cali vacation - part 1
Oct. 7th, 2007 04:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swingchickieFINALLY, a chunk of time to sit down and recap everything we did on vacation! what a whirlwind, and jack and i have over 350 photos between us to prove it! (no, all 350 are not in this post.) clicky below for the highlights...
Day One
well, our vacation started out as all of my trips do -- me terrified to get on a plane, and a miserable person to fly with. the first leg of our trip was blissfully short, with a 1-hour 7am flight to atlanta... since the 2nd leg was almost 5 hours to LA, and i was gripping my armrests until they were crushing like tin cans, jack gave me his headphones to listen to tiki music and bought me a martini. thank god, the combination of alcohol and soothing music actually helped, and i made it through the rest of the flight without much incident.
here! alcohol is good for you!
our first order of business, after getting our rental car, was lunch. luckily, there was an in-n-out burger right by the airport, literally next to the runway, so we ate outside (my first in-n-out burger!) while landing planes whooshed right over our heads.
our LA hotel was... interesting, to say the least. since we were on such a tight budget when we booked the trip, we were pretty much looking for cheapo without being a fleabag. we'd heard about this best western, right in the hollywood hills, that was "kitschy" and retro and right under the hollywood sign. perfect! well, "kitschy and retro" was right, but definitely in more of a best western sense than a cool sense. the parking garage was covered in murals of old celebrities:
every room, including the lobby, was full of framed photos of celebs with their memorabilia (autographs, cancelled checks they wrote to their dry cleaners (no i'm not kidding), etc.)...
and yes, we were right under the hollywood sign.
after a nap and a shower, we headed out for the evening. i had posted a plea for restaurant recommendations on the los angeles LJ group, and got a slew of amazing responses... since we were on the coast, we decided to go the sushi route and check out a place called asanebo in studio city. for a wednesday night, it was packed, and with good reason -- the food was amazing. we only ordered a few sushi rolls, instead deciding to try a bunch of apps off the specials menu. there were no prices on the specials menu, but how expensie could it be? thank god, right before our waiter put our order in, he remarked: "um, you might want to know that that crab appetizer is $100". just for ONE appetizer. yes, we ordered something else. :)
after dinner, we took another recommendation and headed across the street to a lounge called Sapphire. it didn't look like much from the outside... but inside... WHOA. super-dark, almost can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-you dark... dark-stained paneling, dark carpet, candlelight, and all the seating was these low black leather banquettes that went around the entire room. everyone in there was cozied up in their little groups, and the darkness made you feel like you were the only one there. it was so hot.
Day Two
day 2 started out, not surprisingly, with us waking up butt-early because we were still on east coast time. breakfast was downstairs in the diner attached to our hotel, a placed called "the 101" that was supposedly a hipster breakfast joint for all the hollywood types. it was pretty cool, very 70s retro:
and while we didn't see any celebs, we certainly saw plenty of people hoping to get discovered. the place was filled with young starlet types, glancing around over their shades to see who was looking at them. bleh.
after breakfast, we headed to marina del ray... i was scheduled to have a private hoopdance lesson with rayna mcinturf, president of hoopnotica, one of *the* national experts on hoopdance (i have both of her DVDs)!
rayna was an absolute doll, and an amazing teacher -- in one hour, she managed to fix about a dozen things i was doing wrong in my hooping! most importantly, which i didn't even realize, i lean forward when i hoop, which makes it super-hard to do a number of moves correctly. as soon as i straightened up, they came much easier (and i looked a lot better)!
i was absolutely giddy after the lesson, and full of adrenaline, so jack and i went for a walk on the beach and then had a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe. the weather in california that week was absolutely gorgeous, and the sea air always calms me, so i was already super relaxed and happy.
standing in the pacific!
after lunch, we set out on our next to-do task: find the art gallery where the new Shag exhibit was! i think most of you know i'm a massive shag fan, and so is jack... i own 3 of his signed prints, and i swear if i win the lottery someday, i'm begging him to do a painting of me hooping. :) i have to say, seeing his work in a print is one thing, but seeing it live is another -- the sheer SIZE of his paintings, and also the SKILL he has! i had no idea how massive some of his paintings were, and that he actually uses textures and layers in his work, because you can't see it unless you're up close. seeing his work live was absolutely staggering, and i got teary-eyed as i walked through the gallery.
that evening, jack and i just HAD to go to the dresden. for those of you who saw the movie "swingers", you might remember the scene where all the guys go party-hopping... one of the places they go is the dresden, where they walk in to find a lounge duo called marty and elaine singing a horrible lounge version of "stayin' alive". well, marty and elaine are an actual act, and they play at the dresden 5 nights a week. the dresden is out of this world, barely touched sinced the 50s... cork and stone walls, wrought-iron chandeliers, brown leather circular booths... and a crowd that is surprisingly un-pretentious. it was a blast. and marty and elaine were everything we'd hoped for, a sweet couple in their 70s (who met when she was auditioning band members and eloped after 3 months, awwwww), who were dressed in matching zebra-lamé trimmed outfits. nice!!!
at the dresden:
Day One
well, our vacation started out as all of my trips do -- me terrified to get on a plane, and a miserable person to fly with. the first leg of our trip was blissfully short, with a 1-hour 7am flight to atlanta... since the 2nd leg was almost 5 hours to LA, and i was gripping my armrests until they were crushing like tin cans, jack gave me his headphones to listen to tiki music and bought me a martini. thank god, the combination of alcohol and soothing music actually helped, and i made it through the rest of the flight without much incident.
here! alcohol is good for you!
our first order of business, after getting our rental car, was lunch. luckily, there was an in-n-out burger right by the airport, literally next to the runway, so we ate outside (my first in-n-out burger!) while landing planes whooshed right over our heads.
our LA hotel was... interesting, to say the least. since we were on such a tight budget when we booked the trip, we were pretty much looking for cheapo without being a fleabag. we'd heard about this best western, right in the hollywood hills, that was "kitschy" and retro and right under the hollywood sign. perfect! well, "kitschy and retro" was right, but definitely in more of a best western sense than a cool sense. the parking garage was covered in murals of old celebrities:
every room, including the lobby, was full of framed photos of celebs with their memorabilia (autographs, cancelled checks they wrote to their dry cleaners (no i'm not kidding), etc.)...
and yes, we were right under the hollywood sign.
after a nap and a shower, we headed out for the evening. i had posted a plea for restaurant recommendations on the los angeles LJ group, and got a slew of amazing responses... since we were on the coast, we decided to go the sushi route and check out a place called asanebo in studio city. for a wednesday night, it was packed, and with good reason -- the food was amazing. we only ordered a few sushi rolls, instead deciding to try a bunch of apps off the specials menu. there were no prices on the specials menu, but how expensie could it be? thank god, right before our waiter put our order in, he remarked: "um, you might want to know that that crab appetizer is $100". just for ONE appetizer. yes, we ordered something else. :)
after dinner, we took another recommendation and headed across the street to a lounge called Sapphire. it didn't look like much from the outside... but inside... WHOA. super-dark, almost can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-you dark... dark-stained paneling, dark carpet, candlelight, and all the seating was these low black leather banquettes that went around the entire room. everyone in there was cozied up in their little groups, and the darkness made you feel like you were the only one there. it was so hot.
Day Two
day 2 started out, not surprisingly, with us waking up butt-early because we were still on east coast time. breakfast was downstairs in the diner attached to our hotel, a placed called "the 101" that was supposedly a hipster breakfast joint for all the hollywood types. it was pretty cool, very 70s retro:
and while we didn't see any celebs, we certainly saw plenty of people hoping to get discovered. the place was filled with young starlet types, glancing around over their shades to see who was looking at them. bleh.
after breakfast, we headed to marina del ray... i was scheduled to have a private hoopdance lesson with rayna mcinturf, president of hoopnotica, one of *the* national experts on hoopdance (i have both of her DVDs)!
rayna was an absolute doll, and an amazing teacher -- in one hour, she managed to fix about a dozen things i was doing wrong in my hooping! most importantly, which i didn't even realize, i lean forward when i hoop, which makes it super-hard to do a number of moves correctly. as soon as i straightened up, they came much easier (and i looked a lot better)!
i was absolutely giddy after the lesson, and full of adrenaline, so jack and i went for a walk on the beach and then had a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe. the weather in california that week was absolutely gorgeous, and the sea air always calms me, so i was already super relaxed and happy.
standing in the pacific!
after lunch, we set out on our next to-do task: find the art gallery where the new Shag exhibit was! i think most of you know i'm a massive shag fan, and so is jack... i own 3 of his signed prints, and i swear if i win the lottery someday, i'm begging him to do a painting of me hooping. :) i have to say, seeing his work in a print is one thing, but seeing it live is another -- the sheer SIZE of his paintings, and also the SKILL he has! i had no idea how massive some of his paintings were, and that he actually uses textures and layers in his work, because you can't see it unless you're up close. seeing his work live was absolutely staggering, and i got teary-eyed as i walked through the gallery.
that evening, jack and i just HAD to go to the dresden. for those of you who saw the movie "swingers", you might remember the scene where all the guys go party-hopping... one of the places they go is the dresden, where they walk in to find a lounge duo called marty and elaine singing a horrible lounge version of "stayin' alive". well, marty and elaine are an actual act, and they play at the dresden 5 nights a week. the dresden is out of this world, barely touched sinced the 50s... cork and stone walls, wrought-iron chandeliers, brown leather circular booths... and a crowd that is surprisingly un-pretentious. it was a blast. and marty and elaine were everything we'd hoped for, a sweet couple in their 70s (who met when she was auditioning band members and eloped after 3 months, awwwww), who were dressed in matching zebra-lamé trimmed outfits. nice!!!
at the dresden:
