While many American’s like to spend their Labor Day BBQing, I got to enjoy mine on the baseball field. My fiance, Rodrigo, was hired as a casino food and beverage manager earlier this year, and while we were thrilled with the leadership opportunity, it has really put a damper on us traveling together. He can’t get any days off besides his weekend each week. He loves the Los Angeles Dodgers, and while I could care less about that team, I love baseball. We had to get out to LA to see his team once before the season ended, so we took full advantage of his weekend during Labor Day.

We decided to fly to maximize our time in LA. We took my favorite airline Southwest (when it comes to domestic flights I’ve been a loyal Southwest flyer for years). They don’t charge you for bags unless you have a ridiculous amount. They never charge for snacks or refreshments (no joke, they didn’t even charge Rodrigo for his Jack and Coke on our Labor Day flight), and they usually always have fair prices. It was a really early flight so we landed at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) before 8 am.

We were going to rent a car, which I have never done before. I had done a little research online but hadn’t booked anything. I found two places that were very similar in price, Enterprise and MCAR. I thought it would be pretty easy to rent one without a reservation. When we saw the Enterprise shuttle pull up first we decided to hop on. Of course renting a car for us would be a little more pricey since we are both under 25, but after the desk woman put in all our info and told us the total for less than 2 days would be $252, I was shocked. I didn’t even wait to see Rodrigo’s reaction before I told her we would go somewhere else. That is insane for the amount of time we needed it for. We got back on the shuttle to the airport, while I called the other car rental place. When they told me $72 for the same amount of time I knew Enterprise was just trying to pull a fast one on us and charge us way more than necessary. Once we took a different shuttle to MCAR, the process was fast and easy. We received a cute Nissan Versa and the man kindly and thoroughly went over the outside and inside with us.

First stop, of course, was the beach! I love the beach and I was excited because we were checking out a new one this time. I was trying to plan our trip so everything was close to each other. We drove less than 20 minutes South of the airport and we were at Manhattan Beach. It was a nice beach, not as popular as Santa Monica, and we could tell because parking was so cheap. We found a garage that charged less than a dollar per hour. For California that is a deal. We went to Zinc at Shade Hotel for brunch. The restaurants were crowded since it was a holiday but we were able to get a table outside on their patio. We both loved our meals and our drinks. One of the best calamari plates we have ever had, and I had a delicious espresso martini (ok, maybe two).

We walked down to the beach, which was pretty crowded even though it was overcast. I was wishing for the sun so badly but we never saw any while we were there. The water wasn’t too cold though so we swam around and enjoyed the waves a little before getting out and napping on the beach. We left a little before 4 to try to make it to the Dodgers game in time. Our hotel was on the way to the stadium so we stopped to shower off the sand and change. We were staying at La Quinta Inn in Inglewood since it was a central location to everywhere we needed to go. We got back on the road and hit some traffic near the stadium, which caused us to be a little late. One thing I can never get used to is the LA traffic. The lesson here: always leave way before you think you should haha. I had been looking at parking passes online but they were over $16 and I refused to pay that. My plan was to park in a neighborhood near the stadium, but when we got there we saw the farthest parking area (which is still way closer than any of the neighborhoods) was only $5. We parked there, but it was still an uphill climb to get to the stadium.

We had decided to try the all you can eat seats this time around. We sat out in the right field bleachers, which tickets aren’t super expensive but with it come unlimited hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, sodas, and water. I was actually wishing we showed up earlier so we could do some more damage. Before I even had the chance to ask at the concession stand, how the all you can eat tickets worked, I was handed a hot dog and nachos. Rodrigo and I loaded up on all that we could carry, along with some beer (which was not part of the deal, unfortunately) and got to our seats. We had our laps full, but when we saw home run balls coming our way we were quick to stand up. A couple balls were hit close to us, but unfortunately, we didn’t catch any.

Weirdly the Dodgers were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks, who I have seen in Chicago and in Arizona, so I was pretty familiar with. While I am a die hard Cubs fan, I decided to root for the Dbacks. While the Dodgers have the best record in baseball right now, we had caught them during a losing streak, and that didn’t change while we were there. As soon as we got to our seats the Dbacks hit their first home run and they never stopped after that. I felt bad because Rodrigo was hoping for an exciting game, but the Dodgers ended up losing 13-0. It was like batting practice for the Dbacks. Personally, I didn’t mind. I was enjoying my food and the nice sunset that was happening in front of us. I was just happy to be at the ball park with Rodrigo once this season.

After the game, our plan was to go out after to a nice bar in downtown LA, but after the early morning we had and the long day we both wanted to head back to the hotel and call it an early night. We slept in and took our time in the morning since we didn’t have anything planned besides flying home. We had brunch at Coffee Co., which was near LAX. They had some really big portions and unique options, like salmon and eggs. We returned our car to MCAR but forgot to fill the gas tank. We barely used any, but I figured they would overcharge us for it not being full. Surprisingly they didn’t. My last purchase before leaving was some lottery tickets. Sadly I didn’t win, but it is my guilty pleasure since Vegas doesn’t have the lotto.

While our trip was extremely short, we made the most of it. The Dodgers have still been on their losing streak though –  that’s good news for the Cubs.