In which Layla and Roz frolic in the hills of LA and the joys of Taylor Mac

By Layla 

It was surreal to be driving alongside the Las Vegas strip in our little shuttle bus from Zion, but after a night in a non-Vegas-ish hotel, we wound our way past the poker machines all over the airport and by mid morning on Thursday had returned to the thankfully less-bright lights of Los Angeles. 

We arrived in time for lunch at our favourite falafel restaurant at the very hip Grand Central Market, from which it was a five minute stroll to our home for the next few days. Our AirBnB apartment was impossibly hip. Genuinely the most stylish apartment I’ve ever seen, much less stayed in. It was amazing and we rejoiced, before grabbing an Uber to a rather obscure location: Frogtown! As we drove past happy people on swan-shaped pedal boats, Roz plaintively asked if that was where we were headed. No! We were doing an hour-long walk along a rather industrial-feeling river. Luckily I redeemed myself by taking us to to Spokes, an unlikely, hilariously hip riverfront bike shop/restaurant. We gorged on salted chocolate chip cookies, walked the requisite hour, then I crumbled and called an Uber back to Echo Park, that lovely park we’d passed on the way. We finished off with a nice stroll around the lake and major dog appreciation session, went home to glam up, and then grab a sneaky grilled cheese sandwich before the event that had brought us to LA in the first place: Taylor Mac’s 24 hour, 24 century history of America through music. It was spectacular. He’d split it into four sets of six hours and we had tickets for the first two (having previously seen the third in New Yorka few years back). It’s hard to explain six hours of spectacular performance, songs, politics, and all sorts of participation. It was hypnotic. And disconcerting. And made us see history differently. Though the full hour when they had us all blindfolded so we could use our other senses was a fatal combination with my jetlag... But gosh. Not so much a show as an experience. And home way past my bedtime. 

The next day we took the train to Hollywood and, after a sneaky avocado toast in a cool coffeeshop, hiked up Runyon Canyon. It was beautiful. And teeming with locals walking their dogs, which was fun. Great views - if a tad too steep for my liking (the dogs weren’t complaining). Afterwards we took the train back home, and popped into Washington favourite Sweetgreen for a nostalgic salad lunch. It rained that afternoon so we read our books and we visited the lovely Last Bookshop for a bit of literary browsing. Delightful. 

We returned through the rain to to Grand Central Market for a Thai dinner, then got back on the train (which is mostly used by homeless people, which is a bit odd) and returned to Hollywood for an evening treat: one of our favourite improv groups, Second City. Their show was Trump in Space and was good if not spectacular (or maybe we now think a good show has to last six hours?!). 

On our penultimate LA day was sunny and on a whim we went to Pasadena on the train. I confess I was mostly inspired to visit the location where the Big Bang Theory is set but I was extra-delighted to find their city hall doubles as Pawnee’s town hall in Parks and Recreation. Sightseeing complete, we ensconced ourselves in a cool cafe for banana cake... then lunch. Finally we extracted ourselves to go to a beautiful bookstore, which was such a treat, with lovely book recommendations from the staff. And then we ubered to the start of a trail to hike Eaton Canyon. 

I’d expected it to be a fairly prosaic hike but the recent rains had turned this riverside stroll into an adventure playground. We had to cross the river at several different points, leaping on logs and stepping stones, and miraculously staying semi-dry. But feeling like Indiana Jones, obviously. Well, until an array of women suavely passed us on the stones, leaping gracefully with their dogs under their arms... 

We suddenly realised the time and dashed back across all the rivers and into yet another Uber to grab a quick bite to eat, dash home, glam up, and walk over to Taylor Mac part 2. Being the weekend, more people were dressed up and it was very cool with everything from a reimagined Mikado set on Mars to a song contest between Walt Whitman and Stephe Collins Foster. But our seats were in a draft, and yet again I got a tad sleepy at the 4-hour mark. We mused upon going home to our warm, comfy bed but in the end did not succumb to old lady-ness and stayed til it was over. Phew. Not old ladies yet. 

Our final day in LA - how I hate the last day feeling at the end of a holiday. We checked out of our insanely stylish apartment and left our bags in a BagBnB location - this is apparently a new thing and very convenient for left luggage. A quick purchase of avocado toast later and we were ubering towards our final hike: a 6 mile round trip up the mountain to behind the Hollywood sign. What a cool hike! Spectacular views, lovely grassy scenery, and dogs aplenty. I rather messed up at the end by trying to send Roz up an almost-vertical slope to the sign before someone pointed out the clear sign up a normal road and we stood right behind the H, which was most cool. 

But all good things must come to an end. We walked all the way down the mountain, then an extra twenty minutes to a strip of cool shops where we had fancy avocado toast (our second of the day - stop judging!) and artisanal icecream. And then got a succession of Ubers back to pick up our luggage and head to the airport. We had a final glass of champagne in the terminal, which humiliatingly made me drunk! And now you are experiencing the results of this as I type this blog (on a delayed plane). Goodbye LA! Such a lovely holiday and I can’t believe it was only a week. 

Books Roz read on holiday:
Lullaby by Leila Slimani 7/10
Still Me by Jojo Moyes 8/10
The Idiot by Elif Batuman 7/10
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 10/10
The Last Dog on Earth by Adrian Walker 6/10
Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland 7/10
Plus progress made on:
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Moon Palace by Paul Auster

Books I read on holiday:
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan 5/5
The Idiot by Elif Batuman 3/5
H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker 3/5
Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon 5/5
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 5/5
Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland 4/5

In which Layla and Roz revisit old US haunts - and a new National Park

By Layla

When Roz and I came up with our holiday plan many months ago, we were inspired by two ambitions: to hike in a national park and to see some of one of our favourite performance artists, Taylor Mac, doing segments of his spectacular 24 hour show on a queer history of music in the last 24 decades. A strange combination. So we bought tickets to two six-hour segments of his show in Los Angeles... and on Saturday morning we set off to sunny LA. 

Except it wasn’t at all sunny. We had managed to land in the middle of a very rare occurrence: a horrible rainy week in Los Angeles. Our AirBnB apartment for our first night in Venice was on a lane that was so submerged in water that we had to wade up to our ankles in rainwater just to get in... and soon out again for a delicious dinner and cocktails at one of our favourite restaurants, Butcher’s Daughter. It was worth it! So fun to be in London in the morning, then by evening dining in LA in a location dubbed America’s hippest street (Abbot Kinney). 

The next morning we awoke at the crack of dawn and I was dispatched to Blue Bottle Coffee to procure Roz’s first stateside flat white coffee. Then we gazed dismally at the rain, and the mismatch between the weather and our plan to cycle along the beach. So we went for brunch at an amusingly hipster restaurant on Abbot Kinney, til the rain subsided to a drizzle. We jumped upon bikes provided by our AirBnB, and set off along cycle paths to the beach. Both of us really love this amazing cycle path that cuts right through the sand dunes and goes along the coast for miles. We’d only ever done it before in blazing sunshine. It was a whole different atmosphere in the rain and also very cool... though I confess we turned back when it started to get a bit... torrential. We stopped off for lunch in our favourite bike route-side sandwich cafe, Mendocino Farms. Mmmmm I am still dreaming of that delicious tempeh sandwich. 

Ironically by the time we got back to Venice and dropped off our bikes, the sun had started to come out. We walked down to Venice beach and had a charming stroll along the boardwalk and out onto a pier, smiling at cute dogs and determined surfers and street art and people of every variety. Then we veered away from the sand and onto the network of canals that give Venice its name: a charming residential Disneyland of waterways. As we strolled up and down the bridges, Roz and I actually got sunburned!

We finished off our lovely afternoon back at Abbot Kinney Street, browsing in pretentious dog shops and the like, and picking up tasty salads for our dinner later. Then we grabbed our luggage, hopped in an Uber, and returned to the airport. We awaited the next stage of our holiday with beer to accompany our tasty salad dinner. Next stop: St George, Utah!

Where, you may ask? Quite. We landed at 10:30pm and it was tiny and it was pitch black but hooray and thank goodness: out of the darkness an Uber emerged. He drove us through pitch blackness for over an hour until we suspected we had fallen off the edge of the world and were now hurtling through space in a jetlagged haze of disorientation. Finally, a sign was illuminated: Zion National Park. Our home for the next three days. 

We were staying in Zion Lodge, right in the middle of the park, and found ourselves in a charming little cabin, all cosy and rustic. And we collapsed into bed. 

The next day, up far too early, we had a delicious breakfast in the hotel restaurant overlooking the soaring red peaks and cliffs of a canyon that we hadn’t been aware of at all on arrival. The Lodge was perfectly located for an array of hikes and we set off on the first one, an enchanting 4 mile circuit past waterfalls and pools and spectacular views (and many young people on spring break). We ate our lunch (which we’d bought the night before at the airport in LA) perched on the top of a cliff overlooking the Virgin River in the sun and it was all absolutely glorious. Later that day we took the free park shuttle to another trail, the Riverside Walk. It was incredibly lovely and scenic. It was also the jumping off point for The Narrows, a walk through the river that requires wetsuit type equipment at this time of year. We didn’t go, but enjoyed watching some intrepid hikers head upstream. We headed downstream, did another mini-hike, and spent the rest of the afternoon with icecream and beer and books back at Zion Lodge. 

That night we shamefully went to bed before 9pm and were thus up long before the crack of dawn. Our mission today: Angel’s Landing, one of Zion’s most famous and beloved hikes. My impression: far too steep and full of spring breakers. Luckily Roz had the genius idea to divert onto the West Rim trail which was less attractive to the vigorously loud college students and we climbed up a mountain and found a lovely place for picnicking and reading our books in the sun before a long and rather steep descent. And then a sneaky repetition of that really charming Riverside walk before our ice cream and beer reward. That evening we kept ourselves entertained with chess and Dobble and dinner and cocktails until just after 9pm: very proud. 

We woke up today to our last day at Zion National Park, and it was raining: boo. Luckily the rain was intermittent. We took the shuttle to the Watchmans Trail, which was a gradual uphill climb to the top of a little mountain with brilliant views. It was one of my favourite hikes. We had our elevenses at the peak and got down just as the rain started to fall again. So we hopped in the bus back to the Lodge for a quesadilla lunch. Then we returned to the trail and hiked the Pa’arus trail which was flat along the river and yet again beautiful. Zion has really incredible hiking trails, scenery AND transport options. Roz and I bitterly lamented that nobody had recommended we visit while we were living in the US. 

As the rain fell once more, we caught a shuttle out of the park and into nearby Springsdale where we have ensconced ourselves in a cafe (where I may or may not have ordered a chocolate crepe) as we await a bus to shuttle us to our next location: Las Vegas. But not for the slots - just to the airport to grab a plane back to Los Angeles where Taylor Mac and his crazy 6-hour-long performances await!