LA-LA Land

Just a few days after our Howe visitors left, Grammy and Grandad arrived for kid duty so I could go to LA with Matt for a conference. It was the first time I've been able to join Matt on a kid free trip in about a year and a half, and it was so great to have some time away. We stayed downtown near LA Live (and the convention center where the conference was held) and did lots of driving around the metropolis....in our minivan. Hertz must have thought it was hilarious to upgrade Matt's gold status sedan to a mini-van. Nothing like driving a minivan on a kid-free trip. We had lots of laughs about that. Some highlights....

I had the whole day Sunday to wander around while Matt attended conference. I walked a lot and ended up finding the hippiest place I could to enjoy an outdoor lunch.

And then I had to sample some Sprinkles cupcakes. Holy frosting, Batman.

After lunch I read by the pool and enjoyed some coffee until Matt was done.

Apparently the barista thought "Malia" sounded an awful lot like "Melany"

On Sunday night my dear friend, Amanda, came down to have dinner with us. I met Amanda at my first OT job in Columbia, and we lived in the same apartment complex. She moved to LA the same year we moved to Rochester, and I hadn't seen her in 10 years. It was so fun to spend a leisurely dinner catching up!

On Monday, Matt went to the conference in the morning and then we drove over to have an early lunch at In and Out Burger. It was so close to the airport and it was wild to watch HUGE planes land really close as we ate our Double Double Animal Style burgers. Fah-bu-lous!

After lunch we took a drive to Hollywood and did the Hollywood sign hike.

Some totally gorgeous flowers outside a house on our way to the car after the hike.

After a nap and a shower, we headed over to go to the Mayo Alumni happy hour reception on Monday evening before enjoying the best meal of the trip. Little Sister was listed as the hottest restaurant in LA in an article Matt read, and it did not disappoint. It was a SE Asian fusion restaurant. I had no clue what to order, so we sent the menu to Eleyna and she texted us what to order. A truly amazing and delicious meal. Plus we had the best table in the restaurant--right in the front window to watch the crazy and bustle walk by outside.

Silly selfies before we left the room. Matt kept accusing me of putting my head behind his so his head looked too big....

My rather handsome dinner date.

On Tuesday we hit Hollywood after Matt went to the morning conference. Matt was so bummed that we didn't get Jimmy Kimmel Live tickets...but then right before we left the hotel we found out we got them! So we quickly changed into nicer clothes and walked around the Walk of Fame after lunch before getting in line for the show taping.

Probably the funniest picture of the trip--Matt told me to do my best Marilyn Monroe impression....and I totally failed. I was trying to hold my purse and cardigan and water bottle and instead looked like I had to pee.

I'd list attending the Jimmy Kimmel show in my top 10 of fun life experiences. I wasn't that excited to go, as Matt was, but it was just so much fun. It was really neat to see how the show was taped and all the things that had to come together to make it work. The energy was high and everyone was so nice and it was just great. Our seats were fabulous, and we were really excited to find out that in addition to Geena Davis, there were 3 cast members from Game of Thrones (a favorite show of ours) there as well! I snapped a few pics of us on the TV after we got home.

You can see us below in the far right bottom corner.

Back of our heads, mid-picture

After the show taping, we drove back to the hotel and then walked over to Bottega Louie for a delicious Italian Meal and some macaron sampling.

On Wednesday morning, I decided to walk back over to Bottega Louie to try out their breakfast in the patisserie. Lemon-Blueberry Ricotta pancakes and the most delicious cappuccino ever.

Gorgeous macarons just waiting to be enjoyed. A rainbow of deliciousness!

After Matt's morning conference, we drove to Santa Monica to grab lunch, see the Santa Monica Pier and then walk along the beachfront path down to Venice Beach (about 3 miles one way)

Santa Monica Pier ferris wheel in the background

Cool graffiti on the way to Venice

We both really wanted to see Muscle Beach...and to be honest, it was not impressive. But it was fun to go and take some silly pictures of us flexing ours.

The Venice Beach boardwalk was gross. I feel about it like I feel about New Orleans--glad I saw it, but don't need to go back. We had a laugh about all the medical marijuana "clinics" there. Matt was calling shenanigans on the $40 evaluations.

Maybe I'll adopt this as my life motto?

Our tired feet made it back to the parking garage in Santa Monica, and as we typed in our next destination into the GPS, I couldn't help but marvel at how close the apartment balconies were to the parking garage. Imagine spending gobs of money just to have a view of cars. California is crazy...

We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu and had some fish tacos at Malibu Seafood--a literal shack with picnic tables overlooking the water and the hills.

And then we decided we needed dessert. So I did some research and we headed into Westwood right by UCLA to go to Diddy Riese, the apparent number one dessert spot in LA. It was a cookie shop that made killer ice cream sandwiches (choose your two cookies and ice cream and they hand make it for you) for just $2. Amazeballs.

On the way back to the hotel we drove through Beverly Hills...no pictures because our phones were both dead after the GPS app, Waze (the best-ever, by the way--re-routes you due to traffic, etc and was just amazing for this trip), totally drained them. We had a nice smooth flight home on Thursday and it was great to be reunited with the girls. We appreciate our easy Midwestern life with lots of space and fresh air even more. The trip apparently made an impression on Matt because he came home from work on Friday with a skateboard he bought at Scheel's on the way home. Totally awesome, dude.