August was a crazy month hence the lack of posts. From weekends in Eugene, meetings in Portland, family time in Salem, a trip to the beach and two amazing reunions in LA and Vegas, the last 7 weeks have been amazing!
The third weekend of the month, Maria and I took a trip to LA. It was my first time to the popular city and I can’t wait to go back. Even though we were only there for a few days we had a fabulous time.
Our lovely Cali friend Emily drove down from Fresno to welcome us to the city and spend a few days with us basking in the sunshine. We started off the trip with a bit of pool time and then made our way to the Staples Center for the Enrique Iglesias & Jennifer Lopez concert.
Maria and I love going to concerts! Over the years we have been to some amazing performances but Enrique is by far our favorite. Last year we had the pleasure of seeing him in San Jose and this concert was just as good! He has the most unique stage presence and makes a huge crowd feel intimate, not to mention a great voice! We also loved seeing J LO who I have loved over the years. Her performance was like a Vegas show and we loved every minute of it from start to finish. I’m pretty sure the highlight was seeing Wisin y Yandel pop out of the stage for the last encore song! Trust me the video is priceless.
After the concert, we met up Emily and made our way to Trader Vic’s for some signature Maui Mai Tais and quality lady time! There’s nothing like a Trader Vic’s mai tai and delicious mouth-watering fries, if you haven’t been to one, you need to go.
Saturday began with complementary service by the pool complete with watermelon flavored water and popsicles {you wonder why I loved this vaca so much} and dips in the relaxing saltwater pool. We eventually checked out of the JW Marriott at L.A. Live, which was an amazing hotel, and made our way to Santa Monica.
We treated ourselves to brunch at M Street Kitchen where we munched on salads, quesadillas and glasses of sangria. It’s a delicious restaurant with a great atmosphere and just a few blocks from the beach! We eventually made our way down to the ocean and indulged ourselves in some much needed beach time!
I love the beach and my first Cali beach experience was perfect! I can’t wait to go back to LA and explore some of the other beaches that I have heard so much about.
Before flying back to Portland we grabbed a quick dinner at the Stella Rossa Pizza Bar, which is actually part of M Street Kitchen. We wanted to have brunch there but they were only open for dinner so we decided to come back after our day at the beach. We enjoyed the most delicious pizza and salad and after seeing plate after plate of their signature cookie go by we decided to order a chocolate chip cookie with fleur du sel. I swear it was one of the best cookies I have ever had. If you live in LA you need to visit M Street Bakery and taste one for yourself; Maria and I took two to go for the flight home!
LA was the perfect weekend getaway, and it was such a treat to have a mini reunion with our friend Emily who actually was just here in Oregon for a longer visit and full reunion with all of the ladies from university! I can’t wait to take another trip to LA in the near future and hopefully see some of my friends that I missed on this visit!
Stay tuned for a recap of Vegas and hopefully some more fun posts in the weeks to come! Promise I’ll try and do better at posting now that summer has calmed down a bit.
xox
Em
According to Em 