The Time Travel Market is a convenience store for time travelers, of which all proceeds support 826LA. I’d heard of this place years ago while watching this TED talk, so I was so surprised to stumble upon it!
MASA at ECHO PARK
DOG CAFE
LA is full of oddities, one of which is the first Dog Cafe in the United States. The Dog Cafe is less of a cafe and more of a dog playroom. Keeping that in mind, it’s a perfect place to get your dog-fix. There are 6-10 dogs out at a time. Each of them are rescues and available for adoption. Your $15 admittance fee goes to the shelter, a drink of choice, and an hour with the pups.
JAPANTOWN
There are only 3 nationally recognized Japantowns in the United States. One is here in LA, another in SF, and somehow one in SJ. I’ve officially been to all three. Here’s my most recent venture out with Eric and Andrew. I’ve always been in love with the Japan aesthetics. It’s just the perfect balance of beauty and cute.
For dinner we ate at Marugame Monzo, which specializes in Udon. We were seated at the bar, right next to man hand-making all the noodle. I ordered the Uni Udon, which was more like a pasta than a soup. I could eat that every single day.
JOY’S BABY SHOWER
My partner teacher is having a baby! And right before her maternity leave our team threw her a baby shower. The decorations were all hand made by our incredibly talented campus monitors. They could seriously pull a side hussle planning birthdays and weddings.
WHIMSIC ALLEY
Whimsic Alley is a must-do for any nerd at heart living in LA. Once you walk in the store you are transported into what literally looks like Diagon Alley. Each little shopfront contains a different fandom from Game of Thrones to Harry Potter to Star Wars.
I absolutely LOVED the hall in the back, which contained art work for sale.
There were some DOPE GoT Art Nouveau pieces.
WEEKEND EATS
Noshi Sushi. By far the best value for the quality of sushi. And the interior decor takes you to 1970’s Japan. This is one of our regular spots.
Lao Tao. On our multiple attempts to eat at Howlin’ Rays, we’ve always given up on the wait. There are so many delicious restaurants in the same complex anyway, like Lao Tao– a super hip restaurant that serves Taiwanese street food.
Myung In Dumplings. This is another one of our go-to’s. This not so flashy hole-in-the-wall serves up the best dumplings. You can taste the freshness. And we always order more to take home and eat the next day. One of their King Dumplings is enough for lunch!
PRESSED ALMOND MILK
I’m seriously obsessed with Pressed Juicery’s line of almond milk. These drinks were my go-to during my month of no-sugar. The chocolate almond is my favorite, flavored with cacao and sweetened with dates. You can use the chocolate almond milk to make an OUT OF THIS WORLD banana and peanut butter chocolate smoothie.
ART DAY at AMLA
Our 2nd grade art unit was the most fun I’ve ever had teaching. Over the course of 6 weeks the students learned about different artist, their styles, and even created masterpieces themselves. The culminating project was a museum day where they displayed their selected art works for their families to see. The kiddos even got to dress up as their favorite artist. Here are some of my favorite outfits of the day.
We took over the entire cafeteria for our Museum Day. Each board was representative of one of the artist we studied. Students stood by their masterpieces as families walked around asking them questions.
