Days 2 & 3

I love being able show this city off and you can find a lot in a few city blocks. French food, crafts, boutiques, City Target Boutique, something called a fonut w/ umlaut, famous Magnolia cupcakes, etc. Day 2 was a take it easy day, something didn't agree with me, but it didn't stop us from shopping up and down third with a stop at another cafe favorite, Joan's on Third. It can get crowded with the brunch crowd, but 4:00 on a Saturday was pretty perfect. Great for people watching and wandering aimlessly from counter to counter. Do I want a macaron? Homemade potato chips? Some charcuterie? Black sesame chicken wings? A latte? We sampled some things. They make a mean chicken salad.

Why do people go out with each other just to punch away at their cell phones?

At dinner we reminisced over France in the cozy dining room of the Whisper Lounge.

Sunday came quickly it was up then crepes and coffee and off for a quick wander through the Melrose Trading Post. Which is really great people watching. There was a stall that just had people hanging out and playing with their laptops in this Moroccan themed lounge space with belly dancing music blaring bobbing their heads. We couldn't figure out what they were doing and selling and never asked. Oh LA.

We borrowed Brian's truck and headed across Sunset to the Getty. I like being able to see this place through other people's eyes. It is easy for me to see this place as work and it completely loses the awe factor. It is pretty awesome, this white city on the top of the hill filled with art. It is hard to know where to start. I usually start with the garden putting in my tour information like that meyer and irwin did not see eye to eye and there are little jabs at each other in this space. I felt like a bad tour guide because i couldn't think of the word Travertine, especially after cursing it for years after getting high heels stuck in it. That is by the way why most of the employees wear flats.

Then it was to the Irises and the splendid decorative arts and off before traffic got too bad.

It was a whirlwind weekend and just a taste of the city. We never made it to high tea at the Biltmore, but alas next time.

Did you have fun?

Yarn is for lovers

I don't know if it was the good food, wine, or company but we all found this store window both perplexing and hilarious. A perfect gift for you and your significant other or fraternal conjoined twin.

I'm wishing....

I can't believe that it has been almost three weeks since I had visitors and this is the first time I have had the chance to write about it.

So.... Without further ado 3 days in LA.

This is the first time I have had visitors come by train, which was fun. Unfortunately my IPad is so backlight that my sign reading Eden/Isom looked more like i was shining a pane of light towards them. Design flaw. Fortunately it doesn't look like we have aged a day since the last time we saw each other 5 or so years ago.

From that train it was to another train and off to the depths of Union Station to take the subway to my apartment for the nickel tour. I would say dime, but my apartment is small and our tour was super quick because our taxi arrived almost instantaneously. Planes, trains and automobiles for sure.

It was not a half hour in before we saw our first celebrity, Snow White walking up Normandie in Koreatown. Probably wishing for her true love to find her that day.

I got a good round of chuckles from the back as the cab driver and I launched into an exchange of directions a la The Californians. (Take Normandie, to 6th Avenue, to Hauser, to beverly and down Fairfax so you can drop off in front) If you haven't seen the SNL sketches you really should. We really do spend a lot of time talking about routes. My route that day was strategic. Hancock Park really has some amazing houses, plus some celebrities live their like Muhammad Ali, as we learned from our Taxi driver, one of the few people i have met who have lived in LA all their life.

We were dropped outside the Farmer's Daughter, which has become the hotel of choice when family visits as does our first stop which is always Cafe Marmalade.

We had shopping on our brains and got a good workout hitting the stores in the Grove which worked up an appetite for the restaurant I chose for dinner,one of my favorites The Little Next Door. One of the best places to escape LA while being in LA.

I am bad at math and it seems like they are too. You can get an entire prix fix menu for $28, which includes soup or salad, any entree on the menu, and dessert. (Psst..most of the entrees are over $20 and they don't give you smaller portions)

I got a salad, a heaping bowl of moules and frites and the soufflé which come warm with gravy boat of creme anglais and real whipping cream. I ate every last bit.

To be continued, but here are photos. If it were possible the Farmer's Daughter got cuter since last time I was there.