Last month hubby and I visited LA for a few days. It was my first time experiencing the city so I thought I’d share my LA trip report with ya! We were in town because #motd (hubby aka man of the digs, that’s what we call him around here) had business in Palm Springs so I accompanied him out to Cali a few days early so we could have a little vacay together. The original plan was to go straight to Palm Springs, but when I learned about a styling workshop hosted by my prop stylist idol in LA the same week, I booked myself a spot and we decided to stay in LA and he could head to Palm Springs when my workshop kicked off. Either way was fine for us since we had never been to LA or Palm Springs, but I definitely want to visit Palm Springs some day!
We arrived early morning on a weekday and headed straight to Venice beach after picking up our rental car. It’s so close to the airport and since we were staying in Atwater Village 23 miles away (which feels like 58379 miles in LA), I wanted to knock out Venice while we were nearby. We strolled around the beach for a while, walked the pier then we rented bikes and cycled along the beach path to check out muscle beach, the skatepark and the cool graffiti. 
After we turned in our bikes we headed to Abbott Kinney Blvd for a little window shopping and lunch. We ate lunch at the popular Gjelina, and it lived up to all the reviews I read. We got a table outside on the patio and had a delish lunch of mussels, mushroom pizza and a couple cocktails. I definitely recommend this place. 
Then we strolled down Abbot Kinney Blvd and stumbled upon The Butchers Daugther, one of the coolest restaurant concepts ever. It’s an all vegetarian restaurant and the decor is on point, including plants hanging from meat hooks. Hah. We shared a juice flight of cold pressed juice. So LA…and so good. 
After lunch we headed to our Airbnb, a cute, bright yellow cottage in Atwater Village and the owners have FOUR pet goats!!!! We chose to stay in Atwater b/c of its close proximity to where my workshop was being held and I could not resist the goats! We are looking to get some mini goats of our own and this was a great opportunity to learn more about them. The goats were so cool and it solidified my decision that I need some of these little guys in my life!! They are such fun and have the cutest personalities! How awesome is that our Airbnb in LA had a little pack of urban goats?!?! 
That night we went to dinner at the legendary Musso & Frank Grill, an old Hollywood restaurant that’s been around since forever. When I read about their famous, “perfect” martini, I couldn’t resist. The martinis most definitely pack a punch! Lovely dinner, and although I didn’t love the fried oysters, our steak was delish. We followed dinner with a comedy show at UCB Theatre (thanks for the reco Jenn) and called it a night.
The next morning for breakfast we hit up the local Village Cafe in Atwater. I had the special, pictured here, which is a grilled polenta cake topped with parmesan, scrambled eggs, spinach, tomato, and crumbled bacon. It was so good but it was huge! I definitely couldn’t finish it but nonetheless, this was an awesome little local place that we enjoyed so much we visited again later (and shared a dish).
After breakfast, we set off to Malibu for the day where we walked along the pier and had a drink at Malibu Farm restaurant (LOVE the decor here!) I had an apple kale mimosa (only in LA, #amiright). 
While in Malibu we visited Malibu Wines, a neat tasting room nestled in the hills of Malibu. The pic below was one of the vantage points on the way to the tasting room. They have tables spread across a huge lawn where you can sit and taste the wine. They don’t serve food however, there’s a little shop with cheese and crackers available for purchase.
Afterward, we headed to lunch at Geoffrey’s on the recommendation of a friend (thanks, Tiff!). I didn’t get great pics here but the view is definitely not to be missed. It’s a lovely high-end restaurant with outdoor open seating overlooking the water and the food did not disappoint. The sea bass is some of the best I’ve ever had and they serve oysters with three unique dipping sauces.
The next morning we ate our way through Grand Central Market for breakfast. 
We went primarily to visit Egg Slut, a popular breakfast eatery where there is typically a line. We were lucky and didn’t have to wait long. We ordered their “slut” dish (haha) which is a coddled egg on top of a smooth potato purée, poached in a glass jar, topped with salt and chives and served with slices of baguette. It was friggin delish. 
The “slut” at Egg Slut. 
We did some touristy sightseeing the rest of the day, including Santa Monica Pier and had lunch at The Lobster at the end of the pier. We shared the best crab cakes I’ve ever had and a lobster roll, also very good.
After a little more sightseeing and a meet and greet with my workshop gang, we had dinner at Salazar, a Mexican joint in Atwater Village before heading back for a nightcap by the fire at our Airbnb with the goats! They loved chilling by the fire with us 🙂 
The next day hubby left for Palm Springs and I spent my last two days in LA at Light Lab, attending a styling workshop. My full recap of the workshop can be read here but I had to include a couple images from the super cool Light Lab space. 
Via
Via
After the first day of our workshop, I perused some local shops in Atwater Village with a friend I made at the workshop, Marisa. I about died when we walked into DeKor, a sophisticated furniture and accent boutique with an eclectic mix of old and new and boho vibes. If you know anything about me, you can image I was in heaven here. I wanted to transplant every vignette diretly into the #dalydigs without changing a thing! 
Via
I mean. It’s so good riiigghtttt! This is what my dreams are made of. 
Then we popped in Individual Medley across the street where we each found some fun props to use for all that prop styling we just practiced all day 😉 
So there ya have it folks, my LA trip report from our quick little visit last month. Thanks to everyone who gave me recommendations. If I learned anything about LA it was to stay someplace convenient to what you want to visit while in town and/or try to avoid driving during peak traffic times. LA traffic is no joke!
