My good friend Angie is getting married next month in Aspen, so we celebrated in style with a little bachelorette weekend in LA -- Venice Beach, to be exact.
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| Pretty excited to be out in LA on a Thursday afternoon! (just picked up the rental car) |
Non-stop flight to LAX was on time. Hopped on the shuttle to the rental car place and waited in an absurdly long line to get a crappy little car for the weekend ... and then hit this:
Ugh. Big thumbs down to LA traffic. (red means s l o w)
Lucky for me, I didn't have far to go. And the view on the drive once I got off the freeway? Not so bad. I mean it's hard to beat blue skies, warm air, and palm trees...
Angie found THE CUTEST little house in Venice Beach. It was like 2 blocks to Abbot Kinney and about 5 blocks to the beach. Plus it had a fence/gate made from surfboards -- and an actual yard!
Once we all got settled in, we walked down Abbott Kinney to get some food at Lemonade. It was like a fast food buffet kind of thing, but it was all super healthy and super delicious! Why don't we have more places like that in Kansas!?
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| View on the walk to dinner. Why don't I live in LA!? |
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| Dinner at Lemonade. Good AND good for you! |
Since we were all on Central or East Coast time, we went to bed super early...which I was 100% okay with.
The next morning, Ugne (one of the other bridesmaids) and Angie and I got up early and went for a run along the beach.
We did some yoga back at the house to stretch out...
...and after a quick run to the grocery store, I made smoothies for everyone!
Soaked up some sun in the hammock before renting bikes for the day:
After a stop at the local farmers market, we rode through the canals of Venice:
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| I'm holding the photographers dog...her name was Gypsy. |
From there, we rode along the beach to Santa Monica Pier.
And I found the coolest hat ever there. A visor with the top cut out for my big crazy hair!
We had lunch at a mexican place on the pier, and I hate WAY too many fish tacos.
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| My fish tacos are bigger than her baby! |
Found a good spot on the beach to lay out for awhile and relax. Angie's sister, Heather, got just a little too much sun the day before, so she was covering up as much as possible!
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| She looks like a mummy! ;) |
We lucked out with no reservations and got squeezed in to a cool place on Abbott Kinney that Angie really wanted to try for dinner:
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| (Of course I can't remember the name of it...) |
After dinner, as we were walking back to the house, we saw this truck pull up with a camera on the side of it. He was taking pictures of whoever and printing them off right there for you! Such a cool idea!
We played a couple of games back at the house and decided we would all suck it up and go out to celebrate Angie.
Ended up at Roosterfish, which I'm pretty sure is a gay bar...and Ugne and I just could not hang. I mean, look how pathetic we were, standing in the corner!
Needless to say, after a round of shots, we went back home and the other four girls went to one more bar. It was still an early night for them, too. (What can I say. We're getting old, I guess!)
Saturday morning, Ugne and I went for another jog along the beach:
Saturday brunch at The Tasting Kitchen:
Everyone's food was ridiculously good. I had quiche and granola...and a biscuit with jam. (Yea, I ordered three breakfasts. And I ate all three of them!)
Saturday afternoon surf lesson with a guy we met the day before at the bike rental place:
It didn't take me long to ditch the four sizes too big rash guard and just surf in my swimsuit...
Surfing was probably the highlight of the trip for me. SO much fun...and I finally kind of 'got it' and did alright on my own!
After surfing, we cleaned up and did some Saturday evening (or late afternoon) shopping at thrift stores for vintage dresses:
When we got back Saturday night (after dinner at In-N-Out Burger), I raced - like, literally ran - down to the beach for my favorite activity: sunset watching:
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| Sunset selfie! Come on. Look how ridiculously beautiful it is there! |
I really wanted to get a picture of me with those V E N I C E lights above me...and since this was my last night, I attempted a selfie. Only problem was the traffic. Like, cars turning. And yea, one almost hit me as I was taking this. I guess the blury selfie will have to do. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. Oh the things I will do for a picture...
Sunday morning run on the beach with Ugne -- again:
Followed by yoga on the beach:
Sunday morning, we drove to Malibu for the day:
Lunch at Malibu Farm on the pier:
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| Food? Excellent. View? Even more excellent. |
View from lunch:
We went shopping in Malibu after lunch at Aviator Nation:
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| Spent way too much money at that store... |
Rented some Stand Up Paddle Boards and went out for an hour:
The waves + my motion sickness didn't do too well together, so I paddled back first and got a couple of pictures of the other girls getting off:
Look at that wave coming in!
Hit traffic driving back from Malibu to Venice, and when we made it home, realized one girl left her ID and credit card at the SUP place. I didn't have time to go all the way back, so Ugne stayed with me. Walked back to Lemonade for some food before catching a cab to the airport for my flight back home.
Ugne treated me to some gelato for dessert, too!
My flight was delayed about an hour so I got plenty of airplane watching time in...
...and I was NOT happy when my Seaworld / Shamu plane pulled up. Come on, Southwest! How can you support them after the Black Fish documentary came out!?
My souvenirs from a great weekend in LA: a burnt nose (as usual) and a cool new hat:
Flying over LA:
The sunset somewhere over...who knows where...was pretty spectacular!
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