this month has been a whirlwind with something going on every weekend and every day in between. its been crazy & crazy fun! i traveled to LA over labor day weekend for a girls adventure with my mom & sister. we love going places together since we enjoy many of the same things and go at a similar pace. (& can be totally blunt and honest with each other without anyone’s feelings getting too hurt) i wanted to document our whereabouts since we had some amazing experiences and some fun things to try. we were all over the place – read on if you’re interested 🙂
we picked out a quaint 2-bedroom airbnb that was in a silverlake neighborhood. the price per night was what hooked us in, it was the hosts second time hosting, so his rates were phenomenal and the location was on point. close to places to eat, shops, sunset blvd, echo park and the freeway for easy access. while we saw a lot of homeless people around the neighborhood, we really saw a lot of homeless ppl around the city everywhere in general (hello skid row) but they didn’t seem threatening…for the most part. there was this one morning my mom was reading a book on the patio & a bum peeped over our fence and made crazy eyes at her for a scary second and then fled. we made sure he wasn’t coming back, she said he just looked to be on drugs, but it was still a momentarily freaky experience. other than that our stay was wonderful and here are some highlights of our trip.
out to dinner on night 1 at hache. yummy burgers on the patio for the win.
on day 2 we set out for coffee & breakfast on sunset blvd at alfred, then we met up with some friends family from dallas, who just happened to be in LA the same weekend, at the santa monica pier/beach for a few hours of play. we experienced the iconic pier, then frolicked in the lukewarm ocean and picked up seashells. then we cleaned our feet, put our semi-sandy shoes back on and drove to venice to shop on abbot kinney. what a magical street! the graffiti, the shops, the laid back vibe, the salty air, i loved everything about this area. we definitely didn’t spend as much time here as we could have- there is so much to do & see, but we got a good taste.
i was very conservatively dressed compared to the other photoshoots going on under the santa monica pier.
below is a beautiful of piping hot, fresh margherita pizza from gjelina in venice. this place was recommended by a friend and it did not disappoint! the vibe was so cool, my mom even said “you must be so cool to work here” the staff were all uniquely beautiful, even though the host could have been leonardo dicaprio’s twin. they all had messy, undone hair and no one didn’t have a tattoo. we sat at a high table, which i loved because i LOVE eating standing up. does anyone else?! we sipped on crisp sparkling water and scarfed that pizza down in a few minutes tops & continued on our way.
found the most impressive succulent bouquet…i just had to take an #ootd sitting on these steps! this was taken in front of roots shop.
some other shops we stopped in along this street are ananda, tumbleweed & dandilion, grow, urbanic paper boutique, toms flagship, and so many more….
below is a shot we got into character for because it was an interactive rock ‘n’ roll exhibit by an advertising agency called BDD, promoting the sunset marquis hotel. it looked completely chaotic in there when we walked by and peeked in so, curiously, we went in and the guy encouraged us to jump on the bed, pillow fight, smoke the fake cigs, etc – it was really cool.
we found the venice canals!!! so insane how people’s backyards back right up to the water, one dock even had a ducky float tied to it!
look up
a sick kelsey montague mural that i caught a glimpse of while driving by and whipped into a 7-11 parking lot to turn around to capture. also, there was a bum standing right in front of the mural with his shopping cart for a good 5 minutes so we politely waited until he was done digging through his bags and got outta there to take over the scene.
#urbanlights exhibit at the LA county museum of art.
what you don’t see on the other side of the lens is how many people come here to people watch other people (aka tourists like me) take pictures in between the light posts! it was intimidating to get up in there to get the shot, but we joked through it that mirelle was my instagram husband amongst 100 others. we laughed our asses off and came up with some inside jokes that lasted through the trip and that we still reference today! the exhibit is beautiful at night, i would recommend going when it’s dark outside for sure.
symmetry
day 3 was our last day in LA so we made the most out of it & started out with early breakfast of avocado toast, eggs (not pictured) + coffee at pcp (paramount coffee project), then were one of the firsts in line at the melrose trading post to venture around booth after booth. hours and surprisingly only one purchase later, we left to continue vintage shopping on melrose, which was so much fun. that whole street is cool, but each store has an eclectic feel with pieces from all over, in every era. every shop was different and cool for sure. we spent a few hours trying things on and i found some cool items at crossroads trading, but eventually we shopped ourselves hungry. we checked mirelle’s interactive map for where to have lunch and found this mediterranean place called ta’eem grill & it turned out to be delish!
rule breaker
feast of chicken schwarma, salads, pickled carrots, cabbage, fries, hummus, pita – YUM!
rainbow micheltorena stairs in silverlake that are seen featured on a recent tjmaxx commercial here!
not even ashamed to admit that we got ice cream at salt & straw twice! yes, there are a million sweets places in LA but it was THAT good. i got salted caramel both times (sue me) which was a divine, perfect mix of sweet & salty. they are known for more creative flavors like bone marrow & smoked cherries or honey lavender but i went with what i love. the texture was so creamy and you could tell taste that it was high quality ice cream….we need to bring them to dallas!
not pictured is us meeting up with a friend of mine from my kibbutz days in israel, this post is a major 2010 throwback where i mention elysha + i going on a double date with our then-boyfriends (my now hubby!)- funny how long we’ve known each other and can stay connected throughout random touch points in our lives. she is originally from cali and while living abroad in israel we connected (since we were both from the states and had cool personalities) and so it was really nice to see her in her home state, now that we are both back living in the US with our israeli husbands 🙂 anyways, we all met up at mama’s shelter for some fancy rooftop drinks and a charcuterie board. since drinks and apps are never enough (ha!) we hopped over to stella barra for carbs and dessert of a delicious, giant, size-of-your-hand cookie.
the next morning we flew home, but exploring the different pockets all around the city was an amazing experience. even more amazing was getting to do it alongside two of my favorite peeps who kept me laughing the whole entire time. where to next guys???
