our return

People who travel for a living, fly on a regular basis, pack and unpack suitcases as a matter of course, my hat is off to you.

Travel absolutely knocks me out.

And I love it.

We returned to Kentucky after our week in L.A. on Saturday but I’m still trying to get steady and feel rested and orient myself to daily life.

Usually, when I travel to a place where I have friends, I don’t contact those friends individually and ask to seem them - I just let it be known that I’m going to be in the area and if friends feel like they have the time or the inclination, they can let me know they want to get together. That way, I don’t feel like I’m pressuring anyone or making them feel obligated to see me.

On this trip in particular, if I had requested to see someone, they would have had to join us wherever we were, because we stuck to a busy itinerary.

This is all to say, we have beloved friends in L.A. We saw some of them and some of them we didn’t, but we’ll definitely be back next year.

We stayed in a house in Hollywood, once the home to a silent film star. It was surrounded by jasmine bushes and orange trees and swaying palms. L.A.’s wet winter made for a lush, green spring. I sat on the front steps and saw a California hummingbird - magic!

We went to Gelson’s for groceries and saw Casey Affleck in the cereal aisle.

We had dinner on the patio at El Coyote.

I went to Mass at St. Thomas the Apostle. It was so beautiful and the congregation was warm and welcoming.

We went to lunch at Barney’s Beanery, where we saw Jonah Hill. He was walking out while we were walking in.

Barney’s Beanery was on our wish list last year, and I’m so happy we made it this year. It was a perfect sunny day, the vibe was classic West Hollywood, the chopped salad was delicious.

After lunch, we did some shopping at Melrose Trading Post then briefly hit the Walk of Fame (I don’t ever need to do this again. Hollywood Blvd. is the only part of L.A. - that I’ve been to - that gives me the big city feeling that I don’t like) and had iced tea at the Pig N’ Whistle (which, we all agreed, was haunted.)

We met friends for dinner at Sugarfish then strolled around inside Amoeba Music.

We had morning coffee at the Canyon Country Store, my favorite place for morning coffee, then went over the hill to Burbank where we took the Warner Brothers Studio Tour.

We did some antique shopping/looking, and stopped by the recording studio where Tracy and his brother recorded when they first came to L.A.

Back over the mountain, we did some shopping at Buffalo Exchange, then had dinner at Canter’s, because Tracy can not be in L.A. without eating here. It’s physically impossible for him. Canter’s draws him in like a magnet.

We had lunch at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, another place that was on our wish list last year. Even though we were there at the start of the day, it was a lot of fun, and the food was surprisingly good.

We spent the rest of the day in Venice.

Ava skated, we shopped on Abbot-Kinney, walked along the canals, and had blue, purple, and pink drinks at Cha-Cha.

Dinner that night was the 101 Coffee Shop, and since it was Lindsay’s birthday, some of us had cake from Sweet Lady Jane.

Ava had a campus tour of UCLA.

Afterwards, we had lunch at Urth Caffe in Santa Monica.

Urth Caffe was another place that had been on my wish list for a while, and it did not disappoint. The atmosphere was perfect example of what I think of as my California lifestyle, and I had the best latte I’ve ever had.

We shopped at Thunderbolt, and the Third Street Promenade.

Ava and I rode the Pacific Wheel on the Pier.

Then we had dinner at the Lobster. This was our splurge meal and it was so worth it; the sunset was glorious.

After a leisurely morning, we went to the Griffith Park Observatory and saw a cool show in the planetarium.

E. went to a class at an aerial gymnastics studio in Hollywood, then we had an early dinner at Cafe Gratitude in Larchmont, where we saw Heather Graham.

She, if you’re wondering, is luminous.

We spent our last morning at the house, then walked up to the Wattles Mansion gardens, where we made a really cool discovery of an altar with a laughing Buddha on a hiking trail.

We had acai bowls at Rawberri in West Hollywood, then we moved to a hotel by the airport, to prepare for our early departure.

It was a wonderful week.

We had great luck with the weather and our flights (and the peaceful, non-shaky earth.)

The only problem is that a week goes by too quickly.

We’re so grateful to have spent this time with people we love in a place we love, and we’re already planning 2020.

Next year, we’ll be able to branch out into some different locations; we may even explore San Diego or Ojai.

I mean, you really just don’t know where we might end up.

What we do know is that we love California.

It welcomes us, it is kind to us, it has a beautiful spirit, and we feel good there.