On the way to the Pacific, the Michael W Travels family had a long layover in Los Angeles. During our time we had to deal with The Most Expensive Luggage Storage Ever.

I booked our flights from JFK to LAX and LAX to NAN using points on different airlines.  We chose  to have the long layover in Los Angeles since we didn’t want to take a chance on missing our international flight.  We initially figured that it would be a good opportunity to wander around LA.

However, in LA things are really spread out, Uber rides can be pricey and traffic could be a real pain.

In the end, we decided it was best to go on a little junk- foodie adventure before heading back to our hotel to relax before our long flight.

Here are the stops we made during our short time in Los Angeles:
I first heard of Randy’s Donuts from one of the shows on Travel Channel. I’m not sure what I wanted to do more- see the giant donut on the roof or actually try their donuts!

The answer would definitely be both! Kim, Lucas and I loved seeing the massive donut on the roof of Randy’s. (Theo could care less!)

When we approached the walk-up window, the smell was amazing. And with so many varieties, we had some tough decisions to make. Our favorites were the Glaze (photo above) and the Chocolate Long John Bar.

I’ve long wanted to try a classic Cali-style burger in California. To help decide where to go, I turned to what I’d consider the burger bible, the book Hamburger America by George Motz.

This led us to The Apple Pan which Motz considers one of the best burgers in America while also being somewhat close to LAX.The Apple Pan offers counter service and it looks like not much has changed since the place opened back in 1947.

The counterman were friendly and served our food with a smile. I had read that the burger came with a lot of fresh lettuce which sounded good but the problem I felt was that it was way too much lettuce, taking away from the taste of the burger.

Around half way through I removed most of the lettuce and then tasted a much better burger although I wouldn’t call it the best burger in America. (I forgot to mention, I ordered the Hickorybuger which had a very tasty BBQ sauce on it.)

With another classic burger stand under a 10 minute walk from The Apple Pan I had to make one last stop.

We killed some time by wandering around and then walked over the Marty’s Hamburger Stand which is located between a gas station and a firehouse.
Marty’s is famous for the Combo which is a burger with a hot dog on top. None of us had the appetite to go for the combo. We decided to share a single cheeseburger.

The burger was cooked on a griddle top and smelled great. Once it was ready, we grabbed a table in the back. (There is no inside seating at Marty’s.)

From the first bite I was impressed with Marty’s. The burger had tons of flavor and was also oozing with cheese. Kim and Lucas also agreed that Marty’s came out on top against The Apple Pan.

After our little junk-foodie adventure, we headed back to our hotel to relax before heading off to the airport.

While we didn’t have a chance to see Los Angeles, we did get a small taste of the city!