Los Angeles, CA: 7/19/10

1-Year "Headliner" Membership to The GRAMMY Museum: $50 (bought via Groupon on Oct. 20, 2009)
American Express Presale Tickets: $70 ($35/pp)
An Evening With Train: Priceless

---

To see Pat, Jimmy, and Scott in such an intimate setting was just unreal. The first hour was an interview with the band about music, their career, and so many facets of their journey. Pat Monahan is a riot. In the second hour, they got their 2 other bandmates up and performed:
1) Save Me, San Francisco
2) If It's Love
3) Calling All Angels
4) Hey, Soul Sister
5) Drops Of Jupiter

They are really, really good live. Afterwards, we all got to meet the guys and get our copies of Save Me San Francisco (which were included with the presale tickets) signed. When we were leaving the museum we saw Hector loading up the van and chatted with him a little bit, too. I will definitely be renewing my Grammy Museum membership.

Los Angeles, CA: 1/6/10

In our 2nd game of the Holiday Pack, we witnessed another unbelievable game as the LA Clippers beat the "visiting" LA Lakers at Staples Center! Although the Lakers tied it up a couple times midway in the 4th, the Clips led pretty much the entire way with quite a bit of this (easy buckets from good defense):


While the Lakers didn't have quite enough of this (Bryant-Bynum alley-oop):


Once again we were in the same row as Clipper Darrell (we found out that's his official name; he even has a website):
I'm still shocked by the margin of victory.

Los Angeles, CA: 12/27/09

So, I've been applying to business school which is why we've been derelict in keeping up with this thing. Hopefully that will be settled soon so we can get back to such matters. =)

Until then (and the wait will be worth it), I have one of the best live NBA game I've gone to courtesy of the LA Clippers at Staples Center! That's right, the forgotten NBA sibling in LA. We bought a 4-game "Holiday Pack" that started with Clippers v Celtics this past Sunday. The remaining 3 games will be against the LA Lakers, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Atlanta Hawks. At $300/person for the entire package in section 107, we'd say we already got our moneys worth watching Baron Davis dispose of the Celtics with the final 1.5 second, buzzer-beating play.


Turns out are seats are also in the same row as, who we simply call, "Clippers man" (Clippers version of Jack Nicholson):

Lastly, as if all that wasn't enough, purchasing our package got us an autograph session with Blake Griffin (their #1 draft pick and the overall #1 pick of the 2009 draft).

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

Los Angeles, CA: 9/11/09

We were lucky enough to score tickets to Lisa Leslie's last season home game at Staples Center. The LA Sparks beat the Minnesota Lynx (90-61) and Leslie scored 19 points. Leslie was honored in a pregame tribute by her coach Michael Cooper and teammates, the current teams at Morningside High and USC, Magic Johnson, and her family.

Los Angeles, CA: 8/22/09

We are still going to post about Puerto Rico, but, until then, we decided we need to knock off some smaller posts in order to prevent an unrecoverable backlog.

I will begin with our daytrip of 2 Los Angeles area museums. First up was the Pacific Asia Museum (PAM), which is located in Old Town Pasadena, right across from the Westin. This museum is one of only four U.S. institutions dedicated exclusively to the arts and culture of Asia and the Pacific Islands. We've been members of this museum for almost a year now, and this membership is what provides us with free admission to museums across the country. We went to PAM on this particular day because they were having a special Shaolin Temple Kung Fu Demo and Tea Tasting event. We had the pleasure of learning what a typical day is like for those living in the Shaolin Temple and got to see a kung fu demo, but, by far, the coolest part was getting to sit with Master Shi Yan Xu in a Shaolin tea ceremony!

We also had the privilege of sampling and learning more about fine teas from tea purveyor Linda Louie:

After PAM, we had lunch at Lawry's Carvery at L.A. Live as they were having a buy one get one free deal when you show any museum stub. Once we were done with lunch, we headed to The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). There are actually 3 MOCA locations in Los Angeles; we went to the one in downtown on Grand Avenue. As far as contemporary art museums go, this was the largest I've been to and, not surprisingly, the exhibits weren't as shocking as others I've seen elsewhere. There was a good collection of Rothko (who I learned of in Houston), Pollock, Warhol, and, of course, weird contemporary art stuff.


Stay tuned for more mini updates! The 2 pictures of the Shaolin tea ceremony and tea tasting are courtesy of the Pacific Asia Museum.

---

Cost Breakdown

$5.00 - Parking at the corner of Grand Avenue & Kosciuszko Way (weekend flat rate)

Parking is free at the PAM and MOCA is one of the museums we get free admission to for being members of PAM. General admission is usually $9 and $10 for PAM and MOCA, respectively.

West Hollywood, CA, USA: 6/19/09

Two Fridays ago, Willy and I set out for RH Restaurant & Bar in Hyatt's new Andaz West Hollywood hotel, which opened Jan. '09 on the Sunset Strip. For being a Hyatt Gold Passport member, Willy received a mailer that offered a "complimentary entrée when dining with another guest" (fancy talk for BOGO free).

Due to LAPD sobriety checks in Echo Park, our drive took longer than expected. RH offers valet parking but, even with validation, it's still $7, so we found a spot on the street. We parked by Cabo Cantina (where the meter was $1/hr) and headed two blocks west to the hotel, passing Miyagi's and Saddle Ranch.

To get to the restaurant, make a right once you enter the hotel. Before you will be this:
Everything is really open. There is no real entrance, no formal host/hostess stand, and you can see the chefs in the kitchen, the produce in the refridgerators, and all the wines along the wall (as seen in the left side of the above picture). RH is known for only serving the freshest market products. In addition to the usual bread and butter, we received fresh vegetables and dip. For an appetizer, we ordered oysters, which came with a delicious sausage. Ever since our trip to Seattle, Willy has turned into an oyster fanatic. If you have any oyster recommendations, please do share.
I followed the oysters up with a hanger steak. I ordered from a cool "market list" menu that listed the fresh market products of the day. With a pencil, you mark what you want (kind of like American dim sum) and it goes straight to the chef. With the hanger steak, I had asparagus, spinach, mushroom, and garlic and peppercorn sauce on the side. Willy had the market fresh fish, which on this day was sea bass off the coast of Santa Barbara. We also ordered "triple fried" french fries on the side, hopeful that it was somehow less unhealthy given the unmistakeable healthy theme of the restaurant. Willy also had a glass of Alondra Chardonnay and I finished with a cup of joe. To say the least, we were "unbutton your pants" full and left happy.

---

Cost Breakdown

$2.00 - Metered street parking on Sunset Blvd. for two hours
$69.90 - Dinner with 1 appetizer, 1 entrée (sea bass was complimentary), 1 side, 1 glass of wine, and 1 cup of coffee
---------
$71.90

Notes:
- RH Restaurant is on OpenTable.com
- For the full menu and prices, click here