California Dreamin, Part 1

On friday morning, I flew out to Los Angeles California. One of my close friends moved out to Silicon Valley back in May, but she was heading to a work conference in LA and invited me out, so I went.

She arrived several hours after me, so I waited/relaxed at one of the outdoor bars overlooking the pool. Once she did make it, we were both pretty tired, so we got some pizza and hung out for a bit before going to sleep. Being that I was leaving on Monday, we knew that we had a busy couple of days ahead of us.

patio livin

one of my favorite shirts, and Stella

Saturday morning we were up early. We got in a cab and went straight to Santa Monica Pier.

me and my Starbucks. I treated myself to one all 3 days

I didn't realize this was the end point of Rt 66

excuse my finger

landmark

love this shot

obviously slightly obsessed with the ferris wheel

After the Pier, we headed down to the Promenade because we heard they had some cute shops and restaurants. However, it was basically like an outdoor mall- all of your regular stores like H&M and Express. The only cool thing about it was the random farmer's market we ran into. I tried pomegranate juice for the first time (gross) and garlic infused cheese (meh), and bought some blueberries, homemade SAGE honey (SO good), and all natural tee tree oil soap. I'm not a huge fan of farmer's markets in general, because they're usually overcrowded and I don't buy a whole lot of fruits/veggies, but I loved this one.

seen on the street- truth 

cool flowers at the farmer's market

Lisa and I

We also had lunch on the Promenade at a place called Cabo Cantina. We had delicious sangrias and I tried fish tacos for the first time. I don't know why I've waited 30 years to try them. They were ah-mazing. So good that I ate them before snapping a pic #bloggerfail

Then we decided to walk to Venice Beach. They said it was about 1 1/2 mi, but in 90+ heat, it felt MUCH farther. On our way, we passed the apparent original location of Muscle Beach, and some street performers, where this guy was in the crowd, just chillin with his boa. Because, California?

not even kidding. and yes, it was alive and slithering around quite a bit

The first thing we noticed about Venice Beach was the smell of pot. "Oh, we must be here." There were stands lining the sideway and all sorts of people, but mostly artists, stoners, street performers, and a few "normal" looking tourist types like us. I'm not gonna lie, I did not feel particularly safe there. We walked around for about an hour before feeling like we had enough. 

upcycled transfortmer

another upcycled creation of the Star Wars variety

"artist" doing his thang with the change people left for him 

This guy freaked me out. And why is he above a CVS? I will never know

We went back to the hotel and rested/recharged a bit before changing and heading to Sunset Blvd for some drinks and dinner. We were originally planning on trying to find a place to have drinks, eat and dance later, however, the very friendly concierge at the hotel told us that no such place existed on the Blvd. We could either have drinks/dinner in a bar, upscale drinks and dinner in a lounge, or go to a club.

I honestly don't remember the last time I went to a club. Though originally it sounded appealing (clubbing on Sunset Blvd? How could we not?), our old lady status caught up with us after dinner and we decided against it. Too much work- standing on line, paying cover charges, only to have to fight your way to the bar for overpriced drinks and onto the dance floor, to possibly be grinded on by um...anyone? No, thank you. So we grabbed wine and beer at a liquor store, went back and changed into PJs and brought our brown bags (yes literally) down to the pool where we hung out until we finished everything we had to drink. Hands down, my favorite part of the trip. I loved just catching up with Lisa.

watermelon martini

ridiculously good lobster ravioli 

this store, because who doesn't want mo'of me?!!
I just liked that the sign had my name in it