What does Valentine’s Day mean in your house? Booking a sitter and heading out to a blissfully quiet restaurant date? Decorating heart cards with loads of stickers and colored pens? Gorging on chocolate? However you partake in Cupid’s festival, we have a few ways that LA can make your V-Day memorable.
For Everyone: Love at the Aquarium
At the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Valentine’s Day Late Night and Dinner you can see the fantastic marine life that the museum has to offer, and enjoy the animals at twilight, because the watery wonderland stays open until 9:00 PM. The aquarium also has a delicious Valentine’s Day-themed dinner, but sign up for the dinner ahead of time, as it can get sold out fast!
For Elementary: True PabLove Event
Why not celebrate Valentine’s day teaching the value of charity to your kids? The Pablove Foundation’s True Pablove event on February 9 will raise money for children’s cancer research and programs that help kids living with cancer. Your child can decorate cards for patients in Pediatric Cancer hospitals, and other unique craft booths promise hours of fun for kids of all ages. With delicious food and drinks, live music, and a silent auction, the event will never have a dull moment.
For Middle School: Nudity Search at the Getty
We know that preteen and early teen years are filled with awkward firsts: maybe a first kiss, a first date, or just a first crush. With all the immaturity and giggling that comes with the middle school-aged set, why not really give them something to laugh about. Watson Adventures offers a scavenger hunt called The Naked at the Getty, and no previous knowledge of art or nudity is required. Follow fun clues and search the paintings with naked subjects – they are already on display at a world famous museum, so you know they can’t be that inappropriate. Let your kids bring a couple friends, then hang back and watch them giggle their brains out. Isn’t that just what Cupid would have wanted?
For High School: Downtown Art Walk
The next LA Art Walk is on February 14th, with a bevy of Valentine’s themed art to go along with the traditional fun and funky stuff usually seen at the event. Food trucks line up, so you can either drop your kids off and head to a nice restaurant with your significant other, while the teens run wild or enjoy the al fresco options together. There is always great security and police presence at the event, so you don’t have to be afraid of Downtown at night.
For Parents: Fall in love with the new A.O.C.
Celebrity chef Suzanne Goin and her sommelier partner/owner Caroline Styne have migrated their successful small-plates restaurant A.O.C. from it’s original home near the Grove to a new space, that once housed two beloved restaurants, the old Joe Allen’s and Orso space near Cedar Sinai. The location just has to have good karma, and we can’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s Day than seeing one of our favorite restaurants relocate to one of our favorite spaces.
Finally – it’s too late to order fancy chocolates by mail so head on over to Brentwood and grab some delicious artisinal chocolates from Compartes Chocolatier. And keep this link bookmarked for special occasions throughout the year!
