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We’re linking up with bloggers around the world to share with you our trip to Southern California. Need to catch up? Start here.

The next morning, we really outdid ourselves with breakfast at the hotel (but hey, it was free!) before setting out to do one of the most cliché things you can do in LA: hike Runyon Canyon.

I had read some negative things online about it, that it was crowded and more like an off-leash dog park than hiking trail, but we were hoping to have a celebrity sighting & work off a little of what we had put on in the past few days, so why not?

The views from the top were worth it, too.

 & since we were already doing LA things, we went ahead & stopped at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on the way back to the hotel.

Before leaving on this trip, we heard a segment on NPR about the best ramen in LA, at a place that only serves noodles at lunch…then promptly forgot the name of the place. A quick Google search brought up Tsujita, so having worked up an appetite, we jumped in the car & headed over to West LA. There’s also Tsujita Annex across the street, but we opted for the original & grabbed the last seats along the sun-soaked bar.

We really had no idea what we were doing & we were some of the few people speaking English in the tiny restaurant, so we asked our waiter for his recommendations. In about three minutes, we had steaming bowls of Char Siu Tsukemen & Char Siu Ramen in front of us.

The noodles were al dente, the pork delicious, & the broth a fatty, salty, perfectly balanced, heavenly product of sixty hours simmering. SIXTY. We’ve been forever ruined. Words can’t even do it justice.

We passed our bowls back & forth until we couldn’t eat another bite. I even dripped on my new white shirt & didn’t care because it was sublime. I also had a Tide pen in my purse. On the way back to the car, Tom said, “Let’s do this for lunch again tomorrow.”

Not a bad idea.

The only other thing on our calendar for the day was our dinner reservation at Alma, so we had the afternoon to explore the up & coming Los Angeles craft brewery scene. Our first stop was Golden Road, a sprawling brewery & canning facility alongside the train tracks in Glendale. I had a Heal the Bay IPA the night before that I really enjoyed, so we split a flight to get a good sampling of their brews…plus a pint each & a dessert because, why not?

The Bumper Crop American Pale Ale, Berliner Weisse, another Heal the Bay, Burning Bush Smoked IPA, Wolf Among the Weeds Double IPA,  Point the Way IPA, & croissant bread pudding with salted caramel & whipped cream were all pretty solid, & the place was crowded for a Tuesday afternoon, so I would say they’ve got a pretty good thing going on.

Everything we’ve experienced about LA traffic is that it a) is unpredictable b) makes absolutely no sense and c) is gridlocked mostly all the time, so we made our next stop closer to Downtown to make our dinner reservation. I had read a little bit about Angel City Brewery, so we thought we’d check it out.

The brewery is in a historic building in the Arts District, with the bar on one end, some sort of mezzanine (complete with slide–we never did get the story on that), right in the middle, & plenty of unique seating (pews, picnic tables, etc.) all around. We sipped our way through a flight, then grabbed a few pints & walked around to check out the merchandise & the Dodgers game that was projected on a big screen in the back.

Out of what we tried, the (Not) White Nit Dark Ale, Berliner Weisse, & White Nite White Stout were the standouts.

As we finished up our drinks, they were setting up for trivia & we thought for a second about joining in, but we headed off to dinner instead…