That L.A. Magic
After surviving my first rainy winter in Seattle, Josh and I decided to explore the idea of moving to Los Angeles. It was nothing short of magic. We ultimately decided to stay in Seattle, but some days I think to myself, "Did I make a huge mistake???" Luckily, I don't feel that way right now because it's sunny and 85 degrees and we just came back from a beautiful trip to Mt. St. Helens. But man oh man, going through these photos almost made my heart jump out of my chest and start heading south. As I sit here writing, I'm listening to L.A.'s daytime disco band Poolside and dreaming of the ocean, but staring out a window at construction in South Lake Union (a.k.a. Amazonland).
We structured our trip in 3 parts. First, we spent a week in Los Feliz because if we moved, this might be the neighborhood for us. Then over the weekend, we drove down to San Diego to visit Josh's dad. Finally, we spent our second week hiking and adventuring from Long Beach, where my aunt lives.
Orlando Soria Book Signing // WeHo
Before we did anything else, thanks to our friend Dru's PSA in his Instagram Stories, we went to a book signing at West Elm for Orlando Soria, one of my favorite interior designers who has a hilarious blog and social media presence. His clever book, Get It Together, is the only coffee table book I have read from cover to cover, a guide for how to pick yourself back up and put all your hopes and dreams into your beautifully decorated space. I fangirled when I met him. THEN to top it off, I met his old boss, interior designer Emily Henderson from HGTV's Secrets of a Stylist and author of her own book, Styled: Secrets for Arranging Rooms from Tabletops to Bookshelves. Below are photos at the event with Dru, Orlando Soria, and Emily Hendreson.
Since we were in WeHo (West Hollywood, for the uninitiated), I just had to do a little shopping. So we went to Parisian brand A.P.C. - even though I already just bought jeans at their store in New York - to see its beautiful space right on Melrose. I don't have many pictures from our stop in WeHo (I was busy), but included several from last year when I stopped in Kelly Wearstler's home store and The Apartment by The Line in Los Angeles.
Los Feliz
Like I said earlier, Los Feliz (pronounced, "los-feel-us" by locals) is where we'd live in L.A. It has cute coffee shops, restaurants, and ice cream. It is right on the Metro red line (yes, there is public transit in L.A.). It has great hiking and running trails that lead to the best view of the city from Griffith Park Observatory. And it is a short drive into the San Gabriel Mountains. Neighboring Silver Lake has great clothing stores like A.P.C., Mohawk General Store, and Claire V. Also, everybody is SO PRETTY. It's for sure where all the cool kids are going. Including celebrities. Below are photos from Griffith Park.
Coffee Shops: Josh obviously had to work while we were there, so during the day we spent a lot of time at coffee shops. Luckily, there are a lot of them. It's apparently where everyone does their work in L.A., maybe because of the nature of Hollywood industry and all the creative hustle. So they're all jaw-dropping. Seattle always had a reputation for coffee, but you can find good coffee shops everywhere now. L.A. definitely tops Seattle's coffee shops for decor. My favorites include national brands La Colombe (from Philly!) and Intelligentsia (from Chicago) and the local Dinosaur Coffee and Go Get 'Em Tiger.
Food: You will not make it to every restaurant, so how do you choose? Well, the internet obviously. But before you Yelp it, perhaps try Gwyneth Paltrow's East Side Guide on her blog, Goop. From now until forever, I am just doing whatever she tells me. Because first, Kismet, which happened to be right underneath our apartment, is everything I love about Los Angeles. The food was healthy, complex, and beautiful, served up in a cozy, dimly lit, blond wood room that looks like it's for meditating. It is still one of the most memorable meals I've had in awhile. We also went to Sawyer in Silver Lake for happy hour, which according to the guy next to us, has the best chicken sandwich (there was some confusion when it came out because he also ordered one). And when we ventured down to Echo Park, we had avocado toast at Dinette. We found a couple of things on our own too. Whenever we left the apartment, HomeState always seemed to be buzzing, so we got breakfast burritos on our last day. And on one of our evening walks, Alcove Big Bar looked so romantic with its ivy, canopy, and twinkling lights, that we stopped in for a nightcap and split a cheesecake.
Commissary at The LINE Los Angeles // Koreatown
On the way to Long Beach from Los Feliz, we stopped for lunch at Commissary, the restaurant on the second floor greenhouse patio of The LINE Los Angeles hotel in Koreatown. The chef is the infamous Roy Choi, the father of the gourmet food truck with his Korean BBQ taco truck, Kogi. The food was crunchy, spicy, acidic, and savory in all the right ways, topped with Korean BBQ of course. And the lush greenhouse is welcome respite from all the concrete (so is the rooftop pool where you wait for your table with a drink in hand).
Venice Beach
Venice Beach is quintessential L.A. It has wide beaches with a winding path for bikes and scooters, a skate park, the famous muscle beach gym, palm-tree-lined streets, and charming bungalows. And though the boardwalk is bursting with touristy t-shirt shops and tattoo parlors, Abbott Kinney Boulevard offers calm in its minimalist clothing boutiques, shade in statement sunglasses, refreshment in lemonade and green juices, energy in gourmet coffee, and joy in tacos and ice cream. We swung by Venice Beach after going to The LINE, and I'd live there forever, except it takes so long to get in and out that I don't know how I would ever get to a job. That didn't stop me from going back three more times the next week.
Below are some of my favorite places (photos in order from left to right):
- Sunny Spot for tacos (also by Roy Choi)
- Intelligentsia for a quick jolt and some people watching
- STAG Provisions for Men for your laid-back California menswear
- Miansai for minimalist jewelry and iced green tea on that chill patio
- Rose Cafe for an ancient grain bowl and evening cocktails on the patio
- Mohawk General Store in neighboring Santa Monica for luxe apparel (and the Snow Peak adventure gear pop-up in their alley next door). Think Dries, John Elliott, and Lemaire.
- Bondi Harvest in Santa Monica for grain bowls and smoothies. I don't know how they picked this spot, but it's tucked away among warehouses turned office/production studios where people might also live on futons. It draws a very Cali-chic crowd (you will see them in line) who fit into the whole laid-back surf shack vibe of the place.
Not featured in the photos but also great:
- James Perse for super soft tees and beach pants
- Butcher's Daughter for vegan everything
- Vince
- Rag & Bone
- Salt & Straw for the best ice cream I've ever had
- Garrett Leight for eyewear
- Illesteva for sunglasses
- Coldsmoke for dope men's hiking clothes. I bought the best slim-fit hiking pants and will never go back to wearing boring technical gear.
- Lost & Found in Santa Monica for your rumpled casual chic day look. Think Officine Generale and Blue Blue Japan.
U.S.S. Midway // San Diego
Josh's dad lives in San Diego, so while we were exploring L.A., we hopped down to see him. We had a lovely time visiting Josh's dad and stepmom. They took us to the Admiral Baker Golf Course for lunch and an old military base turned restaurant hub for dinner. In the middle of the day, Josh's dad took us to the U.S.S. Midway Museum, a decommissioned Naval ship where Josh's dad is now a docent. It was fun taking the tour and watching his dad socialize with everyone, especially the good-natured ribbing that comes with being a former Army man among retired naval officers.
Malibu to Long Beach
We spent two separate days exploring the nearby mountains, first in Ventura and then in the San Gabriel Mountains. On the day we went to Ventura, which is just north of Malibu, we took our time getting home. First, we had a late lunch/snack of fish & chips at Neptune's Net, where surfers and bikers converge like it was a scene from Grease. Afterwards, we raced across the street and spent some lazy time at Malibu Beach. We hoped to make it to Wayfarer's Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes in time to watch the sunset, but there was so much traffic that we decided to just stop in Manhattan Beach, which was just as pretty. Imagine the lucky people that get to watch the sunset there every day.
Since we didn't make it for sunset at Wayfarer's Chapel, we went back the next day. For those of you who don't recognize it, this is the chapel where Julie and Caleb get married in The O.C. It's designed by Lloyd Wright (the son of Frank Lloyd Wright), an architect who practiced mainly in California and worked on some of his father's buildings, like the Hollyhock House in Los Feliz. (Note: Another Frank Lloyd Wright building is at the top of Los Feliz, called The Ennis House, which you may have seen in Season 2 of Westworld.) After our visit (it closes at 5 p.m.), we went to nearby Terranea Resort on the cliffs of Rancho Palos Verdes for drinks and dinner. It felt so remote and private that you forget there's a whole bustling city around you. Thanks to Josh's sleuthing, he discovered that this magical place was once a huge farm that in the 80s and 90s became Marine World.
During our week in Long Beach, we had some nice dinners at home, visited my cousins and their children at their very grownup houses, and stopped by one of my aunt's landscape design studies in Thousand Oaks (she enrolled in a landscape architecture program after she retired from urban planning). Thousand Oaks is far, so we made a day of it and went to the Getty, walked around Santa Monica, and had dinner at Rose Cafe (again). A trip to the Getty is a schlep, but totally worth it. (Also, it's free but you have to pay for parking.) You take a tram to get to the top, and when you arrive, the view of L.A. is incomparable and the gardens are paradise. We didn't even go into the museum because we spent all our time looking at the gardens. I don't have a ton of good photos because it was overcast so everything sort of looks like a depressing blue-gray color, but here's a good one of me and my aunt!
I know that was a lot. We spent more than two weeks there, so it was a lot for us too. But we saw so many amazing things, that I just had to share them. We decided to stay in Seattle, but mostly because we already invested and think it has a lot of potential. I love L.A., except for maybe the traffic, but I'm not even mad about it because it's just a reflection of how great the city is, like how you're totally willing to wait in line for really good ice cream on a hot day. Anyway, I hope you go to L.A. and try some of these things. We'll be back often and are so grateful to our friends who met up with us to share the things they loved about L.A.
