To say I had a good weekend would be such an understatement. There were several times over the last few days when everything was so perfect and I was so happy that I felt tears come to my eyes. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to usher in my forties. There is something special about traveling with people you love and know so well, adding to the depth of your friendship by creating new memories and sharing special occasions.
We had a pretty easy flight. I slept most of the way while the girls enjoyed Bloody Marys for breakfast. There had been another group of women checking in at the airport for a 40th birthday trip, which we knew because they were wearing matching pink outfits and the woman was wearing a pink birthday hat with 40 written with pipe cleaners. I hid my disappointment that my friends had not made me a special birthday hat and flip-flops and attached buttons all over my outfit saying “Lordy Lordy I am 40” and tried to make the most of my travels with 3 obviously uncaring friends. I had gotten over the hurt and feeling of being unloved by the time we landed.
After picking up our rental Taurus, which brought us many admiring glances as we drove around the city, we headed straight to Cha Cha Cha for lunch. Kathy J met us there, but was very disciplined because she was preparing for a triathlon in Malibu on Sunday. We checked into the Roosevelt, which we thought was a great hotel. Even if it had been a craphole, the complimentary M and M’s would have won me over. Su F complained because I ate them all, but two weeks of no sugar prior to the trip allowed me to justify why I should get to eat them all. Before we could do anything we had to hit the Gap because someone on the trip forgot to pack underwear. We walked around some before heading over to visit Jen’s cousin Houston. We spent the evening hanging out with her and her husband Peter and their super cute son, Rex Eleven. They have a great house in Silver Lake and are a lot of fun. Houston is a stylist and has worked with a lot of cool people. Peter played drums in some cool bands and now works in real estate. After several hours of laughing and good conversation we headed back to hang at the hotel.
Both mornings I got up and ran along Sunset. I guess it was the lack of humidity or maybe the change of scenery, but I could have easily doubled my run time. The girls enjoyed coffee by the pool while I ran.
It is always kind of boring hearing people talk about the details of their trips so I will just touch on a few things. Mainly so that in a few years I will be able to remember what I did! (We spent about 20 minutes in a restaurant in Los Feliz trying to remember who had been with us on one trip we took to NYC a few years back. That made us wonder who on this particular trip we would forget. So I am saving it for posterity!) Of all the many things we did and saw, I think the highlight for me was visiting the Getty Museum. It was just so beautiful, too beautiful to put into words. We spent a long time there, just enjoying the incredible weather and surroundings. Hanging out by the pool at the hotel was also a highlight.
We got up early Sunday and walked to the Farmer’s Market and took that all in and Susan got to eat a tamale from her favorite tamale stand. We also took in the MOCA exhibit of Eva Hesse drawings and visited with Su R’s friend Mike and his girlfriend Alyssa. He is an art history professor and she works at the Getty and they were both very nice. One of the more unusual activities we did was drive around Sunday and visit Open Houses for real estate for sale. Peter printed out listings of cool homes that were open that day and we checked them out. The one that made us all try to figure out how we could move to L.A. was a house in Silver Lake that was designed by Nino Otero. It was astoundingly beautiful and had views to die for. Peter was holding an Open House in The Oaks for a place that had been owned by Cary Grant in the 30’s and is now owned by the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was out of even our fantasy league, but very cool to see.
There was much much more that we packed in to the weekend. L.A. won me over with its weather and architecture. I put some pictures up on my Flikr site, which you can see here. I haven’t really got the hang of Flikr yet, but I hope to be using it a lot more in the future. Jen contributed the picture of the hotel sign and the really awesome picture of me balancing a pomegranate on my head. No star sightings, unless we can count Sponge Bob. And we can’t really be sure it was REALLY Sponge Bob and not just an impersonator.
EDIT: Another highlight I forgot to mention was when I brushed my teeth with the steroid cream Susan has for her eczema. That was awesome!

Award-winning photography by Jennifer. Well, I will give her an award.