo West. I doubt if we’ll ever see any other expo with 71,000 industry members and over 3,000 exhibitors! Oh, and we scored a LOT of swag!
3. Friends. It was great to meet up with old friends and make new ones. We also met some virtual friends in person.
4. Meeting & Spotting Celebs. We were in L.A., duh!
5. Our Airbnb. I think that our days of staying at big, impersonal hotels may be coming to an end. We LOVED staying in this cute studio in Los Feliz.
6. Beyond Meat Tour.The amount of planning and research that goes into Beyond Meat’s products is impressive. We met the chefs and scientists that make this great company operate. And we saw a really neat space-aged machine that we can’t talk about!
7. Shopping. L.A. has a plethora of quality shops that offer vegan goodies and beyond. They also have some wonderfully odd shops such as the Dave Eggers-inspired Time Travel Mart. Do you need a robot toupee?
8. Santa Monica. Santa Monica is a welcome stop after a full day’s food crawl. We strolled along the beach and took in the fresh air. And we bought candy!
9. Food. L.A.’s vegan scene is as good as any! I think Seabirds Kitchen was my favorite.
10. The Field Roast Party. The great folks at Field Roast put together a great spread with food, booze and great conversation. We even scored this cool glass which ..I think… we were supposed to… take it?
So there, you have it, our humble L.A. list. Since we plan to go back next year our list may look very different, fer sure!