My Los Angeles Stay-Cation (a 12 Part Series)

Image from the recent West Elm catalog.
I finished my second exam! It was really tough. :( But only one more to go! Because of terrible exam scheduling, I have 12 days until my next and final exam. I thought about going on a trip, but they are so expensive. So I decided to have a Los Angeles Stay-Cation, where I stay in town and do all the things I've been wanting to do but just never got around to because of school. I'll try to report every night on what I've accomplished that day. This is what I've got planned.

Stay-Cation List (in full)
1. Rodarte Exhibit at MOCA
2. French dip taste off: Phillipe's vs. Cole's. Bonus points for finally going to Varnish, the speak easy hidden in the back of Cole's.
3. Vintage shopping in Los Feliz - Although I went earlier with my friend Lynne, I'm a bit more of a treasure hunter than my friend Lynne. I want to go back and really dig through those racks.
4. Check out the independent book stores of Los Angeles. We've got 3 in downtown (Caravan, The Last Bookstore, and Metropolis) and I intend to hit them all. But at the Festival of Books this past weekend, I met the people from an amazing rare bookstore on Sunset (Mystery Pier Book) that I am determined to visit now as well.
5. This is a 2-parter. 1) Go check out Spice Station and 2) cook something awesome with a new spice. Spice Station in Silverlake looks like an amazing store. I've always wanted to go in, and cooking is just something I plain miss.
6. Catch up on books and magazines by the pool and in new found coffee shops. I can't wait to read for pleasure again. I've got 2 Vanity Fairs, 3 Vogues, 1 W, 2 Mental Flosses, and a biography on Cleopatra to keep me entertained while I work on my freckles and caffeinate.
7. Do a new Hike. Escondido Falls has me motivated to see what else LA's got. I heard of a hike called "the bridge to nowhere." How enticing does that sound!
8. Natural History Museum and/or MOCA (not the one with the Rodarte exhibit). The NHM is directly across my school, and yet I've never once gone. Also, MOCA is an easy walk from my apartment (and free on Thursday nights), and of course I've never done that either!
9. Check out the new ventures in the Arts District - Angel City Brewing and the Lazy Ox. I've been dying to go to both.
10. Finish watching The Wire. (Ok this has nothing to do with Los Angeles, but my bf owns the episodes so they stay in Los Angeles.)
11. Hike to the Hollywood sign. This has been a goal of mine since I moved to LA, but it takes a long time. I might finally have that time.
12. If there's time, I also want to get out to the La Brea area and check out some of their shops. I usually never make the effort to get out there (even though its really not far) and I think I'm missing out.

Image from the recent West Elm catalog.
That's a lot of stuff, but I'm really excited to try. Stay-cation here I come!