LA, California – Day 3 (Tuesday, Aug 5)

So day 3 began in the same manner as days 1 and 2… wake up (much too early – aren’t we supposed to be sleeping in on vacation?), shower, get dressed – you know the drill. So the differences this morning than the other mornings: 1. there was some added whining about how this bed isn’t quite up to par (minor whining, but whining non the less – and from both mom and me), and 2. this morning we forgo makeup (it’s not like we are trying to impress anyone, after all!). Before we head down to Morsel’s (our new favorite little spot in the hotel) for our regular coffee / latte, and bagel and fresh fruit to split, (we don’t really want to waste any time, nor do either of us feel like sitting down for a lengthy breakfast), I called the valet for the car. The conversation goes something like this:

Sarah (all perky and happy, of course): “HI – I’d like my car brought up, please”
Valet: Sure, what’s the ticket #
Sarah: 123456 (No - that’s not really the #, but I don’t remember it now!)
Valet: Will you be checking out
Sarah: For the 100th time – NO! We’re not checking out yet!! When we check out, I’ll tell you we’re checking out damn it!

Ok – so I wasn’t really that nasty, or nasty at all, but why do they keep asking me if we’re checking out?! It was so annoying. So I just couldn’t wait to call on the day we actually were checking out and finally get to say YES, and wouldn’t you know – when we went to check out the next morning, the concierge offered to have our car pulled up for us and I didn’t even get to call!

So anyway, we get into the car, plug in Gypsy, and get ready to head to the Fashion District. Beyond just wanting to go to check it out and see what we could find, we were also on a mission to each find a cheap travel bag. You see, we over shopped just a little bit, and were both (mom more than me) worried that we wouldn’t be able to fit everything in our suitcases to go home! Well, Gypsy had just about had it with us, because this morning she decided she wasn’t up for playing. So instead of having our usual voice activated directions, we had to wing it. Luckily we’d looked at a little map the hotel gave us that showed the general vicinity of the Fashion District, and we thought we’d surely see signs once we got close, so we just went for it. And we did pretty well – only a few extra twists and turns, and we were there. It was really only a short distance from the hotel (5 – 10 minutes). Once we got there, we realized why everyone said it would be a short experience. It was kind of gross and dirty. First of all, we had to go up this HUGE ramp to park (paying $8, of course), and then walk downstairs in this dark alley-like stairwell. It made me think of a stairwell that bums would go into to pee. So we’re kind of looking at each other like – really?! But we ventured on, being sure to make note of where we parked (the last thing we needed was to get lost in this place!). First we stopped in this little costume jewelry spot where I found a great “fun” necklace for me, and a little something for Madelyn. As we went on, we found shops that had handbags (much like Sam Moon or Harwin) and suitcases / duffels. Well, Mom ended up finding 2 great leather handbags – very fun and different, lots of pockets for her, and I found 1 too. From there, the next shop had suitcases, so we each got a small bag to get all of our goodies home. We wandered from there to Santee Alley. This is where we read that all of the “unique” shopping was. Well, unique it was. We got about 1/4 of the way through and turned around to go back. It was dirty, and felt cheap, and basically every little stop had the same junk as all the others. All in all, it was pretty much a disappointment. But then again, we both got just what we wanted, and weren’t suckered into a bunch of junk we didn’t need, so maybe it wasn’t a disappointment after all! We were definitely ready to go, though!

By now, we were starting to get a little hungry, and needed to decide where to head to next. Whenever we asked for suggestions, several people had said to check out The Grove. So we headed there next. We plugged it into Gypsy (who was now deciding to cooperate). But you see, we didn’t have the exact address, so we put into Gypsy “Grove St.”. About 30 minutes, and towards Glendale she said, so that’s where we headed. As we were getting closer, we kept saying – this doesn’t seem quite right. But it’s what she says, so keep going. Well… sure enough we “arrived at our destination”, and it wasn’t our destination at all!! It was a neighborhood (and not a very nice one at that). We were laughing as I called Jen and said “HELP”. She, all the while laughing at us, looked up the address of The Grove for us, and gave it to us. Well, apparently it makes a difference if you put in “Grove St.” vs “THE Grove St.”. So, another 30 minutes later, and almost back where we started from, we arrived at our INTENDED destination.

When we first arrived, mom wanted to take our picture in the mirrored elevator doors. It was actually quite funny, since twice right as she was taking the picture, the doors opened. People must have thought what goofballs we were! But she finally got one...



Well you can imagine if we were hungry when we first started on this adventure, by now we were starving. We parked and headed first to find food. There is this great restaurant called The Farm (I actually remembered Lauren taking me there for brunch when I visited her, but a different location). We looked over the menu and decided this was good. It was very café like – sandwiches, burgers, salads, etc. We sat inside (again – a wait for outside table) and enjoyed a relaxing lunch together. Next up, we decided just to wander around The Grove. It was a beautiful setup – much like a village – with boutiques, stores, restaurants and lots of trees. We stopped into Barnes and Noble so mom could get my new favorite find – the Hungry Girl cookbook (GREAT investment, by the way!), and some magazines for the plane ride home tomorrow. Next stop was Nordstrom to try to find me new black flip flops (I replaced my brown ones, but was still on the mission for the black ones I wanted – no luck here).


Here is mom hanging out in the fountains at The Grove. Isn't she so cute in her hat?

So now it was getting a little hot, and we felt like we’d seen it, so off to the next adventure we go. We’d been on a mission the last few days to find a Trader Joes at some point. So we plugged that into Gypsy, and boom – one was within 2 miles of where we were. We got some good snacks for the plane, but other than that – it didn’t really live up to the hype. Next stop was to find a Payless so mom could return the tennis shoes she bought for us to work out (ha – that was funny! We walked so much during each of our days, there was NO energy left to workout!). So we plugged that into Gypsy (who was now working like a charm), and boom again – there was one within a mile of where we were. Now, with that done – what to do next?

We were supposed to go to dinner at the Ivy tonight – I’d even made reservations a month ago, but neither of us felt like getting dressed nice and messing with it, so I cancelled our reservation and we went back to the hotel to relax and pack up a little. We decided to go to dinner at The Daily Grill – a restaurant that I went to once before and remember being pretty good, and it was really close to the hotel and didn’t require us to change or get too cleaned up. Well, it ended up being just perfect for our last night. The food was DELICIOUS. We split a grilled artichoke appetizer, wedge salad, and steak with fresh broccoli. It was so yummy, cooked to perfection, and the perfect amount of food. We really enjoyed our last night together!


Here I am just enjoying out dinner together!

And finally, mom and I so loved the lobby of our hotel - there were beautiful fresh floral arrangements every day, and they smelled so good!