Los Angeles. Day 7. Ancient Aliens: Declassified.
We got up late and went down to breakfast.
We sat with Judah, who had just come back from hashkama minyan at YICC. He decided to go up and then Sherri and Gabriella came down. About 15 minutes after they had already been downstairs Sherri suddenly said, “oh may God, I forgot to send the woman upstairs to open the door for Judah!” At the same time we saw Judah slowly making his way back, clearly upset his wife and daughter had forgotten him. It was hilarious, not for him though. I think that’s when Hallie gave him a good hug, so things kind of balanced out. We kind of puttered around the hotel for a while before finally getting dressed. We spent some time in my mother’s room, then some time with Sarah and Samson and Kivi and Rafi. Finally we got dressed and headed over to The Mark, where they had davening and kiddush.
Upon arrival, kiddush was in full swing. They had some interesting foods. Lots of nuts again and a lamb chulent that Tzvi liked.
Lunch was good again - good assortment of Mediterranean things. My father made a speech thanking people from New York and named every single person who flew out. Babi did not make it to lunch. Hope she’s not getting sick, because she refused to bring her aid with her to LA (even though my parents were going to pay for her to come), and my father made a whole speech about how he won’t be available if Babi gets sick.
Again Hallie and the Miller boys ran around and tired themselves out all through lunch, so when it ended, Talia took Hallie for a walk (she fell asleep right away), and me, Tzvi, my mother and Gabs walked to Beverlywood to Rachel’s Shabbat Kallah (Tzvi didn’t stay, he just came for the walk).
In LA, it seems that Shabbat Kallahs are more like big gatherings on Shabbat afternoon. There must have been 50 people there. It was set up really nicely with tables, decorations, pictures, etc. It was basically a shower without presents. The chocolate mousse was delicious. A bunch of Rachel’s friends made speeches. The best one was from her friend Ziva who presented the crowd with old Facebook posts and we had to guess whether they were from Austin or Rachel.
Shabbos ended and we couldn’t figure out what to do. Originally we had planned on having Tzvi’s parents babysit while we went out to dinner alone. Given everything, we decided to give up on that and said we’d all go walk around the Grove. Somehow we decided even that was too much, so we decided to just go for ice cream. We went to our favorite ice cream place in LA - Salt and Straw. Once again, it was amazing. That place always delivers. Tzvi had a cone with coffee bourbon and cookie dough, and I had a cone with roasted strawberry and white chocolate and then some salted caramel thing. We sat outside and watched a homeless man who was passed out on the ground be helped by a dozen cops, paramedics and firefighters. Then Hallie started talking to another homeless man. I love LA.
Then we went over to Tzvi’s parents place, fed Hallie some more frozen fish nuggets and lit channukah candles. We also sat on their couch going through their DVR; it was basically hours and hours of MSNBC programs, Hallmark Christmas movies, and about 12 hours of a show called “Ancient Aliens: Declassified.” By the time we left Tzvi was already scratching and sneezing from the dog. We left and went back to the hotel and went to bed, ready for the day ahead.
Oh, and Babi was taken to the hospital with colitis, in case you didn’t see that one coming. And yes, of course, my parents were the ones who went with her… the night before the wedding. Pop Pop, we’re all proud of how you stick to your guns!
Los Angeles. Day 6. Camels and Kaftans.
Tzvi woke up early again to do work and woke me up with him. He went downstairs, and eventually Hallie got up and we followed.
This hotel, like our last, has a complementary breakfast, though this was a bit different. We went down to the lobby and secured a big table. It was kind of a madhouse down there, but also nice because a lot of New York people who came for the wedding were there. We had breakfast with Avery and Gabs and Sherry and Judah, and Hallie ran around with Samson and Kivi who were finishing breakfast. The spread wasn’t quite as nice as what we had at The London, but at least they had a waffle maker, so Hallie got a waffle, because God forbid that girl goes a day without a pancake or a waffle. It was weird that they didn’t have cheerios.
After breakfast Tzvi did work, while we got our nails done and then went into Beverly Hills to buy wedding shoes for Hallie and then to drybar to get our hair done. Somehow there wasn’t really time for lunch so I got a tuna sandwich from Coffee Bean and Tzvi had a “picnic box” with grapes and hummus and an egg.
Around 3 o’clock we donned our caftans and headed to The Mark, an event space on Pico, for the Henna party. The party was a lot of fun and Rachel’s aunts did an amazing job decorating and setting up. The only issue was the plethora of murder weapons out to kill my husband and child. By that i mean an array of nuts fit for a king and queen. It’s amazing neither of them died. There were some pass-around appetizers during the Henna but Tzvi was afraid to eat anything because there were bowls of peanuts everywhere. They played moroccan and Israeli music and had a belly dancer. Babi fell asleep on the couch.
At 4:30 they lit chanukah candles and then a lot of men (not Tzvi) went across the street to YICC for davening. The people who didn’t go to davening just milled around and talked and drank. Babi continued to sleep through this hour (must be the jetlag). Eventually people came back and it was time for dinner. Dinner was assigned seating but a few of our people didn’t have seats so Tzvi and my mother were running aroud re-jiggering all of the tables. Somehow we neded up with 12 people at our table and my parents were switching back and forth between two tables.
Dinner was delicious. There was a really nice dessert table as well. Hallie had a great time running around in the other room with Samson and Kivi. At one point we noticed a red bump on her face so Tzvi ran back to the hotel to get benadryl, but she was fine.
Eventually it was 1030 so we said goodbye and went back to the hotel and went to sleep.
Los Angeles. Day 5. Welcome to Los Angeles.
We woke up and went downstairs for our last breakfast. Hallie had a waffle of course, and then Talia came and picked her up for the day. We finished breakfast, packed our bags, and around 1230 went to lunch.
Three days until the wedding!
Sherry and Mark picked us up and we drove over to Republique for lunch. The restaurant is housed in a beautiful old building that was built in 1928 by Charlie Chaplin. We waited online for about 10-15 minutes, ordered at the counter, then were seated. The restaurant has its own bakery inside and you can watch them making fresh bread. We had a loaf of bread with butter and jam that was hot and fresh and delicious. I had avocado toast, and Tzvi had a pupusa (a cornmeal flatbread with beans and fried egg). Mark had brioche french toast and Sherry had a skillet pancake. Everything was really delicious. We also bought some fresh baked sugar cookies for the road.
After lunch we dropped off Sherry and Mark and then went back to the hotel, got our bags, and drove to Pico - Robertson to check in at the Residence Inn where we would be staying for the rest of the trip. We checked in to our two bedroom suite, which is great because we have a living room and separate bedrooms for us and Hallie, but I think the whole room is smaller than what we had at The London. We unpacked and then went to CVS and Ralphs to do some shopping.
For dinner we all went to Pat’s, a nice meat restaurant on Pico. By “we all” I mean the whole Feit family, including us, Tzvi’s parents, my parents, Avery and Gabs, Gabs’ parents and brother, Renee and David and Ellen. Tzvi did all of the planning for the meal, including picking the menu. To start, they brought out lots of appetizers for sharing. We had lamb ribs, fried chicken skewers, short rib sliders and a great salad. For mains, there was a choice of tuscan sliced steak with onions (which Tzvi had), very saucy BBQ beef ribs (which I had), a cornish hen (which Hallie had) and miso glazed salmon (which Sherry had). Almost everyone else got steak or ribs. All was delicious. For dessert they brought out several plates of chocolate bread pudding, which was really good. Unfortunately no one got a photo because we all ate it too quickly. Great meal.
After dinner we ran into Avi Buchman who we went to NYU with and who was having dinner at the restaurant (we’re just seeing everyone from NYU on this trip) and then walked back to the hotel. We made a stop to visit the Millers who had checked in today too. Hallie walked in, saw Samson and Kivi in bed watching TV, took off her shoes and climbed right into their bed and under the covers to watch with them. It was so cute.
After that we went back to the room and everyone went to bed. Good day.
Los Angeles. Day 4. This is Where the Jews Are.
I woke up this morning with less pain! Hoorah!
Tzvi woke up early (like 6ish) to start work, which woke me up, which is annoying. We headed down to breakfast, my first at the hotel. I have to say, very nice spread, though Tzvi has already talked about that. We obviously had to pay extra again so Hallie could have pancakes. Talia, the babysitter, showed up around 9:30 to take Hallie, and Tzvi and I sat at breakfast for almost another hour and a half doing some work..
The restaurant is very serene with lots of light wood and makes you feel like you’re up in the trees looking out at the great views of downtown. It was lovely. There were only two issues keeping it from being perfect. One was the inability to serve hot decaf coffee. Even when they brewed a fresh pot, it wasn’t hot enough! So weird. The other was a baby that kept crying and the parents were doing nothing to try to stop it. There was a man, probably in his 30s, sitting a couple of tables away from us. He was just drinking coffee and looking out at the view remarking at how peaceful it was there. Then the baby started crying and he turned to us and said, “well now it’s starting to feel like a Denny’s in here.”
We went back to the room to do some more work and watched Harry Potter. For the past few days there have been Harry Potter marathons on USA and SYFY. The annoying part is they play Fantastic Beasts after HP7b, and who really wants to watch that?
In the early afternoon we decided to go for lunch, but basically everything shuts down here on Christmas (even more so than it does in NYC). It’s kind of weird - maybe it’s because of everything that’s been going on, or maybe it’s because we’re away and it’s not cold and frightful outside, or maybe it’s because Tzvi hasn’t watched A Christmas Story on TBS 12 times, but it doesn’t feel like Christmas.
We took an Uber to Canters, a non-kosher but very Jewish deli that’s open 24/7 and has been around forever. The place was packed with Jews (and some non-Jews, but mostly Jews). The line was out the door so we had to wait a little bit. While we waited we listened to the two women behind us talking to each other about how Jewish they were. I don’t remember what they actually said, but they kept talking about challah, and latkas, and Russ and Daughters in NYC. We finally got seated and both ordered vegetable soup, we shared latkes, and Tzvi had some cottage cheese.
After lunch we went back to the room and watched more Harry Potter. My parents landed late in the afternoon and after much back and forth between everyone about where to go for dinner (most of the kosher places were open for dinner) we decided it was only fitting to have Chinese, so Sherry and Mark picked us up at our hotel and we met my parents for dinner at Shanghai on Pico. Of course it was packed and it took a while to get our food (especially' Sherry’s vegetable lomein which didn’t come until we were all finished eating). The food is very different from Chosen. Some things were better, and some things weren’t. Just different.
After dinner we went back to the hotel to put Hallie to bed. As we were walking to our room Tzvi realized that he forgot to get channukah candles from his parents apartment. This led to an hour of back and forth until finally Tzvi gave up, got in an Uber, and picked up channukah candles from his parents apartment. We had already put Hallie to bed at that point, so we lit candles quietly and kept the door open while it was pouring rain and freezing outside.
After that whole ordeal was over, Tzvi went to the lobby to cash in the free drink coupons they had given us on the first night. Tzvi got a mezcal drink and I got a blueberry mojito (sans-alcohol of course). We took a bath and then got into bed and Tzvi fell asleep on his computer.
Better day.
Los Angeles. Day 3. I'm a Great Dad.
TZVI: I woke up around 530 and started doing work. My office was technically closed for Christmas Eve, but there’s a lot going on.
Under normal circumstances I probably would’ve had to spend a lot of the day doing work, but between dealing with Hallie and Steph I ended up screwing up enough stuff that they recognized I wasn’t capable of doing work and taking care of my family, so they graciously let me off the hook with the work. Hallie and I had breakfast again in the lobby (Hallie had a waffle) and then hung out at the hotel until my parents picked us up. We drove to Santa Monica and spent the morning at the Cayton Children’s Museum, which is a huge play space for kids. Hallie had a blast. She loved the ball pit and spent a while painting a sheet of paper completely green. After playing we drove to Venice and had lunch at the Rose Café. The weather was great so we sat outside. I needed a break from Hallie so I let her watch Toy Story during lunch. She ate almost a whole pizza (which was incredibly delicious) and I had a fantastic salmon salad. I also brought a box of pastries back for Steph, which were all tasty.
I once read an essay on fatherhood by the author Michael Chabon. He told a story about being alone with his baby in the supermarket, holding the baby in one hand and unloading the shopping cart with the other, when a random woman told him, ‘I can tell you’re a really good father.’ He went on to say that men have it so much easier than women, because the bar for being a ‘good father’ is so much lower than the bar for being a good mother. Essentially, you just need to not be hurting your child in public for people to commend you on what a great dad you are. That’s kind of how I felt being alone with Hallie. I’m sure that Steph doesn’t get the kind of adoring looks that I do when she’s out with Hallie. Everywhere we went people were so friendly and told me how cute Hallie was and I could tell that they really thought I was doing a good job.
After lunch we went back to my parents’ apartment where we met Talia, who is going to be babysitting Hallie this week (and essentially filling in for Ofek). Talia took Hallie to the Grove to walk around for a bit while I went back to the hotel to get Steph. However when I got to the hotel, Steph wasn’t up to going out so I ended up going back to my parents’ place to get Hallie and then my father drove us back.
Steph: I don’t really have much to say here. Monday night was rough. The hospital air was so dry and I was so congested so I just kept waking up. At around 1am my IV started really hurting, but they didn’t come to change it until 2:30. At 4 AMish they came back to check my vitals. The nurse shift change was at 7. Well, in walks Leah Lousky (a friend from NYU).. Apparently she is a labor and delivery nurse at Cedars. Anyway, she gave me more pain meds which was nice. She also strained my pee, which every nurse did, but it felt special now that Leah was doing it, so thanks Leah. I was finally able to leave the hospital around 3pm with a bunch of medications in tow. Basically, I have to drink a lot and wait it out and hope for the best. I wasn’t in shape to go out at night, so Tzvi dealt with the evening as well.
The plan for Tuesday night was to put Hallie to sleep at Tzvi’s parents apartment, then see a movie, followed by a 10 PM dinner reservation at a famous old Italian restaurant in West Hollywood.
Instead, Tzvi brought me back a tuna sandwich that he made me at his parents place (which actually was a fantastic tuna sandwich) and we went to sleep.
What a saga. Merry Christmas.
Los Angeles. Day 2. Welcome to the Shitshow.
Hallie slept pretty well (we gave her some melatonin), but I was up for the day around 545. Tzvi was up to, since he was supposed to be working and needed to be on early morning calls NY time. Around 6:15 Tzvi went downstairs to breakfast so he could have coffee and take calls.
I started feeling a little weird around 6 AM, and by 7 AM I was in excruciating pain. Hallie woke up around 6:45, and by 7:30 or so I was in an Uber heading to Cedars Sinai hospital. I went to the ER and they took me straight up to Labor and Delivery. They immediately put me in a private room, and after some time they decided I have kidney stones. This is the worst pain of my life (worse than labor), and there’s really nothing they can do for it for pregnant women, so it’s just a lot of fluids and trying to manage to pain. Special thanks to the Brunelle family who put me in touch with their family friend Dr. Platt who is a well-known OB in LA and used to be head of OB at Cedars (and also happened to be the doctor who did Tzvi’s mother’s ultrasound and told her she was having a boy). He was very helpful while I was at the hospital.
Tzvi: I stayed at the hotel to figure out what to do with Hallie. We started with breakfast in the hotel. It’s included with our stay, so we couldn’t miss that no matter how much pain Steph was in. Of course Hallie wanted pancakes, which wasn’t included in the buffet, so I still had to pay for that. After breakfast we Ubered over to my parents’ apartment and I left Hallie with them for the morning, and then Ubered to the hospital. Steph was in a lot of pain, but I think the worst part of her day was when they took her down to radiology and then made her wait in a general triage area where they were bringing in other patients that were all old and in rough shape; at one point a woman started suctioning and Steph almost vomited.
I went back and forth a few times during the day. Hallie did pretty well with my parents. Around 6 PM my mother made latkas, we lit Chanukah candles and then we Ubered back to the hotel. Steph spent the night at Cedars, so I bathed Hallie and got her to bed.
What a day.
Los Angeles. Day 1. So far, so good.
Off we go to the Feit-Brunelle extravaganza!
Our flight wasn’t until 2:40 so we had some time in the morning. Tzvi was adamant about leaving for the airport by 12:15, because he didn’t want to be “stressed.” As many of you know, we lost our Ofek this week, so we were traveling just the three of us. Three people, four suitcases, stroller, car seat, carry-ons and personal items. Thankfully my parents drove us to the airport and got us to check in. That was very helpful.
The flight was full, and full of children, but they weren’t bad. Hallie made a friends in the terminal, a 3 year old boy named Joey. Our pilot was name Stacey and she was great. She did a nice welcome speech, which she made from mid-cabin (instead of from the cockpit), and then when someone clapped and she said they get a free bloody mary. We took off, and less than an hour into the flight experienced the worst turbulence of our lives. People were actually screaming. Stacey was very reassuring, saying everyone was experiencing this and we’d be out in 10-12 minutes. I’m telling you, female pilots are the way to go. Thankfully the rest of the flight wasn’t as bad, a little turbulence here and there. Hallie wouldn’t sit still though, which was rough. About 3 hours in, Tzvi switched seats with me, and about an hour after that he started freaking out about how she was acting. He had a little temper tantrum, and then fell asleep on his computer. For those are of you that are unaware, men are toddlers. He pulled himself together after his brief nap.
We arrived in LAX and went to baggage claim, where Hallie found Joey and gave him a picture she made for him on the plane. Then we ordered an Uber Black, which was three times the price of a normal UberXL because you now have to take a shuttle to get to a normal priced Uber, and there was no way we could do that with all of our stuff (only Uber Black can pickup curbside). Thanks Uber for discriminating against families with luggage and introducing class warfare.
We are staying at The London West Hollywood at Beverly Hills, which is a name that makes no sense because we’re in West Hollywood and nowhere near Beverly Hills. Our room is really great. We’re sharing with Hallie, but the room is so big it doesn’t matter, and the bathroom has a bathtub and a shower with two separate showeheads (rain and regular) although no door, which is kind of odd. We ordered room service for dinner which was good, not that Hallie ate much. Tzvi had salmon, I had an indian cauliflower steak, and we shared a Caesar salad. Hallie got salmon with really delicious shoestring French fries but barely ate any of it.
We lit Chanukah candles and then Hallie went to bed. She was exhausted, as were we. We were glad to be settled.
Considering we had thought this trip would be a disaster without Ofek, things seem to be looking up. I’ve got a good feeling about this trip.
Disney World. Day 5. The Long Road Home.
Hallie woke us up around 7:30 but we didn’t make it out to breakfast until 9:30. We went to the Lobby Bar, which is only open for breakfast on days that there is character breakfast at Ravello (which is Thursday and Saturdays). The buffet was basically the same, but cheaper than the character buffet at Ravello. We sat outside and it was really nice. Less hot than the other days and just a pleasant morning. Hallie ran all over the place and was singing and climbing on the sofas. At least she had fun.
At 11:00 AM we left Hallie with Ofek and headed to the spa while they went to the kids club. We had a massage scheduled for 11:30, so we relaxed a few minutes in the spa first but there’s not much I can do since I can’t go in a steam room or a Jacuzzi. The massages were fantastic, maybe the best I’ve ever had. They had a special pregnancy pillow with a big space for my belly so I could lay on my stomach. It was great. After it was over we relaxed a little more in the spa and then went and met everyone else at the pool. We spent the afternoon swimming, laying and reading. For lunch Tzvi had a seared ahi tuna salad that he loved, and Hallie had another pb&j sandwich with fries and corn (which I ate a bunch of). I think the pool food here is some of the best I’ve had at a pool. We met a man in the pool named Michael, who was a psychiatrist and went to med school in Tel Aviv. We also met a little boy named Vitorio who kept walking over and wanted to play hide and seek with Hallie and eat her French fries. He was Italian (we think) and 4 years old, and the parents were sitting not too far way, but they didn’t seem to care that he kept wandering away. We should all adopt that care free European mentality.
Around 5:30 we went in to start getting ready and to pack for the trip home. At 7:16 shabbos ended and at 7:20 we were in a car on our way to Disney Springs. For dinner we ate at Raglan Road, the Irish pub that we usually eat at once per Disney trip. We were seated pretty close to the stage where there was a guitar player and violinist and tap dancers doing an Irish jig. We usually sit in the ancillary rooms where it’s a little less loud. This was great because we could see the show and Hallie absolutely loved the dancing, but it was just very loud. Raglan Road starts everyone off with Irish soda bread and a Guinness stout reduction for dipping. It’s one of the two reasons to visit Raglan Road. To start we shared a smoked salmon appetizer that came with a potato pancake and crème fraiche and a salad with shallots and tomatoes. Both were good. Then we waited. We waited a really long time for our entrees. We kept asking and they kept saying it was coming. Finally a manager came out and said something but we couldn’t really hear because of the music. Then the food came and we were so hungry we forgot to take pictures of the main. I had a Caesar salad and Tzvi had his fourth salmon of the trip. Both were good. For dessert we had the bread pudding with vanilla sauce, which is the other reason to visit Raglan Road.
After dinner we walked around and did all of our last minute shopping. Hallie rode the carousel two more times and I got my caramel apple from Goofy’s Candy Co, which I do every trip. We called an Uber around 11pm, which thankfully was really like 10pm since we would be changing the clock back in a few hours. We went back to the hotel, put Hallie to bed, finished packing and went to sleep.
Sunday
Sunday morning we were up by 6:45 and out by 7:20. We checked out and headed to the airport. In contrast to our trip to Orlando, the trip home was a breeze. We flew through security with our pre-check (it was probably the easiest security screening we’ve ever had with Hallie), got access to the priority pass lounge where we found some terrible but free food, had an easy time getting on the plane, actually took off on time (minimal taxi time!), and then landed early. Hallie was even pretty good on the plane. The entire flight was under 2 hours. It was great. Now we’re home.
The only bad part about the day was the moment that I realized I had left my apple in the fridge in the hotel room. I called the hotel but they said that while they usually ship items left at the hotel for free, they can’t do it for food. I was really sad. I’m still really sad. [Tzvi: It’s been over a week since we’ve been home at the time of writing this and she still can’t get over it and talks about how sad she is about the apple every single day.]
It was a really great trip.