The days leading up to an adventure either fly by or drag on. For me and this trip to California, time was a weird concept. The weeks leading up to departure zoomed by, but the day of the commencement of our trip felt like an eternity. I had everything checked off my list before noon, and my friends were not supposed to arrive until after four. I about drove myself nuts looking at the clock all day. They finally came, and our fun of our ‘SLPeepOver’ could kick off the trip. Since we basically had a red-eye flight from Detroit to Los Angeles, it made it easier to have everyone stay over to give everyone just a few more hours of sleep. But, we never need much of an excuse to get together, have a smorgasbord of food, facials, and manicures. It does not take much to please six college students, and being together, in general, is entertaining. While it was a sleepover, in theory, the amount of sleep I got constituted more like a nap. The alarms sounded, a small breakfast was set out, and we rolled out to make our flights. My dad was our chauffeur and dropped us off curbside at Detroit Metro. The dreaded task of getting through security could have been smoother, but by no means was it traumatic. At this point, the six of us split off to catch three different flights and would soon reunite at LAX. My flight took me and my little travel group to Chicago for a quick layover before touching down in Los Angeles. I could not have asked for a better flight. I grabbed an outrageously overpriced BLT for lunch before retrieving our bags downstairs and wait for the other girls to arrive. Once everyone landed, and luggage was all gathered, we were reunited, and off to catch the first of many Uber rides for this trip. I did not know what to expect from Uber with this being my first Uber experience ever. I have to say it was great, and our driver gave us some pointers on some places to hit in Los Angeles if we had time to sightsee. Sightseeing aside for now; the hotel was the first priority on all of our lists. Booking a hotel for this trip was an interesting endeavor for me. Proximity, cost, and amenities had to be weighed, and the place that checked all of our boxes was Hotel Normandie in Koreatown. It is a swanky hotel that had preserved its 1920’s architecture and vibes. I do not know about the other girls, but I thoroughly enjoyed the stay and could not have asked for better service from their staff. I highly recommend Hotel Normandie for anyone’s Los Angeles stay. After getting settled at the hotel and freshening ourselves, it was soon time for us to attend the ASHA First Timer’s Welcome. ASHA puts on this event to give the newbies a rundown of what to expect and a chance to meet new people in the field. The free food was not half bad either. It was amazing to see a room fill up with people who were attending this convention for the first time, and I took it all in because I knew from there on, I would no longer attend that portion of ASHA ever again. When the evening’s festivities concluded, we were bound for dinner. It came with a high recommendation to check out Myung in Dumplings. Not only did this person tell us it was great, but Anthony Bourdain also gave his seal of culinary approval on it too. It felt good to walk to and from dinner after being cooped up on an airplane for a good majority of the day. It felt like we had lived parts of the day as it was Groundhog Day. With the time changes messing with our heads, we were all looking forward to resorting back to the hotel to get some much-deserved sleep to take on ASHA in high gear the next day. We were given a teaser for what California and ASHA could provide. I went to bed that night excited to see what else was to come on this trip. This was only the beginning for us because California was calling. Stay Curious, Kayla ©Inquisitive Perspectives 2017
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