The Things We Did: The Things We Saw: Los Angeles, California

So the both of us are pretty random in the things we do. We also both suffer from what is commonly known as the "travel bug". People who suffer from this bug often are found checking Google flights for the next seat sale just to get away, even for a couple days. We stumbled upon a pretty great deal to Los Angeles with Air Canada's new economical airline called "Air Canada rouge". For those of you not concerned with first class entertainment and amenities, this airline is not a bad choice. Air Canada Rouge primarily flies from Toronto and Montreal to leisure destinations in Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and the USA. Earlier this year, they expanded to Calgary and Vancouver with flights to LA and Las Vegas.

So, after finding a solid deal on a flight the next thing a travel bug will look for is cheap accommodation. Lucky for us one of our best friends lives 45 minutes out of Los Angeles in a suburb called Mont Clair. Now that the trip was planned we just had to count down the days until we went.

We won't go into massive detail about everything in our 3 day trip but here are two of our most memorable experiences.

1. The Hollywood Sign Hike

The most difficult thing about the Hike was not the elevation or the Los Angeles sun causing us to sweat. It was actually finding the trail to the hike itself. After two failed attempts and asking multiple park rangers, locals, and tourists we finally got on the right trail. For anyone planning to do this hike, please see below for some information and tips.

1. The Hollywood Sign is not actually on Mount Hollywood which begins at the Griffith Observatory. So don't try hiking up there if you hope to see the Hollywood sign as all you will end up with is just a pretty good view of Los Angeles.

2. The entrance to the trail starts at white gates that open a paved road where shuttle buses can travel on. At some point, you need to turn left on a dirt trail. You will see a garbage can and a big rock where you need to turn... unfortunately we did not take a picture of it for your reference. Hopefully it is obvious when you get there.

3. The hike is pretty flat in terms of elevation from where we started (around the Griffith Observatory), and it takes about 3 hours round trip (4 hours if you decide to take 100304304 pictures at the top). There are many alternative routes available which have a higher elevation gain, and different views along the way.

We wish we could tell you this picture was an absolute "Kodak Moment!"
and that it was taken on the first shot... but this is probably our 100th
attempt at a great jumping picture in front of the Hollywood sign.

2. The Celebrity Experience

We decided to stay in Los Angeles for a night in the hopes that we would have some sort of celebrity run in with a mega star. Unfortunately it was not in the cards for us to meet Justin Bieber or even a Kardashian that night...but one of us still got to experience what celebrity status feels like.

So as newbies to the LA club scene we really didn't know what type of tact was required to get in anywhere-or money for that matter. We decided that we wanted to check out a place called 1 OAK. Since none of us had been to any of the locations (New York, Las Vegas, LA), we decided it was about time to see what the hype was about.

We have nothing to report... we never made it in :(

We managed to turn the night around as we made it into Boosty Bellows. Apparently this is Justin Bieber's favourite club! Weird because he's not even 21...

Fast-forwarding to midnight many drinks, photos, and dances later, Gajra used her tact to get VIP wristbands to the celebrity room at the back of the club. Now for those of you who have watched the Mindy Project, you might remember Mindy having her "oh wow, I feel like a celebrity in a New York City club" moment in Season 1.

This picture is from Season 1, Episode 3 (In the Club) from one of our
favorite shows, The Mindy Project. Mindy is totally trying to play it
cool with some NYC celebrities in their bottle service booth. We
sometimes try to emulate her nonchalant attitude at the club.

This was the feeling we had as we partied in the celebrity room. Now to put the cherry on top of the night however, someone came up to Sheena and proceeded to ask her if she was Mindy Kaling! We do wish that Sheena had gone with the fun and exciting answer of saying "yes" leading to bottomless drinks and the paparazzi swarming the club doors as we exited. But instead, as the club lights came on at 2:00 a.m. we left as just three girls from Canada who had a fun night out in LA. Now readers, after looking at the picture below, we ask you... do you see a resemblance between Sheena and Mindy?