Universal Studios Trip and Midweek Concert in Hollywood

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Never have I ever...gone to a concert on a weekend. Seriously!

The best concerts always seem to fall on a random weekday, never conveniently on the weekend. I guess musicians value their Saturdays too. Instead of fighting it, we embraced the opportunity to see Durand Jones and the Indications on a Tuesday last fall, which meant a spontaneous five hour drive down the California coast to Los Angeles. Road trip!

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Now, I am not an enthusiastic road-tripper. I'd rather sit in an airport lobby than in a car. If the scenery is beautiful, then great. But if the drive is boring, you better at least have good snacks.

To make the loooong trip worthwhile, we packed our two-day LA itinerary from top to bottom:

First stop, Universal Studios!

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I didn't grow up watching The Simpsons, but even I know about Homer's iconic pink sprinkle donut from Lard Lad Donuts. We couldn't pass it up!

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The Universal Studios twist: it's GIGANTIC!

In case you're wondering, the icing tasted like vanilla. Yummy.

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The Lard Lad Donut Shop is one of many fine eateries within Springfield, where the Simpsons live. We walked through the larger-than-life cartoon cities of Simpsons Plaza and Krustyland on our way to the studio tour buses that drove us around the Universal backlot buildings.