Christmas part 2: Alone in LA

A few days before Christmas, Casey and I left the kids with his parents and spent a day alone in one of our favorite cities. Well, I spent the whole morning alone in LA and then he joined me around lunch time.

I spent plenty of time running from shop to shop in the garment district:
and sifting through odds and ends. You can see more about my fabric shopping experience HERE.
Then I swung by Casey's office to pick him up. Their old building is really cool and actually part of the architecture tour on 500 Days of Summer.
We then drove from downtown, through West Hollywood and took a moment to pause at this. If you ever need to go clubbin, while pumping your gas, you must stop at this ARCO station on Santa Monica blvd. The only missing elements were Ben Stiller and his boys splashing gas on each other.
From there we continued to the Miracle Mile and ate at our favorite pizza place, Rocco's.
I've blogged about this before. But seriously. Pepperoni Calzones, mixed with....
Barq's rootbeer?
is cheesy heaven. I hope we can eat there this summer too.
With full bodies, we continued west and ended at: the beach.
I've realized, while going through my pictures, that we made 4 different trips to 4 different beaches while we were there. Most beaches are dreamy and simply beautiful. But especially in LA, it's a nice contrast to the craziness of Hollywood Blvd. The beach is one of the top things I miss about California.
The famous Santa Monica pier:
Late afternoon drivers on PCH:
I was actually there.
(and Casey was actually at Rocco's...though my cheese was more important in the photo than he was)
After watching the sun go down, we wandered 3rd Street Promenade.
Paid a visit to this place:
Tried on boots at Aldo (didn't buy any). And then saw this movie:
We both thought it was....Fantastic! haah. I was actually going to write that. We highly recommend it.

We came out of the theater to a darker 3rd Street, with sad singing acts getting ready for the crowds that night.
We admired the pretty Anthropologie windows:
We hit up Urban Outfitters one more time and then called it a night! (or a day).
We really love where we live right now and the lifestyle we're able to have in Texas. But man, there really is something about L.A. that draws you in. Maybe it's the fact that we know it so well? I think of the countless hours I spent driving these streets while working as a P.A....knowing all the ins-and-outs, short-cuts for getting "over the hill", best places to park, ways to avoid the 405/10 interchange. LA really feels like home to me. So much life, character, and still some natural beauty.

"I lovvvvvvve LA."