Los Angeles: Nutshell style

My sister E joked with me a few months ago that I should create a separate blog for all the celebrity sightings I hoped to have while in LA. And to make it extra funny, there should only ever be one post, and the one sighting I would have would have been an extra from some obscure episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Luckily, our experience wasn't as lame as that. Here are the celebrities we've seen while in LA:







LA (Santa Monica, specifically) has been a whirlwind. One thing we didn't expect is that we wouldn't have the time to do everything we wanted to do. I've been working from home from 8-3 everyday. With that and Harry working full time, it actually doesn't leave much time to do much else.

That's not to say we didn't do fun things. We still got to hang out with Dan + Aja, and we traveled to see family every weekend, explored by going to new restaurants and theaters, and went for evening walks and jogs along the beach. I went down to visit my sister/bro-in-law/nephew/brother/parents about once a week when Harry had an after-work event that I wasn't invited to. And we've been adventurous in the food department as well.

On 4th of July weekend, our friends the Dyers crashed with us for the night, and we all met up the next day with our good friends, the Santistevans. It was fun to see some familiar Palo Alto faces!






Then we partied Irvine Style with barbeque, food, and togetherness.



Also, Jeff and Merzy had us (me, Harry, Cam) over for a sleepover, Junior High style, complete with pizza, candy, movie, staying up late... and we almost went to get Krispie Kreme donuts at midnight, but being the wimps that we are, we were konked out on the couch by then.





For our 2 year anniversary, Harry did his research and surprised me by taking me to Lucque. It was (cue: far off look in eyes, tear of nostalgia, trickling of drool down chin) so good.

I'm not a big beef person. But at Lucque, the braised beef short ribs were calling my name. The restaurant owner was making the rounds, asking everyone how they liked their food. He got to our table and told me I was eating a dish that was featured on the Food Network show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." Not that it mattered, I barely heard him over the sound of fireworks of joy shooting off in my brain. I will never be satisfied with short ribs ever again after this experience, I'm afraid.

They wrote "Happy Anniversary" on our dessert plate. Which you can't even really see... at all.



Last Friday, my Mom drove out to spend the day with me. It was so much fun! We ate at the 3rd Street Promenade at The Market, and took our time wandering around afterward, choosing gelato and a few chocolates to share, and walking around the mall.




All in all, this was a really wonderful summer. And it's not exactly over either.

Next summer if we come back, we'll wise up by living in an area that is cheaper, more central, and not so traffic-ridden. But living in Santa Monica has been such a blast and I'm sure I'll miss our summer by the ocean when it's over.