Most people imagine California as a beachy state with laid back surfers, blonde girls, record producers and exclusive homes of the stars. However it is much more than that. This weekend has been packed with activities and new adventures. I've never seen the postcard perfect areas of Southern California but this weekend was a fantastic taste.
The trip started late Friday evening after meeting up with Katie on Corboda with my first drive through at In and Out. Katie was pretty stoked, after introducing her East coast boyfriend to In and Out for the first time, that she could educate me too. It was pretty delicious and a cool way to start the trip. The drive down to Malibu was an awesome opportunity for Katie and me to chat some more and catch up about events of the week. After making it to the house and wrestling with the door we were floored by Cara and Dennis' amazing place.
In the Saturday morning sunshine it was even more spectacular. The view is gorgeous in all directions, facing the ocean and backed by Malibu mountains. To start the day we set off to Moonshadows Malibu for brunch and discussed some options for the days activities. Katie and I decided on The Getty Centre to start the day, roaming around for a couple of hours to take in the gardens, architecture and art. The best moment for me was seeing by first Henry Fox Talbot photograph in the flesh in their current Architectural Photography exhibit!
After The Getty we braved some LA traffic to head down to Santa Monica for some window shopping and exploring. 3rd St Promenade was buzzing with UCLA students, middle-school kids and a lot of tourists as we wandered around, looking into stores. We followed the promenade down to the pier just in time for sunset and watched the sun go down as we hit the end of the road. With some chill factor setting in it was time for dinner in Pacific Palisades and a movie back at the house.
Today the weather was not so kind for our adventures yet the scenery was still beautiful. After another fantastic brunch with Cara and Dennis we hit to road and headed down to Hollywood and Highland to check out the strip. Hollywood was different to what I imagined and an experience all the same. Whilst being surrounded by Marvel characters along the street and bumping into people while looking for stars we explored Ghiradelli and the Roosevelt Hotel. After Hollywood Blvd we made our way up to the Griffith Observatory to take a different view of LA. To say LA is a sprawled out city is an understatement and a half. The view from above the city was amazing. With tired legs we headed back to the car, winding our way down Sunset, through Beverly Hills, past UCLA and Bel Air to hop on the 101 back to UCSB. Whilst I thought the day was nearly done the view driving home was something else - fit with mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.
(Apologies for the smogginess, you'll just have to visit yourself to get the full effect!)
Nina
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