Holiday Fireworks!

While relaxing on the couch with hubby tonight, watching last night's SNL we heard a super loud BANG! which sounded like a gunshot. We looked at each other with fear in our eyes. A second later, another BOOM! and then we realized.. it's fireworks from the Christmas (or should I say Holiday?) Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Grove tonight!

We just enjoyed an amazing (and completely random) fireworks show from our backyard. Holiday fireworks? Only in LA.. I love it here!

My Bad

I'm sorry for my blogging break. I'm embarrassed and ashamed. I have an entire list of things to tell you about but I've been slacking. I don't want this to become a burden, because I really enjoy writing and sharing my life in LaLa Land with you.

For now.. I'm doing something very exciting tonight. One of my favorite summer pastimes, and this is my first time doing it in LA! I'm sure you can imagine my excitement.

I'm going here:

To see..

Play..

Next week I'll be back and full of exciting things to talk about, like Pinkberry flavors, shopping excursions, and even a trip to Ohio to see the fam. I'm sure you're all "totally stoked" but in the mean time, have a great weekend!

Snapshots of a Summer Evening

A drive up the mountains on the back of the motorcycle.

A beautiful sunset.

Quality time with my husband.

Priceless.

A Taco & A Truck

Have you heard about Kogi? If you don't live in LA you might not have gotten hip to the taco truck phenomenon yet, but I hear it's taking the nation by storm. Maybe there will be some traveling restaurants in ole' Ohio some time soon!

Anyway, Kogi is a Korean BBQ taco truck that travels all over Los Angeles. You can find Kogi's locations by following them on twitter. How 2009 is that?!

Last week, Peter and I ventured out for our first Kogi experience at Space 1520 on Cahuenga Blvd. The line wasn't as long as I expected and was enjoyable because the truck has a pretty sweet sound system and was blaring some music.

I ordered three tacos (chicken, spicy pork, and spicy ribs) and a diet coke for $8. What a deal. The food was absolutely delicious! I can't wait to go back and try more things at Kogi (like the burriotos, quesadillas, CUPCAKES!, and the kogi dog).


There are so many cool things in this city! As Randy Newman so elequently put it, "I love LA.. I love it!"

Summer Essentials (Part 2)

I thought of another thing I couldn't live without this summer. Another "summer essential" if you will.

Friday night, half price, sushi!


I love sushi. I could eat it every single day. We've found some great places that offer "happy hour" on sushi and it's half price and amazingly delicious!

What am I doing this evening? Going out for sushi of course, and then maybe a stop for my first diddy riese. I've decided that I can't live another day in LA without trying this delicious treat.

A Bicycle Built For Two

I fell in love with Newport Beach this weekend.

Newport is in Orange County and it took us about an hour to get there from our house. It's so beautiful!! There are tons of beach houses (which we will rent someday) bikes everywhere, a path along the ocean and another path along the bay which is filled with more beautiful homes and tons of boats. I am such a beach/boat/water girl, this was my paradise. We visited Newport with our best friends and we even had cheap Mexican for dinner which is my absolute favorite type of food.

After dinner we were walking to the pier when we stumbled upon a bike shop that was offering $5 rides for the last 30ish minutes of the day. What a great deal! Heck yes we'll ride your bikes for $5! So we decided to get tandem bikes, and it was so fun. Our bike was even equipped with a horn perfect for honking at everyone we passed. We biked down the beach, the pier, and in the bay. (This is the point where I fall deeply in love with Newport Beach.) It was a very fun, impromptu ride around the city.


We ended the night at an great beach bar called the Balboa Saloon where they were playing awesome jukebox music. I officially want to move to Newport someday (or at least visit it all the time and rent beach houses every summer), who's with me?

Flea Marketing

On Sunday the gloom lifted. I now think I should have taken that sunshine to the beach but hindsight is 20/20, right? Instead, we headed to the Melrose Trading Post flea market on the corner of Fairfax & Melrose! I'm glad we went because it was a fun thrifting experience. There were hundreds of vendors set up in the school parking lot selling everything from artwork, home goods, clothing, jewlwery, old books and movies, and even bin's filled with random pictures. I ended up coming home with some handmade jewelry, a bracelet and beautiful necklace. There were about a million other things I wanted to buy and plan to go back another day when I have some more cash laying around. We discussed that a flea market is like taking all the best things you'd find at thrift stores and putting them all in one place! And in case you were wondering, random flea market finds like this are reason #122 that I love living in LA!

Ketchup!

My friend Lauren, you've met her before here, had 3 friends visiting from her hometown in Missouri this weekend. We decided we needed to show them some Hollywood swankyness so we visited Ketchup on Sunset Boulevard! If you've followed the Hills for the past few years you'll recognize Ketchup as the place where "Speidi" ran into LC and Jason Wahler. Awesome Hills trivia fact, huh? (With each blog post I realize more and more I am such a dork... is that the point of these things?)

This place is SO cool. I didn't take any pictures inside because, let's face it, I didn't want to look like the loser girl taking pictures of the restaurant. I wanted people to think I'd been there a million times!

Ketchup is considered "upscale" diner food. They have mini-cheesburgers, tacos, and even mac&cheese (I don't think I can ever enjoy Kraft again after tasting this) on the menu. You must order Ketchup's signature fries. The are three different types of fries (including sweet potato, yum!) and five different ketchups (obviously!): wasabi, chipotle, maple, mango and ranch.


The waitstaff was ultra friendly which made the place a lot more likable. If this was Yelp I'd give the place 5 stars. It's fun, different, and oh so Hollywood. Little known fact - Ketchup is half price on Sunday nights but you have to be in "the know." They don't give you half off unless you ask for it!


Oh yea, we saw a "celeb" to all you Lost fanatics, I didn't know who he was, but you might! Mr. Echo?!

Memoralizing Memorial Day

It was a great Memorial Day in LaLa Land! I had to work all day/night Saturday which isn't exactly the way I wanted to spend my memorial day weekend, but Sunday and Monday made up for it! We enjoyed a cook-out at an AMAZING beach house where a friend was dog-sitting. If only I could live in a beautiful beach-front house.. if only.. I wish.. someday. Anyway, moving on, it was fun and made me feel like summer is definitely on the way. I'm ready for warm summer nights though, it's still so chilly here at night!



Monday, Peter and I went to the beautiful Griffith Park! Griffith is basically LA's version of Central Park except that it's on a gigantic mountain. We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the grass and then took in the sights, and my what a view! The pictures will speak for themselves.





I love all the cool and free things we can do in Los Angeles. I really enjoy my city!