An LA Weekend

Well, to be more accurate it was an LA, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Catalina Island trip. Regardless, GJ and I headed out there for a relaxing weekend awhile back. After passing up some boutique hotels, we decided to stay at the historic Roosevelt Hotel. The hotel was awesome. Some kid was actually having his "super sweet sixteen-esque" b-day party in their ballrooms. Baller. And just like every other nice hotel in LA, the parking lot was littered with your garden variety of exotic cars.

Anyway, after some exploring and mandatory Jolibee stops (my first time...I know, I know), we headed out to Santa Monica pier for some sights and the infamous Hot Dog on a Stick. SO good. We drove around Beverly Hills and some other sites (from the Hills) before calling it a night.

The next morning we headed to Catalina Island. We actually got lost for a bit, so we drove along the PCH and then stumbled upon a little "Filipino town" for Jolibee breakfast and Chow King for some killer bubble tea. After stowing some Sunflower crackers and Yan Yan in my camera bag, we headed out to the next ferry. From our first class seating we managed to get a great view of 30+ dolphins swimming next to us. Ridiculously cool. Anyway, Catalina didn't disappoint and was definitely a nice little day excursion before getting some more LA sites in.

After we cleaned up, it was time to check out what was right next to our hotel - Coffee Bean and more importantly, the Chinese Theater. I took a shot of Michael Jackson's star in passing, though now I hold that picture in much higher esteem since I hear there's massive lines just to see it. Anyway, I decided to surprise GJ with a return to Beverly Hills for sightseeing & dinner at Cut (in the Wilshire Four Seasons). After some fantastic steak and wine, we headed back to the hotel for some sleep before flying back to Chicago.

Before flying back, we had a chance to meet up with one of my uncles to hang out at his place. He is a gearhead like me so it was fun to talk shop with him about his off-roading Range Rover adventures and his new Corvette. He told me there was some great twisty mountain roads right behind his house that Jay Leno hits up sometimes. After some eats, we headed back to LAX to reluctantly leave California. A perfect retreat from the cold. Here are some pics from the trip: