My friend April is coming to Nashville in less than NINE HOURS. And I couldn't be more excited. I can actually hardly believe it. We both love to explore, and have had so many adventures in Los Angeles, that I'm so looking forward to discovering Nashville and parts of Tennessee with her! 

In celebration, I'm posting a series of spots we scouted on a serious adventure day back in Los Angeles with her and another friend Eugene.

So began one of the most full and fun days before I left L.A. 

First stop: The Original Los Angeles Flower Market. Located in the Los Angeles Flower District. 

A lot of event planners (particularly wedding) and other professional people use this market as a go-to source for flowers. It had been on my to-do list for about a year. But I heard you had to get up at 4am or maybe it was something like be there at 4am. Whatever the case, waking up that early just did not fit into my sleep schedule. And I was completely wrong anyways.

I found out that actually the market is open on Saturday's from 5am (...still a little too early for me if I'm just going to check it out) to 2pm. It wasn't until after we had planned our day that I also realized they had a little market on Saturdays starting at 10am. So you could really spend a lot of time here skipping through the warehouse flower filled halls and getting lunch after. 

The parking was a little tricky to figure out — I of course, ended up parking in a parking garage that was actually for a (really great) crafts supply store which meant I had to purchase something from there to get validation/"free" parking. But parking there isn't really that hard. I'd go for the metered parking if possible. Or off-site parking if you want to pay a day fee and then Uber on to other places.

I meandered around until April and I finally found each other (there's a couple warehouses of flowers, and lots of flowers, so "I'm by the sunflowers" was kind of a non-helpful indicator of location).

You really can't go wrong with visiting a place of many flowers. I had been (full disclosure) kind of a brat to my mom that week so I wanted to do something nice for her and bought some hydrangaes because those are her second favorite and the peonies were a little pricey that day. I would recommend buying things like a cactus or succulent instead though if you're going to be out all day — the hydrangaes were deceased by the time I got home that night (it was also a really hot day). It's the thought that counts though right? 

I loved the variety of flowers and succulents. And some of the flowers that had rainbow-dye or marbling on them were also really beautiful. 

The earlier you get there, the better because there's more of a selection. You can also pre-plan your flower trip by looking at the floor map here. Or just wing it and smell the roses like April and I did.