Of course, my gift is not entirely selfless. For a little over 48 hours I get to be childless, and footloose and fancy-free in crazy Lala Land. I miss Southern California, so getting down here once in a while is like a breath of fresh air for me. Although without the fresh air, of course - Los Angeles isn't exactly known for it's air quality.
Despite fervently looking forward to my away time, I had quite the issue leaving Daisy this morning, however. Being a mommy is hard: you know you need the "me" time but you can barely bring yourself to sacrifice time away from them to get it. Even though you know it's irrational, you wonder if they will forget you and you'll somehow be replaced as #1 by Nanny or Grandad or Daddy. Yeah, yeah, I know. I said it was irrational.
But I'm here now and already having a great time.
This afternoon and evening we spent in downtown L.A. and the new entertainment complex that has sprung up around the Staples Center, "L.A. Live". Now, before you wonder what on earth posessed us to go to downtown Los Angeles, let me explain: it's changed. It is no longer the armpit of Southern California. Quite the contrary, in fact. It's now a bustling metropolis full of new development and beautiful old buildings, living side-by-side. Cool lofts and chic bars, fabulous restaurants... it's quite the "in" area. And, get this - everybody walks in L.A! That's right... WALKS. What a concept!
E and I had quite the walking excursion, from Olympic all the way up to 10th street and back again, stopping to take pics along the way. Fortunately, E loves her camera as much as I do, so there was no foot-tapping as we moved around in 360 degree angles to try and get the perfect shot of this or that.
We stopped in one older building, The Hotel Figueroa, for almost an hour. If I ever come back to L.A. with hubby for a weekend excursion, this is where I would want to stay. It's just an amazing spot, with the feel of old Mexico. Cool tiles, elaborate lights, wrought-iron gates and fences, oversized dining chairs, and a fabulous bar-patio area that overlooked a beautiful pool-oasis in the back. You almost forgot you were slap bang in the middle of America's second largest city. And so much to take pictures of! It was an amateur photographer's mecca. E and I milled around, changing camera settings, experimenting, and sharing our results.
Here are some of them from our excursion...
THE HOTEL FIGUEROA
The great thing about L.A. is that you can walk around taking pictures of people and things and nobody pays you the slightest bit of notice. Pull out your DSLR in Sacramento and people look at you, wondering if you'll have the audacity to sneak a picture of them.
Did I say I missed SoCal? Yeah, Hubby's in for it for at least a month when I get back.
Right now, I'm off. I'm being a TERRIBLE guest, just sitting on E's couch and blogging silently. Off to be the birthday treat. LOL.
You can see all the pics here
Here's the link back to The Gurly Life's post on the same day (which I waited forever for her to finish. I mean, who takes 30 minutes to finish the last sentence and bothers to re-check the post for errors before posting!? Doesn't she know that posts are way more fun when they're full of typos and poor grammar? Sheesh. I could teach her a thing or two!)
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Edited to add: I guess this shows how much I know about different decorating styles. I looked-up more about the Hotel Figueroa and found that it is decorated in the Moroccan style. Oops! Just a sea or two away from Mexico. Aparently it also used to be a YWCA and is purported to be haunted. We didn't see any ghosts, however, although I'm sure we would have taken a photo of them if we had.
1 comment:
This is the BEST POST EVER! I just love it when we do stuff together and then blog about it, two totally different perspectives. It's so fun. I get to look at something I've lived through a different lens.
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