How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Julie Bowen

For Julie Bowen, mom of three teenage boys, a perfect Sunday would include plenty of “me time.”
“My whole family calls laundry and dishes my ‘hobbies,’” she said. “No, no, my hobbies are reading, going to museums, hiking and playing pickleball. Those are my hobbies. They’re like, ‘No, it’s not. It’s laundry and dishes, Julie.’”
Bowen, who won two Emmys for her performance in the beloved long-running ABC sitcom “Modern Family,” is every bit as family-oriented as her character Claire Dunphy. She is currently filming “Happy Gilmore 2” in New Jersey, but when she’s home she prefers to spend time outdoors with her kids near Laurel Canyon.
After spending time in Baltimore, Rhode Island and New York, Bowen became a reluctant Angeleno. “I’m not sure I ever really thought of L.A. as my ‘home’ — in giant capital letters — until I had kids there and realized this is their home,” said Bowen, whose new thriller series “Hysteria!” is now streaming on Peacock. “L.A. is like a choose-your-own-adventure. You can go to some cities like Boston and really feel that it’s uniquely Boston, but L.A. has so many communities, cultures, corners of it. There’s no central Los Angeles. So at first when I moved here, I thought, ‘This is hard.’ But once you find your people, your places, it can really be a magical city.”
On the agenda for Bowen’s perfect Sunday are hiking, antiquing and a stop at Joan’s on Third.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
8 a.m.: Me-time with homemade ginger shots
In my fantasy, I could sleep in really late and then get up and go have brunch. Or make coffee and get back into bed with a book. That is so delicious. But the reality is I wake up early and I’ve come to love it because that is my quiet time. That is my alone time.
On Sundays, I get a whole bunch of turmeric, ginger, lemons and apples and then put on gloves — because the turmeric will turn your fingers orange — peel them all up and bake my own ginger shots for the week because I’m cheap and can’t stand spending $5 on them at Erewhon. I love Erewhon, but I don’t want to pay for the ginger shots so I like to do that in the morning while I’m having my coffee.
I usually get the groceries that morning. There’s a Trader Joe’s near my house that is fantastic. I love Trader Joe’s. I don’t know what I would do without Trader Joe’s. And on Sunday, L.A.’s genius for all of the farmer’s markets that are around. They have them in Hollywood, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Burbank … so I can hit any of those and get what I want.
10 a.m.: Pickleball with the ‘life-wife’
My really good friend, I call her my life-wife, Rachel, was always into pickleball. Her mom started playing years ago and [Rachel] started getting me into it a bit.
Then when I moved into a house that had this weird concrete space in the backyard, I thought, “I guess I could dig it up and make it a garden or something.” And then we measured it and I was like, “Or it could be for pickleball,” and that was that. So now I’m obsessed.
There are also great pickleball courts near my house. There’s the Burbank pickleball [court at Larry L. Maxam Memorial Park] right near the airport. That’s where you can get a really good competitive game, but since I had enough room in my yard to have a pickleball court, I usually just play singles there with my friend. I’m too scared to play doubles. Also, it requires more people.
Noon: Midday refuel at Joan’s on Third
Eventually, when my kids get up, they’re interested in going to Joan’s on Third in the Valley for brunch.
My kids like all the pastries. They go crazy for the chocolate croissant. They have a great berry muffin. One of mine loves to sit down and get the avocado toast. I love just browsing and snacking in there, because they have such delicious things. And I like to get some stuff to throw together for dinner. I’ll tell you one thing that’ll make my kids come together before dinner is when you make up a charcuterie plate from the stuff I get from Joan’s in the morning, that’ll bring them in.
2 p.m.: Wisdom Tree hike
If I could really have the ideal day, I’d throw a Wisdom Tree hike in there, because that, to me, is the greatest hike in the middle of L.A. You get a great view of the Hollywood sign, and it’s fun to remember [that] this is a magical, fun place to live. People travel from all over the world to see that sign.
I have two sons [who’ll] go hiking with me, while the other one likes to go play basketball. And with Wisdom Tree, it gets hot in L.A., so you should either go early or late. But if this is my perfect day, it’s February and I can hike all day.
4 p.m.: Antiques shopping at Ventura Place
Ventura Place is the best. I always love popping into Hide & Seek. It’s a little vintage shop. I don’t think I’ve ever left there without buying something.
I’m always on the hunt for the thing I didn’t know I wanted. I do have certain obsessions that I’m always looking for: folding antique game tables that start little and then you can fold it out. I love furniture that does double duty. At Hide & Seek, in particular, they always have beautiful furniture but I’ll just find an amazing serving spoon or a little statue or a piece of art. It’s just always worth sticking my head in there.
I’m not a very good clothes shopper. I’m lucky enough to hire a stylist for big events, and the rest of the time, I’m afraid that my family says I dress like Derelicte from “Zoolander,” which is not something I’m proud of, but I get it together when I need to.
4 p.m.: Bonus hour to visit the Last Bookstore
In my ideal Sunday, I’d have to add on extra hours to go down to the Last Bookstore in DTLA. That is another very, very special place in L.A. that you kind of have to see to understand. It’s three-quarters art installation, one-quarter books. I still love the smell of a book. I do read things electronically most of the time, but I love a bookstore, and that’s one of the greatest ones in L.A.
I would say literary fiction would be my favorite genre. I do not love pulpy, soapy beach reads. I don’t love mystery. I like really sort of interior kind of pieces. Right now I am reading Adam Johnson, who wrote “The Orphan Master’s Son.” I think he won the Pulitzer for that. I am reading his first book of short stories called “Emporium” that I found at a used bookstore in New Jersey, and I couldn’t believe it because I thought I’d read all of his stuff. And it’s not available electronically as far as I know so I was very excited and have been reading it as slowly as possible, because each page is delicious.
7 p.m.: Family dinner
I grew up having dinner with my whole family every night. Due to varying schedules, [my kids and I] can guarantee that we’ll all have dinner together only one night a week, and that is Sunday night. It’s funny with teenage boys, if you eat too early, you have to make another dinner later.
I would never cook just for me. But when cooking with kids, I try and make each of them do something different. I’ve got one who’s great at grilling, so there’s usually grilled chicken or grilled fish. I always make the salad. One of my kids loves pasta, so he’s always making pasta — from scratch these days, I might add. Crazy. I don’t know how he learned that. I’m going to say TikTok. And the other one is not much of a cook, but we’re like, “You set the table, you clear the table,” he has to do the dishes.
8:45 p.m.: Movies and games
Right now, my kids are really into mind-bending movies, that’s what they refer to them as. So I’ve been introducing them to classics like “The Usual Suspects” and “Memento.” They like it when we have to stop every 10 minutes and they’re like, “Wait, what’s happening?” Ordinarily, that would not be my favorite thing. But you do what you need to do to get along with your kids.
Or else we’ll play a card game. I feel like you can tell everything about a person by the way they bet in a hand of poker, whether they’re brand new or not. I’ve got one kid who will go all in on everything. I love it, but that’s not me. I’m a nerdy student. I get out my little cheat card, because I can never remember the hands, and I sit there and figure out roughly the odds and then I bet accordingly.
10 p.m.: Wind down and prep for bed
I love a Sunday night putter: cleaning out a drawer in my bathroom or giving myself a manicure, because I never go and get them. Just some wind-down time and then go to sleep. In reality, my kids are probably up for a while after I am but they’re old enough that that’s on them now.
It is remarkable how much late night laundry I end up doing. I’m like, “I am going to bed. It is 10.” My ideal time to go to bed, to close the door to my room, is 10 and to be asleep around 10:30, that would be awesome. I can’t remember the last time that happened because there’s always, “Mom, I need my uniform,” and I end up doing laundry or dishes until midnight.