Echo Park is undoubtedly our favorite place in L.A. to hang out. There's lots of places in L.A. (and surrounding towns) we like: we love Venice Beach and we really enjoy Santa Monica but usually always go when it's either freezing or super hot. Then there is our love for The Grove, that's probably our favorite, but recently we choose to hang out at Echo Park even more. Why?
Well first of all, The Grove is awesome, but it's spendy. Anytime we visit the Grove we have to be ready to drop some serious money at The American Girl Store, Dylan's Candy Bar, Sephora and the Farmer's Market. But that's what's fun about the Grove - the girls get to buy stuff for the dolls, we get to eat good food and they all get bags of uber expensive candy. You can also relax in The Park while listening to live music and get some great photos. We love it, but if you really want to hang out and relax without having to dish out the big bucks then Echo Park is perfect.
Echo Park is amazing. From the first time we visited, it has become our favorite place. It's such a great place for everyone to enjoy, not just families, but single people and couples and dog families. Everyone can enjoy the inclusive atmosphere of this almost magical place where everyone comes together.
If you do have kids there is a playground, there is FREE WI-FI for all and it's so huge that you can be amongst everyone or find a secluded spot of your own. We haven't yet done the pedal boats but one of these days we will have to check them out. The street vendors here though, it's amazing how many street foods you can buy and all super cheap: elotes, Mexican style elotes, fruit cups, hot dogs, those spiral snacks with the hot sauce and lime, you name it, you can buy it all for under three bucks at Echo Park. Just make sure you have cash on hand.
A place we don't love as much as the Grove and have only visited twice is The Americana At Brand which is located in Glendale. The Americana is a much smaller version of our beloved The Grove and we really only ended up there this time because we wanted to eat Olive Garden and that's where our navigation took us.
We had really delicious lunch at Olive Garden, the kids love this place. I had my regular lasagna which is a cheese lovers dream and on we went to check out the Americana for a bit.
The little girls love macaroons so a stop at Napoleon's Macarons was a must. I was so intrigued by the little pack of Blooper Macaroons and later wondered why I didn't buy at least one of these little packs of rejects. There's a ton of them for only $4.99. I must get a container on our next stop for sure.
Meanwhile, the girls got to pick a few non-blooper macaroons for themselves and of course we had to take the obligatory Insta photo. I mean, if you don't have a photo of it, it didn't happen right?
Next we stopped by Sprinkles Cupcakes, which is something we love about going to the Grove. My daughter, well all of us actually, have major sweet tooths and she loves these cupcakes. I personally only love the Lemon Meringue which has a delightful lemon filling but have found other flavors to be pretty blah. My last cupcake was also way overcooked and super dry so I haven't been dishing out $3.95 for a Sprinkles Cupcakes recently but the rest of the fam still enjoy them a lot.
If you're not into overpriced cupcakes, Sprinkles Cupcakes also has overpriced cookies!
Overpriced or not I guess it's all about the kids having a good time and getting a few treats. These days that we get to go hang out in different parts of L.A. are our favorites and these are the memories that the kids will have of their childhood.
Already we are planning our next outing to Echo Park and another L.A. location, maybe Venice beach? SoCal living is the best, it really is. Even though we are living inland everything is close enough for us to enjoy. If I had to pick a favorite from this particular day...I would have to say it was my lasagna lunch/dinner. What can I say, I love carbs and cheese.
