Shakespearean Picnic

As a native Los Angelina (i.e., a female someone who's lived in/near Los Angeles) all my life, I had never been to Griffith Park, which is located off the 5 Freeway near the Los Angeles Zoo. Griffith Park is home to many challenging trail runs for those enthusiasts as well as an observatory that I still have not visited.

I got to go there this weekend for a picnic and some arts. And by "arts," I mean an independent production of Shakespeare.

Before I left, I had to make sure to bake something:

So I took the old oatmeal cookie recipe... you know, that one on the lids of Quaker Oats. I halved it and tweaked it a bit by adding a mango/cranberry/golden raisin mix instead of plain raisins, almond extract instead of vanilla, and a 50/50 old-fashioned and quick oats combo.

I also baked it in one big piece rather than a bunch of cookies. It yielded 24 cookie squares. I kept 'em cool so they got hard, and they were "Ukrainian"-approved! I liked how the almond flavor definitely came through and made this taste really different from your run-of-the-mill oatmeal cookie!

But apparently, I wanted more cookies! This was at Fresh & Easy, where we picked up some other stuff like egg salad and Greek yogurt.

It was a rough, rough climb to get to the appropriate picnic area, and the hot weather did not help.

Look at all the animals I consumed! Actually, I didn't eat too many of them like I thought I would!

I was also trying to keep myself entertained while we waited. I nearly won a game until the wind blew my efforts away.

Dinner was NOT pictured because I was starting to get a bad headache from my long run earlier that day, but it consisted of a cranberry/almond/red onion/tomato/spinach/arugula salad with vinaigrette, some sandwich thins with PB/vegan cream cheese + hummus. We ate watermelon pieces later on during the evening.

The show, which turned out to be "Much Ado About Nothing," began around 7 PM on this stage. There were probably 750 people there. It was about 3.3 hours long, counting a 10 minute intermission. The actors were great, and the show was very entertaining! I don't like musicals all that much, which is generally what I end up attending. So this was a nice break from that!

I should also note that right before the show began, I asked "The Ukrainian" to get me a full-fledged caffeinated coffee from the concessions, as my headache was worsening to nausea point, and I had no meds on hand. That stuff saved me from utter barfville and allowed me to enjoy the show and people-watching. I didn't get any jitters or have any issues sleeping... hmm, weird!