california love

On June 10, David and I celebrated our 10th anniversary.

David  has been planning our anniversary trip for over a year.

Planning vacations is serious business for Dave - and this was a super special one.

He out-did himself for sure.

Our big trip included a cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerta Vallarta (sp?) and a short 2-day stay in L.A. before the cruise.

As an added bonus, our friends Josh and Maribeth joined us for the L.A. part of our trip.

When I think of L.A., I think of movie stars, palm trees, huge houses, Rodeo Drive, and tons of cheesy tourist attractions.

I'm not opposed to cheesy, touristy things.

In fact, the Big 'Ol Nerd in me loves them immensely. 

And if we're being real honest here, I would have been seriously pumped to take a Tour of the Stars in a dorky bus. I would have relished checking out the Brangelina exhibit at the Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum. I would totally have totally loooved putting my hands in Judy Garland's handprints. It's true.

I'm a nerd.

Josh and Maribeth, however - are a little cooler than I - and enjoy doing what the natives do when they visit a new city.

Things like shop at this place:

Where all the pretty fabrics live.

In one place.

Turns out the natives do some really fun stuff.

Maribeth and I were in looooove with Michael Levine.

It's safe to say that David and Josh didn't feel the same way.

At one point, Maribeth and I left Josh and David on their own while we sifted through the bins in this place:

That's when Josh  looked at David and said, "You know that everyone thinks we're together."

To which David responded, "Yeah. I'm pretty sure no one cares."

And it was true.

They may have been the only hetero people within a 2 mile radius of the store. 

Possibly more.

Make that definitely more.

We hung out at the Farmer's Market where I saw this guy riding a bike:

And I almost peed my pants.

Cause I'm a total nerd.

Mr. and Mrs. Coolness did acquiesce when they went with us to the very touristy Santa Monica Pier.

I have my suspicions that Josh was just scoping out spots for his engagement shoot on Sunday, but whatever. Let's just pretend they were into the cheesy tourist thing for a minute.

We saw Zoltar...

And rode the Ferris Wheel.

And saw the fattest pigeons I've ever seen.

And stared at the crazy people swimming in the freezing cold water.

Then we went shopping and saw Harvey Levin from TMZ interviewing some people for The People's Court.

I think I did pee myself that time.

And I managed to snap a picture -

We saw some seriously interesting fashion choices at the mall.

Just take a look at what the middle guy is wearing.

Wowza.

The next day, we went to breakfast where I overheard a guy at the next table talking about the scene he was writing for 30 Rock.

FANCY.

I managed to control myself during that conversation.

But only because I was busy eavesdropping.

Later, we went to Firefly (a restaurant so cocky that they don't even have a sign outside.) to eat dinner. And - umm - Kirsten Dunst was dining there.

At the same place where we were dining.

Yes. That's right.

She walked right past us on her way out the door.

I didn't see her, but Josh and David did.

It was probably best that I missed it.

Because I'm pretty sure I would have been asked to leave the restaurant on account of my obnoxious behavior.

Come to think of it, I'm wondering why I was even allowed to enter the establishment in the first place - since I wasn't wearing stilettos and a mini dress.

By the way - Firefly has one bathroom.

One bathroom for the ladies AND the gents.

To use at the same time.

Let me just say that standing in line to pee with a guy is a little strange.

Overall - L.A. was fantastic.

Beautiful weather

Beautiful food.

Beautiful people.

Beautiful company.