A Day in LA

You take the 405 to the 101...

After a full day of work, I hopped on a plane to LAX for a weekend adventure in Los Angeles & Santa Barbara for my aunt’s birthday! I highly recommend flying around sunset if given the opportunity, the views do not disappoint.

I landed right on time, but my sister and mom were still waiting on the tarmac AND needed to pick up bags, so my Aunt Caroline took me to In-n-Out for a quick evening snack. Of course, right as we stepped up to order, Gina called and told me that they were ready to be picked up. As always, it all worked out, I got my burger and they didn't have to wait too long, and went to Aunt Julie’s house for the night.

On Saturday morning, Gina and I decided to take an early morning (LA doesn't get started until 11 or 12, we went at 8:30 am) walk down to Alfred {Coffee + Kitchen} for coffee. Here's me going all paparazzi on Gina. 

On the way, we stopped by and checked out the newly opened Alfred Tea Room since it was under construction the last time we were here. 

Our path home takes us right by the instafamous Paul Smith pink wall and we took this opportunity for a mini photoshoot. Very, very LA. 

After a lazy morning, we ventured out to Malibu to eat brunch at Malibu Farm, which is situated right on the pier. We were not thinking, and should have left earlier in order to get a parking spot. In the end, we circled the area for 30 minutes, mostly consisting of a arguing, before paying for parking. Fortunately, there was only a short wait for brunch, so we wandered the pier and watched the surfers.

If you ever come to LA, you HAVE to make a special trip to Malibu Farm. First off, it’s a perfect location; I mean, how can you beat the pier?? You're literally on the water, literally. The restaurant itself is SO CUTE; I spent half my time admiring the décor and nautical theme. Plus, the food is amazing, both local and organic. This place is a cannot miss.

Once the food had been devoured, we walked to the end of the pier to see Malibu Cafe and a fun surf store. I absolutely love Malibu, maybe I'll live here one day!

Now so far on this trip, I'd been the car DJ, constantly playing my favorite band LANY (you should def go check them out if I haven't told you to already). They're based in LA and have the perfect California road trip summer vibes and I forced everyone to listen to them as we drove up and down the coast. Life is good!

Life got even better when Paul, the lead singer, tweeted out the location of the flowers on their album artwork. Basically, I made us drive around LA to find these specific flowers. I was quite happy, but I would constantly be reminded throughout the rest of the trip of LANY flowers seeing as flowers happen to grow ALL AROUND LA. Whenever we see flowers growing on a wall or even a bush, my mom or Gina would say "Hey look LANY flowers!!!". Never heard the end of it. Still haven't. 

Well, after the LANY flower excursion, we ended up close to a neighborhood called Larchmont which happens to have a Salt & Straw aka my FAVORITE ice cream shop. We were on a bit of a time crunch, but there's always time for ice cream, so we parked and scurried in.

Please be proud of me, I ordered one of their special summer flavors, the wildberry sherbet (it was something like that). REAL refreshing. 

It was pretty late in the afternoon and we had to pick up Caroline and head up north for a housewarming party. Caroline's friend Brad, who we went to the Broad with, just purchased a house! CONGRATS BRAD! The place looked amazing!

Before we could enjoy some of the festivities, we had to make a few errands, so we dropped Caroline off and went to Glendale. In the area is the Museum of Neon Art, so we popped in before they closed. Super fun place, although much smaller than expected. It was a great concept and fun to look at all of the vintage signs lit up!

Just across the way from the museum was Lemonade and I'm an absolute sucker for this place. We grabbed a snack and lemonades (duh) before we ran our errands. 

We went back to Brad's and had a grand old time before hitting the road to Santa Barbara!