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sarea
Dreamwidth is a lot more forgiving when it comes to post length, sigh. This write-up fit just fine in a single post there, but LJ's like no.
If you missed it, here's part one.
DAY FOUR
Sadly this was Adelagia's last day with us in LA, and happily we sent her off with a good meal, which was at Kobawoo House. This had been a place on my schedule that kept coming on and off, and I considered it "optional." But boy am I glad we went! First of all, praise everything, they had AC. Light, but definitely there. Second of all, the food was delicious! We ordered bossam, and it was delicious and very thinly sliced. But perhaps even more surprising was the haemul pajeon we ordered -- we've had a lot of haemul pajeon from many different places, and it was the best I've had. I also ordered a small makgeolli, which was like this huge tub. I can't imagine what the large would have been like -- would they have planted a wheelbarrow of makgeolli next to our table? Anyway, initially the server had told me that I would need to order the "large" bossam, but I pressed him that we were also going to get the pajeon, so he said in that case the small was probably enough. There was no probably about it; the three of us struggled to even finish that!
Obviously we couldn't let Adelagia leave without doing ONE LAST ESCAPE ROOM, which was Maze Rooms' FBI. I was really hoping that we would have a win for our last escape room solve, but it was not meant to be. It was actually fairly fun, and we were doing very well, until we hit a wall. Then the game master gave us a clue that was the opposite of a clue in that it did not help us but stalled us further, so we ending up not solving the room. -.-
After that Adelagia called a Lyft to take her to the airport, and when Jade and I drove away about a minute later, we looked for her and she was already gone. I was like, "Wow, sure hope she was picked up by her Lyft driver and not someone else who put her in their car and drove away." (Spoiler alert: It was her Lyft driver.)
It was so hot that the plane couldn't take Adelagia's flight all the way back to Seattle without some concessions: They either had to leave some passengers behind, or stop in San Jose to refuel. (I later found out from my coworker who is a pilot that it had to do with heat changing the density of the air and blah blah blah science.) I had never heard of such a thing!
Also, we found out later that the GOT7 guys really had gone to In-N-Out; Mark's father posted about it on social media. Adelagia was like, "I TOLD YOU they were going there!" Which, okay, fair. But also WE HAVE NO IDEA WHICH OF THE HUNDREDS OF IN-N-OUTS THEY WENT TO. They definitely went to a sit-down one, which is rarer in LA proper; my guess would be that they went to one near Mark's house, which is likely in the suburbs because that's where most Asian people live. I'm just going to be real about this. So yeah, my trying to dissuade her from hoping to see them at In-N-Out had less to do with the fact that I did not believe they would go there to eat -- I mean, everyone loves In-N-Out! And it's such an obvious place to eat, especially since Mark is from LA!, and more to do with the fact that I found it extremely unlikely that they would go to the exact location as we did at the exact day and time that we went. All right?!?! I just didn't want her to be disappointed when she did not get to make friends with GOT7 at In-N-Out like every fangirl always dreams!
Thennnnnnnnn it was time for an early dinner with my family. Still, we were even too early for that, so we went to Half and Half Express, which is basically the only place where I like boba. We both got the ice milk with boba, pudding, and caramel... and it was WAY TOO SWEET. Because I don't go there often, I never remember what I should get. I think the one I want is the one with just boba and pudding, and no caramel.
And since that didn't take long -- it was the shortest line I've ever experienced at Half and Half -- we also had time to go to Tak Shing Hong, where I got my mom some tea she wanted, and there was also a Marie Callender's nearby. We saw that they were having a sale on pies, so Jade bought a fresh peach and fresh strawberry pie, the second for half off! I was surprised their promotion included their fresh fruit pies, which are much more costly than their regular pies. Anyway, because it was so freaking hot we had them hold the pies and told them we would come for them later.
Anyhow, I wanted to treat my aunts and uncles from both sides (mom and dad), but my uncle and his wife were in Peru, so I ended up only having dinner with my aunts from my dad's side. I chose Happy Duck, which is my new favorite Chinese restaurant in LA. It's right next to the place where Adelagia and I had abalone congee the last time we were in LA. Anyway, their Peking duck is excellent; the skin has NO fat attached to it at all, and is very crispy. And they serve it properly with wraps, rather than those fluffy white bun things. So, so good. And the rest of their food is good, too. We also ordered a whole black cod, a whole 3-4lb lobster, string beans, walnut prawns, and maybe one other thing that I can't remember. Anyway, it was all super delicious, and so cheap! I mean... it was less than $200 for all that high-quality food. (No pics of the duck, because the moment it came we fell upon it like wolves and taking a pic didn't even enter into my mind.)
After dinner we went to pick up the pies and took them back to Jade's house, where we divvied up a couple of slices into reusable containers. Then we took these two a theater, where we ate pie and watched Hereditary. :D Hereditary was such a disappointment. It had gotten some pretty good reviews, and there was supposed to be a twist, so I was really looking forward to it. But while it was riveting for maybe 2/3 of the movie, it completely fell apart in the last 1/3. Like WTF? Dumb horror movies, I don't know why I keep watching you and hoping you'll be good.
DAY FIVE
Jade and I had been super looking forward to high tea at the Langham Huntingdon for quite some time; I think I even talked about it in another post earlier, where they had to move the date of our reservation, but because of this we were going to get to do the chocolate high tea and at the same price as when we made the reservation (they had since upped their prices), plus 20% off. The hotel was extremely nice, and the waitstaff at the high tea was really great.
But. The food was only so so. The chocolate fountain and all the dipping ingredients were visually great, but... there was a fly in the chocolate cake, for example. I realize it's a fairly open space and the place opens out to a courtyard, but seriously... when you're charging people $75+ per person, I expect there to be no flies anywhere NEAR my food. The sandwiches and tea cakes were good, but not amazing.
The best thing, as always, is the scones with jam and clotted cream. There is just something out of the world about the way it tastes. But I have a story about this. I was telling Jade how there are two ways to eat it, and there's this perpetual "war" about which way is better: Cornish or Devon?
Cornish - scone bottom, jam, clotted cream, scone top
Devon - scone bottom, clotted cream, jam, scone top
Both Jade and I agreed that the Cornish way was obviously superior -- and other proponents of this method agree -- because putting jam on top of cream is just messy. Obviously the cream should go on top of the jam, in order to reduce mess, because the jam serves as a kind of "glue" for the cream. Plus trying to spread jam on top of cream seems a lot more difficult than the other way around.
But even as I was talking about it, I had spread cream on the bottom portion of my scone without realizing that I was doing it, until Jade pointed it out. And I was like, OMG I can't believe I did that even as I was singing the obvious praises of the other method! So I had no choice but to do the Devon method, and put the jam on top. And you guys, this is like when an apple dropped onto Einstein's head or when someone came back from leaving their dough out and found that it had risen to twice its size -- IT WAS A TOTAL REVELATION. I ate another scone the Cornish way afterward, and found that it did not taste as good!!!!!! WHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?? So Jade had to try it herself, and she agreed with my conclusions!! Our theory is that because your taste buds hit the jam first, you get that sweet, berry (or whatever) flavor first, followed by luscious cream. But when you do it the Cornish way, the cream masks the jam too much! OMG. All this time, I've been doing it wrong. Devon method all the way!! It's a little messier, but who cares? It's not like the jam actually slides off the cream, so all that talk about the jam being glue for the cream is overrated. The cream doesn't need glue. And unless you're using a super watery jam for some reason, it's not going to slide off the cream.
The two teas we chose were fine, but nothing extraordinary. (Granted, we both chose rather 'boring' teas since we wanted the tea to complement the food, not clash with it.) We did very much enjoy the elderflower carbonated drink they served us (since neither of us are imbibers of champagne), and they let us take a pic of the bottle. In searching for it later, we found that we could order it from Target, lol.
At the end of the meal, Jade had to have the server correct the check TWICE. They were gracious about it both times, and apologized, but it's sort of the thing that you NEVER WANT TO DO at a place like that, you know? You shouldn't have to bring up cost and all that bullshit. It's a good thing Jade had made them put in writing what we were supposed to be charged, because it would have been soooooooo mortifying to try and *convince* someone that we were supposed to pay less. The fact we even had to mention it at all, rather than it being done automatically, was bad enough. :/
All in all, a fun experience, and I'm glad we did it, but I don't need to do it again -- at least not there. I don't know why it's so impossible to find a simple English tea experience with just tea and scones, rather than the whole shebang, and then they charge you $50+.
Then! We went and saw Ant-Man and the Wasp, which was fun. I hadn't seen the first one, but the thing with superhero movies is that that usually doesn't matter.
We had a late dinner with my aunts, who wanted to take me to Lawry's, which is one of my favorite places to go, I'm not gonna lie. My cousin had his wedding there, and since then they keep sending my aunt like free seasoning and what not, lol. Dinner was sooooooooooooooo good. I got the Lawry cut, which is their mid-size cut, but with English-cut slices, meaning they slice it thin. I ended up getting 6 slices, which Jade thinks means was actually even more than the normal Lawry cut. I don't know why it's taken me so long to see the benefit of doing this -- not just because you get more, which I'm not sure actually is the case -- but because I love au jus, so when you get thin slices, there's more surface area with which to saturate the au jus, lol. Following my Aunt K's lead, I also got the baked potato, but this was a mistake. I thought it was a potato choice, maybe for a nominal fee, but no, this was AN ADDITIONAL ITEM. So my plate came with mashed potatoes and gravy ANYWAY, only I then ALSO had to contend with a baked potato (loaded, of course). And I also got the creamed spinach. So it was a LOT of food. Oh, and Yorkshire pudding!! Thankfully Jade lives in the area, so she was able to take much of the leftovers home. It was soooooooooo delicious. I kept thinking about that meal in the days afterward, wishing I could have it again, lol.
After dinner Jade swam in her pool and I dipped my feet, joined by Jinyoung and KB.
JB's so racy in his birthday suit.
DAY SIX
We weren't sure what Jade's work schedule was going to be like once Monday rolled around; she had taken off a few days last week, but today she was back at work. Luckily nothing pressing needed her attention, so we were able to do what we wanted. We went back to Oo-kook for lunch, and this time we ordered the outside skirt steak a few times, and didn't bother with the cuts that had not impressed us the first time. I think if I have brisket and outside skirt, I'm pretty much set. The "funny" thing was at the end, though Jade might disagree.
Me: Are you waving the white flag?
Jade: Yeah, I'm done.
Me: Excuse me, could we get one more order of outside skirt steak?
lolol look, I have to push her to achieve all she's capable of, all right???
Completely and utterly stuffed, we went to have what we thought was going to be a wonderful spa experience at Daengki Spa. Okay, look. Olympic Spa spoiled us, because I thought it was basically going to be just like that. But IT'S NOT. Daengki is one level down, and seems to be frequented by mostly Korean ladies who know each other. It's much more of a bath house and less a spa feel. It's tiny by comparison, and only had two types of baths. The areas for massage/scrub were cramped. When we first walked in and I got a look at the place, I was like, uh oh. The second problem was that the woman at the front counter did not seem to have our reservation, even though I had only made it a few days prior. Also she kept trying to talk to me in Korean, even though I was responding in English, until I finally told her that I did not know what she was saying. And then she said to Jade, "It's because she looks Korean." LOL, but also sigh. What we had booked at Daengki was a massage and v-steam. The latter thing is exactly what it sounds like, a steam for ladies. Supposedly it cleanses that area and helps with all sorts of issues. The massage was, I must say, better than the massage I had gotten at Olympic, but maybe that's because it was the only service I got since I didn't think my skin would be ready for another harsh scrub. After that it was time for the v-steam, which ended up being an exercise in torture. Basically they had these crock pots placed below some seats with holes in them, and in the crock pots were mugwort and whatever herbal concoction made up the v-steam. The lady checked the temperature of the pots, then told us to sit down. Immediately it felt like all my parts down there were ON FIRE. It was so painful!!! I kept sitting down and then getting up again, and Jade was having the same experience. When we told the lady that we were concerned it was too hot, she said that it was supposed to be hot, that it would get better. Then she said that if we wanted to, we could lift our legs up and sit with our feet planted on the seat. This made it better, but occasionally the steam would get to be too much and make it feel like my nether parts were being burned off. After one or two times, I stopped even trying to sit the normal way; I could only bear it if my knees were up. The time it took for the "treatment" to be over seemed to take forever; when we were finally told that the time was up, we gratefully hopped off. I half expected her to see the heat gauge on the Crock Pots and exclaim that it was up far too high; no wonder we had been experiencing such terrible heat! But the lady said not a word about it. To this day Jade and I have no idea how other women are able to bear this intense heat and pain upon their nether regions, it's crazy!! The experience was even written up in Allure and other reputable beauty magazines, which is why we wanted to try it! Never again, omg. And we PAID to have that done to us.
To make ourselves feel better, we went to try an ice cream place we had passed by on the way -- Bumsan Ice Cream. They did soft serve, and I got taro milk and matcha, with cornflake topping, while Jade got True Milk and Maui Maui. It was good, but I regretted that we tried it instead of going back to Holy Roly.
For dinner that night we met up with Ropo and went to Burritos El Chavo, where I got a couple of taquitos and a hard-shell taco. It was okay. Because it was Monday my favorite taco truck, Priscilla's, wasn't around. :(
Something weird happened here though. Some girl came in with this guy, and she seemed totally out of it. He was like, overly friendly, and appeared to be trying to help her, but given how she was we were all kind of like "....." So when he left for a bit, Ropo took the opportunity to go talk to the girl and ask if she was okay, etc. She said she was, but just was totally out of it -- I don't know how else to say it. We were really torn about what to do, because on the one hand, should we call the police? On the other hand, she didn't appear injured or anything, and also in the wake of all the shit happening to black people it also felt shitty to assume that just because she was a white girl with a black guy, that he was doing anything wrong. After he returned, he talked to us, and he claimed that he had saved her from some abusive boyfriend or something. Again, I'm not trying to express suspicion or doubt -- in fact, I'm inclined to believe him -- but the whole thing was so strange even recounting it now I can't find the right words, lol.
After dinner we did a local escape room, I can't remember the name of the place, but they had a really cool backyard seating area that was done up really nice, with chairs and everything. The game master said that people were welcome to hang out there before/after doing an escape room, bring food, etc. It was a really cool space. Anyway, the room theme that we did was Bonnie and Clyde, which was a really fun room despite being fairly limited -- it was only the single room, rather than there being multiple rooms, but despite that the puzzles were fun, if a bit straightforward. e had so much fun though that we booked another room for the next morning, and the game master was very cool and said that since I was trying to make a flight, that she would open it earlier than normal so we could get started earlier.
DAY SEVEN
Last day!!
So we headed back to the escape room the next morning and did the Houdini room, which was much more difficult and we didn't beat it, grrr. But it was fun.
For lunch I wanted to have In-N-Out one more time, so we went to a location that had an indoor seating area, and got my usual, as well as a wrapped one to go, for the plane. :D I also tried Jade's cheese fries, which were good but not spectacular... In-N-Out, get some help for your fries, please.
I didn't end up feeling hungry on the plane, but as I was driving to Korean class (yes, I'm hardcore, I went to Korean class directly from the airport and because traffic was bad, I was 30-45 min late; can't remember exactly) I got hungry, so I ate my second burger. LOL, so all I ate all day was In-N-Out. Also, it felt so decadent to eat In-N-Out while in Washington state, haha.
AND THUS END-ETH THE LA TRIP. I'm super proud of how much we were able to pack in to a short time, but man it was also exhaustingto write about!
If you missed it, here's part one.
DAY FOUR
Sadly this was Adelagia's last day with us in LA, and happily we sent her off with a good meal, which was at Kobawoo House. This had been a place on my schedule that kept coming on and off, and I considered it "optional." But boy am I glad we went! First of all, praise everything, they had AC. Light, but definitely there. Second of all, the food was delicious! We ordered bossam, and it was delicious and very thinly sliced. But perhaps even more surprising was the haemul pajeon we ordered -- we've had a lot of haemul pajeon from many different places, and it was the best I've had. I also ordered a small makgeolli, which was like this huge tub. I can't imagine what the large would have been like -- would they have planted a wheelbarrow of makgeolli next to our table? Anyway, initially the server had told me that I would need to order the "large" bossam, but I pressed him that we were also going to get the pajeon, so he said in that case the small was probably enough. There was no probably about it; the three of us struggled to even finish that!
Obviously we couldn't let Adelagia leave without doing ONE LAST ESCAPE ROOM, which was Maze Rooms' FBI. I was really hoping that we would have a win for our last escape room solve, but it was not meant to be. It was actually fairly fun, and we were doing very well, until we hit a wall. Then the game master gave us a clue that was the opposite of a clue in that it did not help us but stalled us further, so we ending up not solving the room. -.-
After that Adelagia called a Lyft to take her to the airport, and when Jade and I drove away about a minute later, we looked for her and she was already gone. I was like, "Wow, sure hope she was picked up by her Lyft driver and not someone else who put her in their car and drove away." (Spoiler alert: It was her Lyft driver.)
It was so hot that the plane couldn't take Adelagia's flight all the way back to Seattle without some concessions: They either had to leave some passengers behind, or stop in San Jose to refuel. (I later found out from my coworker who is a pilot that it had to do with heat changing the density of the air and blah blah blah science.) I had never heard of such a thing!
Also, we found out later that the GOT7 guys really had gone to In-N-Out; Mark's father posted about it on social media. Adelagia was like, "I TOLD YOU they were going there!" Which, okay, fair. But also WE HAVE NO IDEA WHICH OF THE HUNDREDS OF IN-N-OUTS THEY WENT TO. They definitely went to a sit-down one, which is rarer in LA proper; my guess would be that they went to one near Mark's house, which is likely in the suburbs because that's where most Asian people live. I'm just going to be real about this. So yeah, my trying to dissuade her from hoping to see them at In-N-Out had less to do with the fact that I did not believe they would go there to eat -- I mean, everyone loves In-N-Out! And it's such an obvious place to eat, especially since Mark is from LA!, and more to do with the fact that I found it extremely unlikely that they would go to the exact location as we did at the exact day and time that we went. All right?!?! I just didn't want her to be disappointed when she did not get to make friends with GOT7 at In-N-Out like every fangirl always dreams!
Thennnnnnnnn it was time for an early dinner with my family. Still, we were even too early for that, so we went to Half and Half Express, which is basically the only place where I like boba. We both got the ice milk with boba, pudding, and caramel... and it was WAY TOO SWEET. Because I don't go there often, I never remember what I should get. I think the one I want is the one with just boba and pudding, and no caramel.
And since that didn't take long -- it was the shortest line I've ever experienced at Half and Half -- we also had time to go to Tak Shing Hong, where I got my mom some tea she wanted, and there was also a Marie Callender's nearby. We saw that they were having a sale on pies, so Jade bought a fresh peach and fresh strawberry pie, the second for half off! I was surprised their promotion included their fresh fruit pies, which are much more costly than their regular pies. Anyway, because it was so freaking hot we had them hold the pies and told them we would come for them later.
Anyhow, I wanted to treat my aunts and uncles from both sides (mom and dad), but my uncle and his wife were in Peru, so I ended up only having dinner with my aunts from my dad's side. I chose Happy Duck, which is my new favorite Chinese restaurant in LA. It's right next to the place where Adelagia and I had abalone congee the last time we were in LA. Anyway, their Peking duck is excellent; the skin has NO fat attached to it at all, and is very crispy. And they serve it properly with wraps, rather than those fluffy white bun things. So, so good. And the rest of their food is good, too. We also ordered a whole black cod, a whole 3-4lb lobster, string beans, walnut prawns, and maybe one other thing that I can't remember. Anyway, it was all super delicious, and so cheap! I mean... it was less than $200 for all that high-quality food. (No pics of the duck, because the moment it came we fell upon it like wolves and taking a pic didn't even enter into my mind.)
After dinner we went to pick up the pies and took them back to Jade's house, where we divvied up a couple of slices into reusable containers. Then we took these two a theater, where we ate pie and watched Hereditary. :D Hereditary was such a disappointment. It had gotten some pretty good reviews, and there was supposed to be a twist, so I was really looking forward to it. But while it was riveting for maybe 2/3 of the movie, it completely fell apart in the last 1/3. Like WTF? Dumb horror movies, I don't know why I keep watching you and hoping you'll be good.
DAY FIVE
Jade and I had been super looking forward to high tea at the Langham Huntingdon for quite some time; I think I even talked about it in another post earlier, where they had to move the date of our reservation, but because of this we were going to get to do the chocolate high tea and at the same price as when we made the reservation (they had since upped their prices), plus 20% off. The hotel was extremely nice, and the waitstaff at the high tea was really great.
But. The food was only so so. The chocolate fountain and all the dipping ingredients were visually great, but... there was a fly in the chocolate cake, for example. I realize it's a fairly open space and the place opens out to a courtyard, but seriously... when you're charging people $75+ per person, I expect there to be no flies anywhere NEAR my food. The sandwiches and tea cakes were good, but not amazing.
The best thing, as always, is the scones with jam and clotted cream. There is just something out of the world about the way it tastes. But I have a story about this. I was telling Jade how there are two ways to eat it, and there's this perpetual "war" about which way is better: Cornish or Devon?
Cornish - scone bottom, jam, clotted cream, scone top
Devon - scone bottom, clotted cream, jam, scone top
Both Jade and I agreed that the Cornish way was obviously superior -- and other proponents of this method agree -- because putting jam on top of cream is just messy. Obviously the cream should go on top of the jam, in order to reduce mess, because the jam serves as a kind of "glue" for the cream. Plus trying to spread jam on top of cream seems a lot more difficult than the other way around.
But even as I was talking about it, I had spread cream on the bottom portion of my scone without realizing that I was doing it, until Jade pointed it out. And I was like, OMG I can't believe I did that even as I was singing the obvious praises of the other method! So I had no choice but to do the Devon method, and put the jam on top. And you guys, this is like when an apple dropped onto Einstein's head or when someone came back from leaving their dough out and found that it had risen to twice its size -- IT WAS A TOTAL REVELATION. I ate another scone the Cornish way afterward, and found that it did not taste as good!!!!!! WHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?? So Jade had to try it herself, and she agreed with my conclusions!! Our theory is that because your taste buds hit the jam first, you get that sweet, berry (or whatever) flavor first, followed by luscious cream. But when you do it the Cornish way, the cream masks the jam too much! OMG. All this time, I've been doing it wrong. Devon method all the way!! It's a little messier, but who cares? It's not like the jam actually slides off the cream, so all that talk about the jam being glue for the cream is overrated. The cream doesn't need glue. And unless you're using a super watery jam for some reason, it's not going to slide off the cream.
The two teas we chose were fine, but nothing extraordinary. (Granted, we both chose rather 'boring' teas since we wanted the tea to complement the food, not clash with it.) We did very much enjoy the elderflower carbonated drink they served us (since neither of us are imbibers of champagne), and they let us take a pic of the bottle. In searching for it later, we found that we could order it from Target, lol.
At the end of the meal, Jade had to have the server correct the check TWICE. They were gracious about it both times, and apologized, but it's sort of the thing that you NEVER WANT TO DO at a place like that, you know? You shouldn't have to bring up cost and all that bullshit. It's a good thing Jade had made them put in writing what we were supposed to be charged, because it would have been soooooooo mortifying to try and *convince* someone that we were supposed to pay less. The fact we even had to mention it at all, rather than it being done automatically, was bad enough. :/
All in all, a fun experience, and I'm glad we did it, but I don't need to do it again -- at least not there. I don't know why it's so impossible to find a simple English tea experience with just tea and scones, rather than the whole shebang, and then they charge you $50+.
Then! We went and saw Ant-Man and the Wasp, which was fun. I hadn't seen the first one, but the thing with superhero movies is that that usually doesn't matter.
We had a late dinner with my aunts, who wanted to take me to Lawry's, which is one of my favorite places to go, I'm not gonna lie. My cousin had his wedding there, and since then they keep sending my aunt like free seasoning and what not, lol. Dinner was sooooooooooooooo good. I got the Lawry cut, which is their mid-size cut, but with English-cut slices, meaning they slice it thin. I ended up getting 6 slices, which Jade thinks means was actually even more than the normal Lawry cut. I don't know why it's taken me so long to see the benefit of doing this -- not just because you get more, which I'm not sure actually is the case -- but because I love au jus, so when you get thin slices, there's more surface area with which to saturate the au jus, lol. Following my Aunt K's lead, I also got the baked potato, but this was a mistake. I thought it was a potato choice, maybe for a nominal fee, but no, this was AN ADDITIONAL ITEM. So my plate came with mashed potatoes and gravy ANYWAY, only I then ALSO had to contend with a baked potato (loaded, of course). And I also got the creamed spinach. So it was a LOT of food. Oh, and Yorkshire pudding!! Thankfully Jade lives in the area, so she was able to take much of the leftovers home. It was soooooooooo delicious. I kept thinking about that meal in the days afterward, wishing I could have it again, lol.
After dinner Jade swam in her pool and I dipped my feet, joined by Jinyoung and KB.
JB's so racy in his birthday suit.
DAY SIX
We weren't sure what Jade's work schedule was going to be like once Monday rolled around; she had taken off a few days last week, but today she was back at work. Luckily nothing pressing needed her attention, so we were able to do what we wanted. We went back to Oo-kook for lunch, and this time we ordered the outside skirt steak a few times, and didn't bother with the cuts that had not impressed us the first time. I think if I have brisket and outside skirt, I'm pretty much set. The "funny" thing was at the end, though Jade might disagree.
Me: Are you waving the white flag?
Jade: Yeah, I'm done.
Me: Excuse me, could we get one more order of outside skirt steak?
lolol look, I have to push her to achieve all she's capable of, all right???
Completely and utterly stuffed, we went to have what we thought was going to be a wonderful spa experience at Daengki Spa. Okay, look. Olympic Spa spoiled us, because I thought it was basically going to be just like that. But IT'S NOT. Daengki is one level down, and seems to be frequented by mostly Korean ladies who know each other. It's much more of a bath house and less a spa feel. It's tiny by comparison, and only had two types of baths. The areas for massage/scrub were cramped. When we first walked in and I got a look at the place, I was like, uh oh. The second problem was that the woman at the front counter did not seem to have our reservation, even though I had only made it a few days prior. Also she kept trying to talk to me in Korean, even though I was responding in English, until I finally told her that I did not know what she was saying. And then she said to Jade, "It's because she looks Korean." LOL, but also sigh. What we had booked at Daengki was a massage and v-steam. The latter thing is exactly what it sounds like, a steam for ladies. Supposedly it cleanses that area and helps with all sorts of issues. The massage was, I must say, better than the massage I had gotten at Olympic, but maybe that's because it was the only service I got since I didn't think my skin would be ready for another harsh scrub. After that it was time for the v-steam, which ended up being an exercise in torture. Basically they had these crock pots placed below some seats with holes in them, and in the crock pots were mugwort and whatever herbal concoction made up the v-steam. The lady checked the temperature of the pots, then told us to sit down. Immediately it felt like all my parts down there were ON FIRE. It was so painful!!! I kept sitting down and then getting up again, and Jade was having the same experience. When we told the lady that we were concerned it was too hot, she said that it was supposed to be hot, that it would get better. Then she said that if we wanted to, we could lift our legs up and sit with our feet planted on the seat. This made it better, but occasionally the steam would get to be too much and make it feel like my nether parts were being burned off. After one or two times, I stopped even trying to sit the normal way; I could only bear it if my knees were up. The time it took for the "treatment" to be over seemed to take forever; when we were finally told that the time was up, we gratefully hopped off. I half expected her to see the heat gauge on the Crock Pots and exclaim that it was up far too high; no wonder we had been experiencing such terrible heat! But the lady said not a word about it. To this day Jade and I have no idea how other women are able to bear this intense heat and pain upon their nether regions, it's crazy!! The experience was even written up in Allure and other reputable beauty magazines, which is why we wanted to try it! Never again, omg. And we PAID to have that done to us.
To make ourselves feel better, we went to try an ice cream place we had passed by on the way -- Bumsan Ice Cream. They did soft serve, and I got taro milk and matcha, with cornflake topping, while Jade got True Milk and Maui Maui. It was good, but I regretted that we tried it instead of going back to Holy Roly.
For dinner that night we met up with Ropo and went to Burritos El Chavo, where I got a couple of taquitos and a hard-shell taco. It was okay. Because it was Monday my favorite taco truck, Priscilla's, wasn't around. :(
Something weird happened here though. Some girl came in with this guy, and she seemed totally out of it. He was like, overly friendly, and appeared to be trying to help her, but given how she was we were all kind of like "....." So when he left for a bit, Ropo took the opportunity to go talk to the girl and ask if she was okay, etc. She said she was, but just was totally out of it -- I don't know how else to say it. We were really torn about what to do, because on the one hand, should we call the police? On the other hand, she didn't appear injured or anything, and also in the wake of all the shit happening to black people it also felt shitty to assume that just because she was a white girl with a black guy, that he was doing anything wrong. After he returned, he talked to us, and he claimed that he had saved her from some abusive boyfriend or something. Again, I'm not trying to express suspicion or doubt -- in fact, I'm inclined to believe him -- but the whole thing was so strange even recounting it now I can't find the right words, lol.
After dinner we did a local escape room, I can't remember the name of the place, but they had a really cool backyard seating area that was done up really nice, with chairs and everything. The game master said that people were welcome to hang out there before/after doing an escape room, bring food, etc. It was a really cool space. Anyway, the room theme that we did was Bonnie and Clyde, which was a really fun room despite being fairly limited -- it was only the single room, rather than there being multiple rooms, but despite that the puzzles were fun, if a bit straightforward. e had so much fun though that we booked another room for the next morning, and the game master was very cool and said that since I was trying to make a flight, that she would open it earlier than normal so we could get started earlier.
DAY SEVEN
Last day!!
So we headed back to the escape room the next morning and did the Houdini room, which was much more difficult and we didn't beat it, grrr. But it was fun.
For lunch I wanted to have In-N-Out one more time, so we went to a location that had an indoor seating area, and got my usual, as well as a wrapped one to go, for the plane. :D I also tried Jade's cheese fries, which were good but not spectacular... In-N-Out, get some help for your fries, please.
I didn't end up feeling hungry on the plane, but as I was driving to Korean class (yes, I'm hardcore, I went to Korean class directly from the airport and because traffic was bad, I was 30-45 min late; can't remember exactly) I got hungry, so I ate my second burger. LOL, so all I ate all day was In-N-Out. Also, it felt so decadent to eat In-N-Out while in Washington state, haha.
AND THUS END-ETH THE LA TRIP. I'm super proud of how much we were able to pack in to a short time, but man it was also exhausting
