You’ve got to love Yelp and Thrillist when it comes to finding the best restaurants near you. On vacation I feel like I’m always lost somewhere between taco Tuesday and fit Friday. We love to eat when we go on trips and that is basically all we do aside from the city exploring. It is so hard to resist the incredible food and Los Angeles has over 10,000 restaurants. (Side note, I wonder if any LA natives have ever tried to eat at every single one. Apart from being super expensive, it would take almost 28 years if you tried a new one every day). I have to say that every restaurant & bar we visited in the Santa Monica/LA/Malibu area had really friendly staff who were also super helpful and cheerful. We definitely did not experience any negative stereotypes that are out there. One of my favorite things about the Los Angeles and surrounding areas was all the street art and walls/buildings. They make the best back drops and I was kind of wishing I had Henry with us to show him. But then I remember how fun it was to drink at 11am and sleep in.
Friday morning we had breakfast at M Street Kitchen near Venice and enjoyed bottomless mimosas and bloody marys while we talked about how much we missed the kids (typical right? parents always want a kid free vacation but end up talking about how much they miss their kids while on vacation).
After breakfast we drove up to Malibu to enjoy the view again and visit the American Apparel store. Super cute and pretty pricey but I bought Henry a few things … including 1970’s red running shorts ala Richard Simmons. We met up with my sweet friend Britney again for a quick lunch before we headed south for the wedding rehearsal. It was so good to see her twice on our trip. We ate at Milo & Olive in Santa Monica. Their portions were on the smaller side but very appropriate for lunch meals so you can still enjoy your day without feeling stuffed. We had the meatballs, huge garlic knot, baked gnocchi, potato gnocchi and bolognese (apparently we were carb loading).
Since we had to be in Palos Verdes at 4pm for the rehearsal, we left Santa Monica at 2:30 and it took the entire 90 minutes to get there. Traffic is insane everywhere! Our friends rented the most beautiful house overlooking the ocean with the most incredible view. The weather was perfect and the breeze was so cooling. It made me realize for the one thousand time again how much I hate Atlanta summers.
Saturday morning was our last morning in Santa Monica and we were so sad to leave. We went out with a bang, eating at the Blue Daisy Cafe which had all the sweetness you could imagine plus bacon bloody mary’s. Definitely two of my husbands favorite things.
After Croissant French Toast topped with caramelized apples. bananas, walnuts, cinnamon, and vanilla ice cream with a side of iced vanilla coffee we headed back to the condo to pack and take a little nap before heading south for the night. We ended up renting a hotel room about 5 minutes away from the venue so we wouldn’t have to drive 60 + minutes home at midnight after a night of drinking. The wedding decor was so nicely done and the bride looked incredibly beautiful. She chose such a pretty color pallet for the wedding and I loved that her and groom both wore white. The food during cocktail hour was my favorite and I probably ate my weight in hors d’oeuvre’s. The weather kept cooling off as the night went on so luckily I wasn’t a sweaty mess by the end of the wedding because that is usually what happens when my face meets heat.
The reception was a ton of fun and the drinks kept flowing all night. At some point in the evening I had three different kinds of drinks in front of me and was silently thanking God that we ended up going with a hotel close by and that Uber was on hand.
Sunday morning came way too fast and we definitely were not ready to jump on an airplane. Our flight was delayed a little bit so what better way to pass the time then by racking up a tab on greasy food and booze at the airplane bar.
After parmesan garlic fries, pretzels as big as my head and enough cocktails for a football team, we hopped on the plane and headed home. We had such an amazing anniversary trip but it was good to get back home to our kids and house. And my waistline wasn’t complaining either 🙂
