Auckland and L.A. Day 7: Surprise extra vacation!

Our flight from Auckland to LA didn’t leave until 7:30 on Sunday evening, so we had most of the day on Sunday to have fun. We went to a Thai Fruit and Flower Festival on Sunday morning, which was, suffice it to say, disappointing. Then we had lunch at Euro, on Princes Wharf. I didn’t take any pictures, but it was a really good lunch—I’d definitely recommend Euro enthusiastically.

Durian at the Fruit and Flower Festival. It smelled bad.

Then we got on our Air New Zealand flight, and eleven and a half hours later, we touched down in Los Angeles. As soon as we turned on our phones, we were greeted by the lovely message that our connecting flight from LA to JFK had been cancelled—apparently all up and down the East Coast the airports were closed because of terrible weather. So… American Airlines had rebooked us on a flight the next morning, which left us with a bonus surprise afternoon and evening in L.A.

Once we got lunch, got hotel rooms, checked in, and got ourselves together, it was late afternoon. So we headed to Rodeo Drive just to walk around a little bit and soak up the California sunshine. Soon, I was hungry for dinner, because God knows what time my stomach thought it was. So we stopped at this café/restaurant called A Cow Jumped Over the Moon in a courtyard in a small shopping enclave. It’s hard to describe, but it was a really nice outdoor seating area, and we were seated right away.

The (complimentary) bread that they brought immediately was really delicious—it was very crackly and crunchy, with lots of good air pockets. I devoured a bunch of it with the good butter.

Best part of the dinner

For an entrée, I ordered the Mediterranean salad. On the menu, it said it was mixed greens with sundried tomatoes, shallots, roasted red peppers, olives, and feta. When the salad actually arrived, it was mixed greens with fresh tomato wedges, shallots, cucumber, and canned black olives. I was sort of puzzled until I looked back at the menu and realized that the only thing “Mediterranean” about this blatant mixed greens salad was the olives. Um, sure. I was really hungry so I ate it, and it was a standard mixed greens salad. I wish I had gotten what I ordered, though.

Can't you just feel the Mediterranean breezes?

My mom ordered the almond-crusted salmon salad, which was supposed to come with roasted zucchini, red peppers, and summer squash. What arrived was sesame-crusted salmon on a bed of the same mixed greens salad I got, minus the olives. So apparently the menu at ACJOTM is merely a ruse—you can choose what you want, but they’re going to give you whatever they want to.

Some sort of salmon. Whatevs.

We got the bill and paid promptly, only after noticing that everyone in the place, including the waiters and owners, was wearing yarmulkes… apparently it’s a kosher/Jewish restaurant. As Jews, we were happy about that, I guess. Or rather, we were just extremely tired.

But before we went to bed, we stopped at the nearby Il Cono Gelato and got some gelato. I got Reese’s Whipps and hazelnut, and my mom just got hazelnut. It was good. We were tired. So we went back to the Hilton LAX, fell into bed, and slept until our very, very early flights the next morning, which took us home. And now—I am back in NYC, very very tired still, but ready to take on the New York food scene once again!

Last gelato of the trip! So sad...