Well I’m certainly getting into this new lifestyle! LA is similar to London in that there are heaps of things to that are free & fun – the difference is, London you just need an Oyster card for the tube, here it’s definitely a bit more complicated than that unless you have a car. Right now I’ve scored fixed price Ubers somehow so we are making the most of it.
This weekend was the APV Hermosa Beach Open a great volley ball comp which was free for general admission. You can get boxes & VIP tickets from $60 all the way up to several hundred for courtside (which looked awesome). As per usual, it took a bit for us to get out of the house but we made it down for the last 3 games of the day.
The great thing about the beach volley ball – other than the fact that it turns out it’s a good game to watch- is there’s something for Al to perv at and something for me to perv at!
First up we watched a men’s match. So much power in the hits. The game itself was a tough one going into 3 sets and taking ages for the final point to be scored- who knew it could be so exciting!
Next up was a woman’s quarter finals match on the stadium court. The stand they’ve built for this is really good i.e. I got to sit down 😝. The women’s games seem like they are more about finesse and some of the rallies between these ladies were amazing! I was going for the green bather bum girls – Angela Bensend and Geena Urango- though it was definitely hard to choose as both sides were really good.
Final game for the day was the men’s quarter finals with the guys we’d seen earlier – Jeremy Casebeer & John Mayer- against the home town favourite Sean Rosethal and his partner Trevor Crabb. It was a good game, but sadly not close like the other 2 matches; home town favourite smashed it in the second set.
Next year, we’ll go along again and most likely for the whole weekend- it would have been good to see the finals.
After the games finished we walked down the beach to Manhattan Beach for some dinner. My logic was that the restaurants in Hermosa would be packed, plus it meant we got to watch the sunset. Turns out sunset isn’t quite over the water as there is a sneaky mountain off in the distance.
We ended up heading all the way up to the Four Daughters Kitchen. If you click through to their story you can see how it all started but basically it’s a what you see is what you get place: good, fresh affordable food in a comfortable setting.
I couldn’t resist the shrimp boat to start. Deliciously smoky grilled prawns with a mango salsa on a cucumber boat.
Al of course snuck in a chicken wings order, even though we were supposed to be sharing the prawns! He says they were great. Little bit of heat & nice and crispy. I was dipping my fries in the ranch dressing that came with it and that was yum.
Mains for me was the mahi mahi tacos. Massive amounts of fish in these with a really good chipotle sauce. They came with shoe string fries, I’m not normally a big shoe string fan but these are really, really good!
Al got the Leila’s famous burger: Monterey Jack cheese, sautéed onions, avocado & a house sauce. I was allowed a bite and it was a good burger- juicy & lots of flavor. No pic though as I got caught up devouring my tacos while Al was finishing his wings and then I swear I blinked and half the burger was gone.
Verdict: worth heading up the road for. I’d say they achieved their vision of good affordable food. We had the 2 courses and a softie for just under $60 including tax & tip.
Jilltopia 