In some of my other posts, I’ve mentioned I have a hard time justifying spending thousands of dollars on a vacation, but I still manage to travel a good bit. I’m lucky, because I have family and friends in all different areas of the United States. More often than not, this allows me a place to crash and saves the cost of spending ~$200 a night at a hotel or AirBNB. If given an option between going to a location I will have to shell out the money for lodging versus a place I have free lodging, I will always go with the latter option.

For a much-needed vacation from the grind I was going through at work at the time, I wanted to choose somewhere that felt different, but somewhere that wasn’t going to break the bank. I hadn’t been to Los Angeles since I was 9, and I have very little memory of any of it. My recollection is more about the people I was with and met than the actual sights we saw.

My uncle lives in West Hollywood and travels/traveled a lot for work, so we were fortunate enough to have a beautiful apartment to ourselves for a week, in walking distance to essentially anything we would need or want. RIP to the Southwest nonstop flight from Pittsburgh International to LAX that was affordable, so I could splurge on athleisure while I was there. I remain foolishly hopeful that one day PIT will increase the amount of direct flights they have that are worth my while, and not discontinue them 5 months after announcing them.

We took this trip in November of 2018, so it’s been quite awhile, and I’m going to try to remember the highlights, but I also felt I’d be remiss to not get this one down on paper. This trip was a bit of a doozy–just surprising in many ways.

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We arrived into LAX later in the evening and by the time the Uber pulled up and we hauled our asses all the way back to West Hollywood, it was pretty late. We snagged a late dinner from down the street at a place called Tender Greens, which was SO unexpectedly good, and called it a night.

The next morning, we grabbed coffee at the local Smith & Tait, and I think Jannah and I are still romanticizing their amazing turmeric ginger oat milk lattes. Yes, turmeric with espresso. Why do some places not put espresso in them? Why call it a latte if it’s golden milk? Anyways…. Then, it was grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s, then doing some outdoor exploring, namely, Griffith Park and Griffith Observatory.

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So, before we go any further, I should mention that as is tradition, we did not do enough research into this hiking excursion at Griffith Park. We showed up via Uber with practically nothing. I don’t remember exactly what we had on us, but I recall having nothing but my cell phone and my wallet. I think Jannah might have had a small backpack. I’m not even sure if I brought water. If I did, it had been drank very shortly into the excursion because I was wildly unprepared.

First of all, we had no idea where to go to see the Hollywood sign from the entrance we were dropped off at. We were able to find the Bronson Caves, or as I like to call it, the Batman cave (because the old 1960s TV series used the cave for the infamous and repetitive “Batmobile leaving to go somewhere” sequence). We were aimlessly wondering around the cave area thinking “Is this it?” and “There has to be more somewhere that we can see.” We spent a good 15 minutes at the caves taking photos, before rounding a bend and realizing the Hollywood sign was in plain view, and we needed to hike up quite a steep series of hills to get there. When I say “steep,” I mean that I had no idea how steep they were, and that they didn’t even really look that steep from where I was standing.

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I don’t know why, but I’ve never done well with walking inclines. I went to school in West Virginia for 4 years and probably only got the hang of it after 3. So needless to say, add dry heat to that and I was dying. But, it was an absolutely beautiful day, and we got some great shots hiking.

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On our descent from the Hollywood sign, we once again wildly underestimated how long it was going to take to get “back.” I’m putting back in quotes because we had no conscious plan to end up back where we started. We saw a building off in the distance, thought “What’s that? That looks cool,” Googled it, and decided to make our way in that direction. And, you guessed it: we underestimated just how far away that building was based on our view. From start to finish, we probably spent a total of 5 hours hiking with limited water, and eventually came to the realization that neither of us had gone to the bathroom, nor needed to go to the bathroom, all day. This was a troubling yet humorous thought, but nonetheless, we persevered to Griffith Observatory.

I’m glad we did. We were just approaching the observatory during golden hour/dusk, and man were the sights beautiful. Definitely more crowded than what I would have assumed it would be for a weekday around 4 p.m., but honestly it was so pretty up there that it didn’t even matter.

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After the first full day we were there, very bad forest fires took over. We were unable to get out to Santa Monica and Malibu because of that. We also got lucky that we were able to make it up to the Observatory, because it was closed the following day because of the fires.

On our way downtown to check out museums we made a stop that I deemed necessary at Egglsut. Honestly? Meh. The sandwich was fine; I wasn’t overly excited by it. The iced coffee was strong but not a stand-out. However, two thumbs way up for the guy at Eggslut who rearranged the entire restaurant and adjusted the blinds so we could get the perfect shots for Insta. That’s the thing about LA, people will DIE for the ‘gram, to which I am never opposed.

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One of the nights, and I honestly don’t remember which, we decided to check out the gay bar scene in WeHo. I did not get the memo that this scene is infamous for stealing cell phones. My iPhone was stolen and my photos for the whole day not backed up to the Cloud. I couldn’t even tell you the name of the place where it occurred. We started out at The Abbey (great vibes), we met some local gay guys, and it all kind of devolved from there. I was pretty miserable given we were all the way across the country in a place I wasn’t familiar with and I was out $1100 for a smart phone that I had gotten not that long ago to replace a very janky and old iPhone. All said and done, I would go to The Abbey again. The vibes were good in there, and I also like their social media strategy.

The next day, after I got a new phone at the local AT&T and collected myself back into “vacation mode,” we went to Bite’s Lip Lab to mix some custom lipstick colors. It was definitely a unique experience.

I do love the colors they/I came up with, but the consistency of them isn’t my FAVORITE. Some people love that sheen or sheer look. For me, I have full lips and so creme mattes just look better on me, but I do think the nude color I created looks good with a sheen. Plus I got stuck with a girl who was more interested in her boyfriend who was playing a live gig that night than mixing my colors. I ended up with the scents I chose reversed in the two lipsticks I made. For the money, it would be nice if you could get the undivided attention of the person mixing your lipsticks…and also the correct lipsticks.

The only reason I would do it again would probably be to go back and re-mix the nude color I created, but I’m also pretty sure that can be done online. So at the end of the day, it depends on how much you like the Bite brand and how much you struggle with finding the right lipstick shades for yourself. It was a fun little “treat yourself,” if nothing else, and it was cool that we got to come up with names for our shades. Mine were “Beret” for the song “Raspberry Beret” (super unsurprising) and “Buff” (uncreative, but we could only choose one-word names). PS–Did you know Prince refused a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? I learned this while we were there, quite literally trying to find his star.

Okay, so here is something I recommend EVERYONE check out, because I do not think it can be overrated and I also do not think it gets the attention it deserves. The new(ish, at this point) Alo Yoga Sanctuary at The Grove. OMgosh. Where to begin? At this point in the trip, we definitely needed some relaxation. I already love the Alo brand as-is, but this made me love it even more. We walk in to the 2-story store and are immediately greeted by a woman who asks us what we’d like to drink. “Matcha latte with almond milk?” she asks Jannah as if she’s known Jannah her whole life. Yes, I think we’ll like it very much here.

After our matcha lattes that they can apparently make right in the store, we had our yoga class upstairs, which was also a wonderful treat, and very Instagrammable. Needless to say, since we were fresh off the high of caffeine and yoga, we absolutely went insane shopping there afterwards. But I honestly regret nothing. I still wear everything I got, and any time I have the opportunity, I’m shopping Alo for my barre workout clothes. I’ve also tried their Alo Yoga app, which we received free subscriptions for when we were there–lots of great classes! I implore you to check all of this stuff out.

Two nights after the WeHo cellphone thief debacle, we went to Chateau Marmont for dinner. We felt super fancy, but for how fancy and exclusive it was, it wasn’t that expensive. We really didn’t pay more than we would have for a night out at The Commoner in Pittsburgh, and it wouldn’t have been as good as Chateau anyways. Not to toot our horns, but we were holding our own in there. We were sat next to who we think was maybe a music producer because he was dropping a lot of names. No cellphones allowed, which I respect, but I snuck a few photos in the bathroom because I was looking hot and the bathroom was cute. (She’s well-traveled AND modest!) The waiter sent us each a complimentary glass of wine, in addition to the wine we already ordered. We split a cheese board as an appetizer (which again, was cheaper than a cheese board at The Commoner), and I got the spaghetti bolognese. I cannot understate the spaghetti bolognese, here. I still dream about it.

During covid, I heard the sad news that Chateau Marmont is becoming “members only.” I’m not sure what that means for the restaurant, or if that only pertains to the hotel, but it will be really sad if the public can’t eat there anymore. It was my FAVORITE restaurant from the trip, and I’d love to go back again.

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Do it:

Griffith Observatory and hiking the Hollywood sign

Order the spaghetti bolognese at Chateau Marmont!!!

Order a turmeric latte at Smith & Tait.

Reserve a table at The Ivy for Brunch.

Register for a yoga class at the Yoga Sanctuary at Alo, and maybe have a shopping spree and a matcha latte while you’re there.

Skip it:

Chinese Theater/Hollywood Walk of Fame – the Walk of Fame is FINE if you’ve never been, but there’s not a whole lot to do up there other than walk around and point at people’s names.

Bite Lip Lab

Museums downtown LA

I’d go back for:

In-n-Out Burger

Santa Monica and Malibu

The turmeric oat milk lattes

More hiking and opportunities to wear athleisure

Craig’s and Craig’s Vegan

Maybe Disneyland if I really had the time