twin haircuts.

my old roommate from nyc and long lost love, sara, is living out in sunny CA now. we met up last week when I was in LA. she came to my sweet hotel in downtown LA, we stayed up late gossiping and catching up on our lives. In the morning she gave me beautiful lashes (check those babies out!), and we drove over to olvera street and i bought TH a lucha libre.

i loved hanging out with my sexy hair double. we (separately) got the exact same haircut a few weeks apart. one day her cute face showed up on facebook with this new hairstyle, and i was like - hey! my haircut! i LOVE the haircut on her,especially the blonde! me? i'm working on growing it out and it is a complete nightmare.

here we are on olvera street:

hello world, i am in love with california.

the mission inn, with all its quirks, was a dream. after my meeting and solar tour was over, TH flew in and we kicked it there for the weekend. lots of pool time, lots of hanging out in the spa, and self-restoration. i seriously feel like a different person on this here tuesday.
we spent yesterday driving around santa monica, dropping by UCLA for a trip to in n out (and wow, i loved that campus! time to go back to school??), driving on rodeo drive (TH liked to pronounce it rodeo like cowboy rodeo. funny), and pretending we didn't care about star sightings. but seriously if i had seen suri cruise i would've gawked. the girl dresses better than me, what can i say?
TH left on the red eye last night and now i'm just hanging out for a couple more days in sunny LA.

hooray for feeling better about life. i hope you are, too.

los angeles.

i just found out i get to go to los angeles next month. i've never been! so tell me - what are the must-see's? i will be staying at a hotel downtown since my conference is at the la expo center. i hear downtown is kinda grimy and financial district-y. but i will have some time to escape at nights.

where should i go? what should i eat? is it really difficult to get from downtown to santa monica (i.e. should i stay in santa monica and subway to la?)

lay it on me! (all i know about LA I learned from watching 500 days of summer. oh swoon.)

golden gate bridge.

thinking back on it, san francisco really is quite lovely. the bridge is one of the prettiest i've ever seen. i loved riding my bike over it, even though i was afraid the wind would blow me right off a few times!

san francisco, what a treat.

mushrooms at ferry building.biking to the golden gate bridge.before crossing the bridge. hello windy day.

sausalito. you gorgeous little town, you.a house in berkeley. those flowers nearly made me cry.

and can't forgot all the cool SF houses and details.

i thought san francisco was an interesting mix of new york, chicago, and the rocky mountains (those hilly streets! ack!) friday, i had breakfast at the ferry market building, then i rented a bike and biked the embarcadero to the golden gate bridge and down to sausalito. a great way to see so much of the city and enjoy the cool summer weather. i got a nice sunglasses burn, and i look awesome now. after the bike ride, i went straight to chinatown to check out the crazy shops and felt completely lost and overwhelmed! one hour is not long enough to even put a dent in chinatown! i went back to my hotel after that and rested for 20 minutes, then took off to walk around a ton - through the mission district over to haight-ashbury (through the duboce triangle - loved it!), and then took a cab to golden gate park to visit the de young museum (up the observation tower with amazing views of the city!). and ended the day with a movie - the kids are all right. and that was all in one day!!

back in town, and just loving dc. i don't even care how hot it is, it's just nice to be home, walking around my neighborhood again, dreaming up fun things to do to enjoy the rest of the summer. i really do love living in dc and so excited to hang out with friends. play time!