Labor Day in LA!! | Fun Date Ideas, Restaurant Recs + More

HI HELLO HI FROM LA!!!!

This has felt like my longest blog hiatus in forever, and for that I sincerely apologize! (In case ya missed it, I did get two new videos up on my YouTube channel in the interim, so def check them out and hit that subscribe button 😉 )

The last bit of summer flew by, and was a really exciting but also stressful and overwhelming time for me as I prepared to leave Chicago and start my masters program at USC. I’m planning on writing and sharing more about where my headspace has been at for the past couple months up till now— There are so many positives about undergoing a huge move and life change such as this is, but it’s scary, it’s hard, and I’m trying to find routine, friends, build an entire new life in my new world… which is, yeah, a lot lol. So more on that later; I have a fuck ton of thoughts and self-reflection I can’t wait to share.

On a very light and fun note, I am very pumped to be sharing my first bit of photos and weekend tidbits to the blog since my move. The LA Insta feed is going strong; click here to catch up on what I’ve been up to lately!

The highlight of the weekend was that my boyfriend Alex came to visit for the long weekend!! It was our first visit since we became long distance, so it was definitely a big deal. I only left Chicago about two weeks ago (feels like longer though!) and having something to look forward to really helped make that first goodbye easier. We had the best weekend and really hit the town; we went to the west side and Alex got to experience Santa Monica for the first time. Side note: I made up an inside joke with myself where I kept telling people it was Alex’s first time going to the beach and they would always believe me and it was just really fucking funny. We ate our way around the city, made it to Malibu for some wine tasting fun, Birded (e-scootered) everywhere, got super boozy, double dated like crazy with my sister and her bf, and had a low key cozy night where we ordered dinner in, hung out in our sweats and watched Vanderpump Rules (how we always spend our Sunday nights together in Chicago). Getting to just be normal and feel normal and not think about how we don’t live in the same timezone anymore was everything.

Ok, let’s get into it!

Thursday

Alex took a half day at work in got in around 5 pm. I planned for us to have a relatively low key night; give him a tour of my temporary apartment (my lease starts in a couple weeks), chill and catch up, and then hit the Grove for dinner. For those who don’t know, the Grove is a beautiful and well known outdoor mall in the Fairfax area! It’s really pretty at night time and they have great dessert spots, so I figured it’d be a fun date night spot. My sister had recommended Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill for dinner and ohmygod you guys, it was insane. We got an order of garlic edamame, hibachi, a dragon roll, crispy rice and spicy tuna— which is one of my all time fave things to order when I get sushi and it was some of the best I’ve ever had— hamachi sashimi, and then for the grand finale: an over roasted miso lobster with panko and scallions. INSANE!

 

I wanted to go to the Dominique Ansel bakey to get chocolate chip cookie and milk shots for dessert, but we ended up in Topshop and it closed before we got there #sad. Alex got a dope pink sweatshirt though, so it wasn’t a total wash.

Friday

Friday I had set aside as our exploring/Santa Monica day. I made a lunch res at Elephante, which I have been wanting to go for THE longest time. It is a beautiful space on the building’s rooftop level, amazing interior design, over looking the ocean. We woke up early and went to the Bluestone Lane by my place to grab some coffee and wander around the area a bit before we headed to the west side. One of my favorite aspects of mine and Alex’s relationship is that we both love all things fashion and clothes, so shopping together is always so much fun. And LA is obviously a great place for style lovers; we stumbled into a ton of stores and it was amazing. We easily could’ve used an extra day solely for shopping together haha.

Now onto Elephante… If you ever have a day to spend in Santa Monica, you MUST go. It was absolutely stunning and the food and drinks were fantastic. They offer a great lunch deal as well; for I believe $35 you get a choice of appetizer, entree, and dessert from an awesome selection. To start, we both got salads loaded with parm (heeeello), and then Alex got a pizza and I got a saffron lobster spaghetti that can only be described as spiritual. For dessert, bub got tiramisu and I got sorbet with mint and sea salt and some fresh af fruit. Oh and we both had frozen limoncello drinks that truly made it feel like we were in Hawaii or something.

After we birded around for a bit (we love e scooters so much hahah), we made our way back to my apartment, met up with my sister and her bf Greyson, and headed to the grocery to pick up some wine and charcuterie supplies. Our early evening was spent at one of the Jazz at the LACMA events, which was so much fun. The LACMA is the LA museum of modern art FYI! It was outdoors, free, beautiful scenery, and great music. Talk about a cheap date 😉

The couples split up for dinner and then we reunited to “go out,” which I haven’t done in what feels like forever. We ended up at the Den, which is a huge indoor/outdoor bar in WeHo, and it was honestly so much fun. Lots of shots and dancing and it was just such a happy and fun night. Oh, and we ended up getting 3 am tacos at a place nearby which is literally the most on brand for my boyfriend LOL.

Saturday

Saturday was literally the day to have a day. After a boozy brunch of bottomless mimosas, the squad ubered up to Malibu for a 4 pm slot at Malibu Wine Safaris. I’m actually going to do a full post on this because it was such an incredible experience and I have so many pictures! I’ve wanted to go since before I ever knew I’d live in LA, and I wondered if it was over hyped… Definitely was not. We had the best time, got so drunk and silly, got to feed zebras and pet llamas… Seriously a must do.

After our wine tasting and safari, we took our drunk asses to the only last min available restaurant res we could get in the bu, and as we had some time to kill, stumbled across the Malibu Chili Cook Off and decided to check it out. It was basically your standard fair except it 1) looked scenically like we were at Coachella, 2) also looked like we were transported into the Euphoria set. Also, every teenage girl was wearing the exact same outfit and had perfect hair and makeup and it was slightly terrifying.

A true mood:

We drank more and then made it to our dinner res, and honestly, I don’t think any of us could tell you much about what happened at this point. Like I said, we had a DAY. It ended perfectly: we had an hour long drive back to LA, and the uber drive let us play whatever we wanted. So naturally, we put on the new Taylor Swift album Lover, start to finish, and sang the entire time. I would like to point out that this was probably the 5th time of the weekend the boys had been subjected to listening to this album in its entirety. Lol.

Sunday 

We woke up shockingly not hungover at all, a true miracle. Kate and Greyson were sleeping on the air mattress and my bf, the psycho that he is, is like ok I’m gonna go work out in the gym. And as I’m now awake as well, I decide to work out as well. Such a psychopathic good influence that boy is on me.

We brunched at Joan’s on Third, which I had been so excited to take Alex to! The Chinese chicken salad is truly iconic.

Afterwards we birded around and just kinda explored the neighborhood a bit! One of the biggest things that has surprised me about LA since my move, is that there are so many beautiful and peaceful streets nestled away in the city with like, insane houses. It was fun cruising around picking out our faves.

We made out way to the Melrose Trading Post, which is a very famous flea market. It’s an amazing place for thrifting!! I will definitely be coming back; it was so so so hot when we were there and I was too sweaty to do the digging required to find thrifted treasures. But we walked all over to see what they had: tee shirts, plants, crystals, art, jewelry, seriously everything under the sun.

Ok, bear with me, we’re at the end of the weekend haha. We ended up back at my apartment and lounged in the sun by the pool for a bit, deciding what we wanted to pick up for dinner. We ended up picking up Indian food from India’s Tandoori and it was no joke, some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had.

Such a perfect weekend. I was just so focused on having fun and enjoying our time together and didn’t at all think about the fact that he would be going back to Chicago first thing Monday morning. He left around 6 am and it surprisingly was a harder goodbye than when I left Chi. Long distance is definitely not for the faint of heart, but trips like this make it so worth it 🙂