In between rounds of “you post too damn much, stop flooding my streams,” or “do you eat 37 meals a day?” I occasionally hear positive things from my social media followers, such as “you do the coolest things on weekends, I’m so glad I can follow your shenanigans.” Well, thanks! While I often find that I work too much, and spend way too much time sitting on the intarwebs, when I get some free time, I like to explore. But not by myself.

I’ve recently taken to finding new and exciting places around Los Angeles that require little or no money to enjoy (times is tough, people!). So today Lisa and I did a couple fun things.

First we went to the Greystone Mansion & Park. The mansion once belonged to oil tycoon Edward Doheny, a once-prominent figure in Beverly Hills. The house and grounds have long since passed into the hands of the city, and are now available for public enjoyment. Today there was a wedding in the garden and house, so we couldn’t see much, but here are a couple more photos.

After a pleasant picnic in the park, I decided to head downtown to visit the LA Central Library. This library is much like the New York Public Library, or the Seattle Public Library: massive architectural milestones, and incredible book repositories to boot. It was my first time at the library, and I’m guessing it won’t be my last. Fortunately, today was a pretty quiet day at the library, and I was able to browse without crowds. And on weekends they have cheap parking!

Here’s the atrium of the library:

And finally I made a trip into Chinatown, where Lisa and I browsed the strange and wonderful culinary and cultural oddities that make Chinatown unique. How about dried sea dragons?

Then we headed into a mall to grab some boba tea. Unfortunately they were out of boba (for real), so I opted for a vanilla and red bean smoothie. Not bad, not great, way too big.

Total cost:
Greystone Mansion & Park – $0 ($20 if you count the lunch we brought with us)
LA Central Library – $1 for parking
Chinatown – $15 for two smoothies, wasabi peas, kiwifruit jelly candies, and a giant box of oolong tea

Rarely have I ever seen such a diamond in the rough store as Galco’s Soda Pop Shop. Established in 1897, this incredible little place in Highland Park stocks more soda pop than you can shake a stick at. Grab yourself a root beer (or 2, or 20), and then mosey on down to the back of the store where they stock beers from around the world. I’ll be posting some of these as I drink them, but here are a few photos I shot while visiting the store.