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Downtown Adventure

Photos by Carly Stevens and Me
My friend Carly who lives in Austin is in town for the month, and on one of the first few days that she was here we decided to go on a metro adventure to Downtown L.A. We had originally planned to spend a day hopping from one coffee shop to another, but we didn’t want to deal with parking and LA traffic. Instead, we decided to take it easy and take the metro gold line into Downtown. During our outing, I got to try out a couple of places that I had been wanting to visit for a while and also had the opportunity to visit some old favorites, all which I’m sharing with you today.

 

GRAND CENTRAL MARKET
The first stop for Carly and I was Grand Central Market in Downtown LA. I used to work only a couple of blocks away from Grand Central Market, and I’m so astonished at how much it has changed in just two years. There are so many new restaurants and shops that have opened alongside establishments that have been there for years. On this particular day, Carly and I were on a mission to get egg sandwiches from Eggslut. The restaurant is very popular, so we had to wait in a very long line before we ordered our sandwiches, but they were well worth the wait. Carly and I both got the Fairfax which I have to say was really, really delicious, if you can’t already tell from the picture. We also ordered lattes at G&B Coffee at the other end of the market. G&B was less busy than Eggslut, and I felt awkward taking pictures of the baristas while they were trying to do their job. But, trust me when I say that you don’t need a photo for me to prove how delicious the coffee is. You have to stop by G&B if you’re ever in the mood for a caffeinated drink while at Grand Central Market.

THE LAST BOOKSTORE
Since Carly had never been to the Last Book Store and it is only a couple of blocks from Grand Central Market, we made our way over there. The bookstore is my favorite place to take friends who are visiting from out of town because it’s such a sight to see. If you’re a book lover, such as myself, you’ll appreciate the nice selection of new and used books available in the store. If you’re not that into books, you’ll still enjoy just walking around. Every corner of the bookstore is decorated in a fun way, and the second floor is also home to other shops and art studios which are usually open during the day. In addition, the bookstore also hosts several events, so you should check their calendar if you’re in town.

 

ARTS DISTRICT
Lastly, Carly and I headed down to the Arts District, which I won’t talk too much about since I already shared some of my favorites in the area here and here. Poketo is one of Carly’s favorite shops, but they were closed on that particular day due to the holidays. Since it was closed, Carly and I walked over to Blacktop and enjoyed another cup of delicious coffee–do you all notice a pattern here? It wasn’t too busy, probably because it was a Friday, but we did manage to catch a glimpse of Skrillex. Neither Carly nor I are necessarily fans, but it was still a fun sighting. I have to say that even though I visit the Arts District often, it’s always a cute place to walk around. It’s also nice that this area is easily accessible through metro and other forms of public transportation. The metro gold line is only about two blocks away.
Carly and I found this cute scene outside a hidden vintage shop in the Arts District. While we didn’t check out the vintage shop, we couldn’t resist taking photos of this area.

 

Outfit Details:
Madewell Shirt (Similar) | Urban Outfitters Sweater (Similar) | Madewell Skinny Skinny Crop Jeans in Tempest Wash | Piperlime Suede
Booties (Similar) | Crocheted Bag (Handmade by my Grandmother)

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I hope you enjoyed this post. As you may already have read in my last post, one of my resolutions is to put together more travel/adventure posts. Even though I don’t see myself traveling out of the state this year, I do want to try to explore more places in California that are outside of Los Angeles. Even though I visited some new places during this Downtown outing, I realize that I need to get out of my bubble. I have a list of places that I want to visit, so we’ll see where I actually end up going in 2015.

xoxo,
Helen
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