Lfundoo and Kiki's Epic Crafty Adventure!- Day 1: Travelto Anaheim and Downtown LA

About 6 months or so ago, I saw a post about Prima ArtVenture in Anaheim scheduled for January 2014.  I immediately thought.. this is my chance to go to ArtVenture!  Woo Hoo!  So I quickly told my BFF's Linda and Cami to see if they wanted to join me.  Unfortunately Cami couldn't make it, but Linda and I quickly signed up for an epic Crafty Adventure together!

 

Let me give you some funny background before I get into the actual adventure log.  We had been checking airfares once we decided to book our trip and ended up booking sometime in the fall.  Just before Christmas, Linda started connecting with some crafty ladies in the LA area to see if they wanted to meet up with us.  I guess I kept thinking to myself... I'll work on the trip planning after the holidays... but SURPRISE!  The trip is RIGHT AFTER New Years!!  So I double checked my flight itinerary and discovered that I didn't book my interisland from Hilo to Oahu in order to go to LA!??  Doh!

 

So then I had to figure out that flight.  Then I discovered another blunder!  When we fly back to Oahu, we get in AFTER the last flight back to Hilo!???  Another Doh!  So I had to ask for another day off before I booked my flight. 

 

Finally booked my interisland flight and finished up my trip planning.  Had to do most of it during the holidays after Christmas.  This is so not my norm!

 

So travel day finally arrived!  Woo Hoo!  I decided to fly in early on Sunday so I could hang out with mom until my flight later that night.  I guess everyone was finishing up their vacation and heading home.  Here's what the TSA line looked like in Hilo...  Took me 20 min to get through the line. By then they had opened up 2 sides.  In Hilo they don't have a shortcut line for Premier club members, only for TSA pre-check.  Guess I should look into that for future flights.

 

 

 

After getting through TSA, I headed for the lounge for a quick "breakfast".  Didn't have much time before my flight..  Ended up eating Paul's favorite snack!

 

 

 

 

Here's another funny story... as I was in the lounge eating my breakfast, I don't know why, but I thought that boarding was at 8:45, but it was really at 8:30.  Just so happened, I checked my time and then my ticket and discovered my mistake!!  Had to quickly clean up and run upstairs (good thing it was close by)... there was no line.  What?  How could the whole flight have boarded in just a few minutes?  When I got on the plane it was pretty full already.. People had hard time finding room in the overheads for their big bags. I was glad I only had my backpack that could fit under the seat.

 

After mom picked me up, we headed to Ala Moana for an early lunch and some window shopping.  She wanted to go to St. Germaine Bakery for some bread, which is where I saw this.....



 

 

 

I was FINALLY able to get a Cronut!  A croissant deep fried like a donut!  I wasn't hungry right then, so I took it home with me.  I had totally forgotten that St. Germaine was in two locations.  I always pass by the one by Old Navy, but this time we went to the one by Sanrio and I got lucky! Really need to try to bring this home one day.  It was pretty awesome.

So after catching up with mom, it was time to head to the airport and meet up with my BFF and epic adventure travel buddy- Linda! aka Lfundoo.  We finally made it onto the airplane!

 

 

After a short flight (we landed an hour ahead of schedule), we headed to get our rental car.  Well, that took a bit longer than expected. Apparently, there was no key for the car we picked out!  So they had to find us a new car.. Once we were settled, we were on our way to find the hotel.  All I can say is, thank goodness for the maps feature on my phone! 

 

 

We finally found our hotel and checked in at the Peacock Suites. The rooms are nice but the place is under construction right now. I'm sure it will be nicer once they finish.  Thanks Aunty for getting us this place!

 

 

We then tried the free breakfast and decided that we would pass in the future.  Then we headed to Target for some rations.  Got some water, tea, and snacks.  All set for the week!

 

Then we decided on our course of action... the LA Fashion District.  We have  heard so much about this area and the cheap craft supplies you can get, that it was definitely on our to do list.  So we set out on our first epic crafty adventure to find the goods.  Fast forward a few hours later, we were goods-less and getting tired.  Linda finally decided to break down and call our friends for some help.  Thanks to TryHeart and Creative Young Mama for their shopping tips!  We had to re-route and finally found what we were looking for.. costume jewelry bling!  Here's a sneaky peek of some of the goods I picked up.  Some for me, some to share.

 

 

The ring place was in a not so good neighborhood.  Creative Young Mama advised us to wear covered shoes so that no one pees on us.  WHAT!?  She was right, it was pretty shady.  I would not suggest going there alone.  But we did see something interesting... There was a bunch of shopping cart vendors on the street.  I guess they don't have enough money for a food truck, so they've improvised.  They build their hibachi in the metal shopping carts.  There's coals on the bottom, then they have the pan/grill on top and they cook right there on the sidewalk.  I managed to get a rogue shot while walking past them.

After buying our fill of costume jewelry, we met up with Ohaijoy in Little Tokyo, which is right nearby the Fashion District.  She took us to a ramen place for dinner... mmmmm.  Look how huge that bowl is?!  None of us could finish ours. It was nice and warm.

Proof that you can make friends on YouTube!!!  Here's Ohaijoy and Lfundoo!

After dinner, we went outside and I saw this statue... We were on Astronaut Ellison Onizuka Street.  How cool is that?

And then we asked the nice Security Guard to take our photo.  He took about a dozen and still had a hard time.  I think this was the best one... my eyes still closed. But he was very nice to do that for us.

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. Took us about an hour to get home in the traffic.  We laughed because we thought it was soooooo late but it was only 5:30 when we left Ohaijoy!!  We ended up crashing out as soon as our heads hit the pillow!

Thanks to Creative Young Mama and Try Heart for all your help navigating us through Downtown LA over the phone!  And thanks to Ohaijoy for taking us to dinner!  Looking forward to seeing you guys on Saturday!