Dream Date

Dear Lomography,
Summer is almost over and there’s still so much I’d like to do. My boyfriend Aaron and I have gone to the beach, gone camping, gone hiking, and chilled at the park: all cool summer activities that don’t cost a thing or are almost free.

However, there are a few activities that have been on my “when I have money” to-do list. And if I could combine them all into one awesome day-long date, Aaron and I would both be stoked!

We’d start the day off early by heading to one of my favorite restaurants, M Cafe de Chaya, for breakfast and coffee. They have the best vegan “eggs” benedict sandwich and serve really good coffee. You can’t start the day without coffee.
We’d then ride our bikes over to Griffith Park for a day hike and photo session.

Aaron had never really picked up a camera before we started going out, but I always bring a few cameras with me on all of our trips. This usually includes the Holga, a Polaroid, and my Minolta X-370, along with a few accessories like colored gels or close-up filters. It was during our first road trip that I introduced him to photography. He really took a liking to it and we bought a bottle of wine to look through our photos once they were developed. Turns out he’s a natural! Because he was always borrowing one of my cameras when we went hiking, I decided to give him my first camera, a Canon AE-1.
Our hike would end at the Griffith Observatory where we would see a show at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium. We’d probably be very hungry after our hike, so we’d have lunch at the Trails Cafe. It’s a really cute little spot inside the park, where we can sit and bird watch, and if we’re lucky we might even see a deer.

The evening would begin with a gourmet dinner at Shojin in Little Tokyo. There aren’t many places where a vegan can have a nice, sit-down meal, but this restaurant is really amazing. Japanese food and wine that also happens to be vegan and delicious? Yes, please!
How best to end a wonderful date? With fireworks, of course! We’d ride our bikes over to the Hollywood Bowl for some beautiful, classical music under the stars. The Tchaikovsky show ends with fireworks, how magical!

+Breakfast and Coffee at M Cafe de Chaya: $34

+Film: $45
+Show at the Observatory’s Samuel Oschin Planetarium to see Centered in the Universe, ticket $7 × 2 = $14
+Lunch at the Trails Cafe $25
+Dinner at Shojin $100
+TCHAIKOVSKY SPECTACULAR WITH FIREWORKS! at the Hollywood Bowl for two: $32
Total=$250

written by gimmedanegatives on 2011-08-21