Travelling From Coast To Coast August 2023: Day 7 - Melrose Trading Post, Griffith Park & Pasadena

[moosha]

Day 7: Sunday 13th August 2023

This morning we had a bit of a lie in and didn’t get up until 6.30 am. I think we were pretty exhausted after the previous evening’s accommodation debacle, and luckily this morning we didn’t have to leave until 8.30. Seren was complaining that she’d had a really bad night’s sleep but she couldn’t pinpoint the problem. She actually had the same issue all four nights we were here which was really odd as she’s usually able to sleep anywhere and has always been a really sleepy person and a heavy sleeper. Bizarre. I don’t know if the problem was she found the pillows or mattress uncomfortable or if it was just…bad vibes. As much as she liked this hotel, she was really happy when we moved on so she could get a good night’s sleep.

I think we may have bought some cereal and almond milk at Vons the previous afternoon as there’s no way the girls would have gone until mid morning without eating which was when we next ate. I have a vague recollection of buying cereal in LA and the girls and Mat having some in the suite this morning.

As planned we set off at 8.30 am. The friendly hotel staff greeted us as we walked through the lobby, and one of the valet guys brought our car out of the parking garage. Waiting for the car:





Of course, on top of the extortionate $65 per night valet fee, we then had to tip every time we got the car out again. Flip’s sake.

This morning we were heading to the second of this weekend’s flea markets. It wasn’t far away and it took about 10 or 15 minutes for us to drive there. Melrose Trading Post takes place at Fairfax High in the Fairfax district which confusingly also seems to be called Beverly-Fairfax. According to my photos, Apple refers to it as the Melrose district. Anyway, it’s the bit of the city bordered by Hollywood, West Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire and Hancock Park. Melrose Avenue runs through the middle of it and is known for shopping. Certainly this far east, it’s a bit more edgy than the high end stores on Melrose in West Hollywood.



We were about 15 minutes early for the flea. We needed gas and handily, there was a gas station across the street so we took the opportunity to fill up while we waited.



We then drove over to the valet parking entrance for the flea which was on one of the side streets off Melrose, but the attendant told us they didn’t start admitting cars until 9 am when the flea opened.

There was some available street parking on Melrose in front of the school so we hovered there until 9 am when we drove back round and dropped off the car. Valet parking is free but I think it fills up by the middle of the day which was one of the reasons we had decided to arrive at opening.

Across the street:



Whereas Los Feliz Flea the day before had been free to enter, there’s a $6 admission charge for over 12s at Melrose Trading Post. The funds raised support students at the school via Greenway Arts Alliance, a local non-profit organisation. You can pay on the gate or buy online in advance, which is what I had done to make life easier.

You can tell by their faces that the girls were well and truly fed up of posing for photos by this point in the trip which was unfortunate this early in the day:





The ATM here was just by the entrance gates so the girls took out some money so they were ready to spend. We then showed our tickets on my phone and walked into the grounds. First stop for Mat and Seren was of course the restroom, and because it was already getting hot, I hosed the girls down with spray sunscreen while they told me they didn’t need it and frantically tried to run away and start shopping.

Melrose Trading Post is bigger than Los Feliz Flea and doesn’t have the same cosy feel. It is, however, one of the most well-known flea markets in Los Angeles and they even have a celebrity hall of fame on their website. Celebrities who’ve been spotted shopping at Melrose Trading Post include Lana Del Rey, Willow and Jaden Smith, Jennifer Garner, Chris O’Dowd, SZA, Paris Hilton, Joe Jonas, Usher, Shawn Mendes, Kendall Jenner, Taylor Swift (like 10 years ago) and Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck (only last year.) Unfortunately we didn’t see any celebrities during our visit.

So the girls went off to shop and we went off to find a) coffee and b) a place to sit down. I mentioned in yesterday’s report that both yesterday and today’s flea markets were a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone situation, in that the girls got to shop while I got to check out a special (for me) location. Yesterday it was the playing field from the end of Grease and today’s was even more of a big deal to me. As anyone who’s read my reports or follows me on Instagram knows, my biggest obsession is my favourite band, Red Hot Chili Peppers. They’ve been my favourite band for 32 years, I’ve seen them in concert 13 times in four countries, have three RHCP tattoos…blah blah blah. I had a handful of Chili Peppers’ sights in the holiday plans (they’re an LA band for anyone who doesn’t know) and so far we’d visited original guitarist Hillel Slovak’s grave and the RHCP star on the Walk of Fame. For a very long time, I’d been aware of the fact that Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Hillel and original drummer Jack Irons all went to Fairfax High School and that’s where they met. I never thought I’d get the chance to visit as generally you can’t just walk onto the grounds of a high school. Then I saw Melrose Trading Post somewhere online and realised where it was held. So as we made our way through the grounds, I was excitedly taking it all in and taking lots of photos.



Dropping this one of Anthony and Flea in here too. Sorry, not sorry:







Melrose Trading Post is large enough that it has an online map and colour-coded sections. We were heading for the food court section by the food trucks as that’s where the seating area is. We had plans to sit and relax as per yesterday while the girls shopped (plus I needed to message AirBnb about our issue the previous day.) There’s an outdoor stage called Greenway Amphitheater Stage right by the seating area and food trucks and during the event they have live music on the stage. When we got over there, the stage was set up but the music doesn’t start until later in the morning and even by the time we left, the live music was only just beginning. We really were early birds.

So we walked into the courtyard and saw the stage and I got very excited.



There are a few photos of Slash who also went to school here playing guitar on this stage when he was 17 years old. Here’s one of the photos:



Slash was a couple of years behind Anthony, Flea, Hillel and Jack in school as he’s a few years younger but I’m sure I read somewhere that my boys also performed on this stage while they were at school here. I was taking photos and then I just got very overwhelmed and burst into tears. It really hit me that this band who have been a huge part of my life since I was 13 was formed here and if the four of them hadn’t attended school here together, they never would have existed as a band. I was proper sobbing uncontrollably and couldn’t stop. We walked over to the coffee kiosk which was close to the stage and I was pretty embarrassed that I couldn’t stop crying but Mat took over and sorted the coffees while I tried to compose myself.

We had our usual (black Americano for me and double espresso for Mat) and the very friendly people at the kiosk tried to sell us some of the baked goods they had but as they didn’t have anything vegan we unfortunately couldn’t partake. We knew Freya would be all over it when the girls came back though.





I messaged AirBnB and we relaxed for a bit. We were a bit hungry so Mat went round to the food trucks to see if they had anything vegan. This is where the food trucks were located but I didn’t manage to take any photos of the actual food trucks:



He came back with avocado toasts for each of us. They were fine for being the only available vegan option from a food truck.





The girls popped back and said they weren’t finding as much stuff to buy here as the previous day’s flea so they didn’t expect to be that much longer. Half an hour later they were all done. Seren had bought a couple of tops including a Cars children’s t-shirt, a skirt, and a little art print. She had also had a chat with another customer at one of the stands who was an American man who had spent time living in the UK. They had a chat about the British weather (obviously.) Freya had bought a Nike sweatshirt and the book of Carrie by Stephen King. They were both peckish so went off to the food trucks. Freya got a cinnamon roll from the aforementioned coffee truck and Seren got a smoothie.







Both girls absolutely loved their snacks. Just after 11 am we were all done so headed out.







I had something on my list that was a couple of blocks up from Fairfax High School so we didn’t go back to collect the car just yet. Instead we turned right onto Melrose…







…and walked to the corner with N Stanley where the recently created Spotify Taylor Swift My Top 5 Eras mural was located so we could take a few photos.





The girls had photos taken with their favourite eras.













I don’t like having my photo taken so didn’t get involved but if I had, I would have been standing in front of Fearless and Speak Now (with Red also in shot) as those are absolutely my favourite Taylor Swift albums.

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