My dear friend John aka Halcyon made the drive from San Diego just to come up & say hello. I was so

You see, Nubby & I have this tradition: we go away together at least once a year. It s a total treat, especially since we live on opposite sides of the United States (she s based in Portland, barge cruises in france OR while I m in New York City). barge cruises in france It gives us a fantastic opportunity to reconnect, recharge & get reinspired. I woke up on our last morning together & realised this has been a tradition now for five years! We ve been all over the place New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, barge cruises in france Paris, Reykjavik but even when we repeat cities, we like to do it differently every time. We rarely stay in the same hotel, & we always seek out something new.
Of course, inevitably we get to that last day: the day when we wake up early, finish packing, check out, get in a cab & bid each other a sad goodbye. Another inevitability: every time we say, This was the best trip ever! It s true this was our best trip ever! Even better than France, even better than Iceland, even better than Las Vegas. Every vacation raises the bar, but then, we wouldn barge cruises in france t have it any other way!
What follows is a travel diary of sorts, containing holiday snapshots & some recommendations of hotels, shops & restaurants that we loved! I hope that you ll check out some of these ideas if you re heading to Los Angeles in the near future!
barge cruises in france The last two times we visited Los Angeles, we stayed at the Palihouse Hotel in West Hollywood. Make no mistake, the Palihouse is an incredible hotel it s more like a short-term apartment than a hotel room, with massive rooms, a cute lobby & very chic decor. But we wanted to try something new, so we decided to stay at The Viceroy . We didn t really barge cruises in france have any idea how much this switch would change our experience, which made it a very pleasant surprise!
Firstly, The Viceroy is in Santa Monica , which turned out to be a complete blessing. Secondly, because it isn t intended for long stays, the vibe is completely different: people staying at The Viceroy are there to relax , not to sit in their room & work on their screenplay. The Viceroy has a fantastic pool scene: two gleaming turquoise pools surrounded by immaculately landscaped lawns & black & white-striped cabanas. You can lounge poolside all day, ordering drinks & food, getting some sun & dipping your toes into the heated water on a whim.
The rooms at The Viceroy are about 1/3 the size of the rooms we were accustomed to at the Palihouse, which was a surprise to us, not least because The Viceroy s price-tag is significant. But the experience is completely barge cruises in france different. The Viceroy is a getaway, a departure from your day-to-day life. It s an escape; an experience. Not to mention, The Viceroy easily makes up for its smaller rooms in other ways: Kelly Wearstler s interior design is out of this world, the service is unequivocably excellent, the entire hotel smells incredible & let s not forget, the location is fantastic.
Nubby & I don t like to drive in Los Angeles. It s a little bit terrifying. We re usually with friends who, in an act of extreme generosity, will happily ferry us around to wherever we want to go. This time, we didn t have constant access to a friend with a car but it turned out to be a great thing.
West Hollywood, where we normally stay, isn t the most thrilling barge cruises in france place to walk around, but Santa Monica IS! Every morning we would walk over to Urth Caffe , get coffee barge cruises in france & people-watch (always super-fascinating in California). Then we d walk down to the beach & inhale the salty sea air while we discussed our plans for the day. Walking along Main Street & the Third Street Promenade is delightful, & being so close to the beach really changed barge cruises in france the way we structured our days.
All that sea air must have gotten to Nubby, because she actually agreed when I suggested we take advantage of The Viceroy s complimentary barge cruises in france poolside yoga classes , & even better, we rented bicycles & cruised down to Venice Beach!
Other great things about Santa Monica: It s pretty much raw food mecca, if you re into that. You ll find Raw Food Daily , Juliano s , Euphoria Loves Rawvolution & a massive amount of other super-healthy places to eat & drink. The Santa Monica Pier with its ferris wheel, rollercoasters, photobooths & swings is super-fun. Also, Third Street Promenade is a pedestrian plaza which glows with fairy lights at night & is filled with performers, food trucks & people walking around barge cruises in france until midnight. We both absolutely loved it.
Usually when we re in Los Angeles, we spend 70% of our time in traffic. Instead, we woke up at 6.30am every morning, got ready & launched into our day. We didn t have to wait around for anyone else, we just launched into whatever activity felt best! The other great thing about walking around everywhere is that you get to see things that you would otherwise simply drive past. We saw so much cool street art, as well as discovering hidden storefronts & adorable houses.
I have been a fan of Lucky Scent for a very, very long time in fact, even before I started this blog in 2006! When I was researching what I wanted to do on this trip, I was delighted to realise they had a retail location in L.A., & it immediately became an essential stop.
What a fantastic store! Tucked away on Beverly barge cruises in france Blvd., this shop is the ultimate treat for your nose. Staffed by immaculate olfactory geniuses, barge cruises in france this is the place to go if you want to smell absolutely delicious. The best thing is that Lucky Scent is known for purveying unique scents: as much as I love Lolita Lempicka & Angel, you won t find them here. Instead, they concentrate their efforts on small, boutique fragrance houses who produce really barge cruises in france special scents.
I couldn t leave without buying something, & I settled on Comptoir Sud Pacifique s Vanille Abricot , which smells absolutely insane. I also picked up samples of Histoires de Parfums 1969 , Kai & Montale s Chocolate Greedy .
Bloggers love a photobooth, & we stumbled across barge cruises in france two while we were in town! The first is on Santa Monica Pier, inside the video arcade but it s a tricky endeavour. We got one $4 strip out of it, & when we went to do another one, it stopped accepting our coins at $3.25! A bit of a battle ensued, & after some hand-wringing, we resorted to brute force. We would draw the curtain (so no one could see us), then take turns kicking the coin-slot until we heard the satisfying clunk of a quarter swallowed & accounted for! Anyway, we got our photos but hopefully we didn t break the machine!
The second photobooth we found was at Le Labo on Abbot Kinney, a really cute shopping strip in Venice. Even better? Le Labo s photobooth is FREE . They simply give you a handful of tokens when you ask about it. It s a digital photobooth, but the pictures are B&W, so you get the retro feel with the perks of a clean-looking picture! Perfection. It s such a cute shop, too I recommend visiting & stocking barge cruises in france up on candles & fragrance!
Shark attack! Photo by Mary Bee. (P.S. Did you know that my husband got bitten by a shark in California?! Crazy but true! He had to get a skin graft, & has a scar on his leg! He also got a shark tattoo to commemorate! What a weirdo!)
I met Mary in 2006 in San Francisco, about three days after Burning Man had completely obliterated both of us! We have kept in touch ever since, & she is such a blessing. Mary is one of those people who can make anyone feel good: she is smart, sensitive, positive & of course, a little ridiculous!
Mary also happens to manage Hidden Treasures , one of my favourite barge cruises in france vintage clothing stores of all time, so when Nubby & I invited her over on Friday night, we didn t know what to think when she walked into our suite hauling three enormous bags full of vintage dresses! It s true: Mary had been stockpiling those dresses for us since last time we were in town (a year ago!). Of course, a crazy dress-up party ensued, complete with bizarre way-too-short girl scout dresses, a Frankenstein-esque patchwork nightmare & a whole lot of incredible treasures! I really, really want to tell you about Nubby s big score but I won t; I ll let her break the news to you in her own way! (Trust me when I say it s good!)
Kat & I had so much fun with the Made U Look Girls in New York City a few weeks ago, but did you know they re actually based in California?! Of course, I had to send them an email inviting them out to dinner & drinks, & we decided to shoot some pictures while we were all together!
What transpired was an absolutely incredible barge cruises in france afternoon & evening filled with snapping shutters, lots of laughter barge cruises in france & a gorgeous ferris wheel ride at sunset. I absolutely LOVE those girls: they have hearts of gold & are completely delightful!
We made quite a sight, I m sure. I was wearing a pentagram t-shirt, pedalling in a pair of motorcycle boots & wearing a black sequin backpack, & Nubby was in black skinny jeans with her Miu Miu handbag sticking out of the basket on her handlebars! barge cruises in france We were quite different to all the groups of families & Very Serious Cyclists that we encountered!
The ride from Santa Monica to Venice Beach is a quick one. Riding barge cruises in france along the boardwalk, with the sand & the sea on one side of you, you instantly feel refreshed & alive. Riding back & forth was one of our favourite moments from our time in Los Angeles. I definitely recommend it if you have time!
My dear friend John aka Halcyon made the drive from San Diego just to come up & say hello. I was so flattered, & it was fantastic to spend some time with him. We ve hung out a little barge cruises in france bit in person, at Burning Man & SXSW , but this was the first time we d spent more than ten minutes in one another s presence.
He set up his video camera & pointed it at us while we sat beside the pool & chatted. Our conversation veered from beauty to fashion to radical self love & gratitude, & I think it s a cute look into the kind of chats we have!
Afterwards, John, Nubby & I headed to Abbot Kinney where we met with Mary Bee, drank coffee at Intelligentsia & mooched around. barge cruises in france As we walked into Intelligentsia known to be some of the best coffee-purveyors on the