Long Weekend in La La Land

Last weekend's quick trip to LA with my boss and 2 colleagues provided some pretty productive R & R - the best of both worlds! We headed out on Thursday afternoon to Santa Monica where we stayed at Shutters on the Beach- the most amazing hotel in Santa Monica (if you ask me!)

One of the highlights of this particular hotel is that the location of the hotel - just like it's namesake- is directly on the beach. The location truly is out of this world- you're a short walk to the Santa Monica Pier and you can view the beautiful beach from all the hotel's restaurants.

The pool deck, located on the 3rd floor over looks the beach so again, you can have the best of both worlds - ocean AND pool.

When we weren't splitting lemon ricotta pancakes at Coast we were in 'downtown' Santa Monica at Flower Girl- the most delicious (and healthy!) spot with strong coffee and some of the best gluten free blueberry muffins.

On Sunday we took a drive down to Universal Studios. I had never been to Universal Studios (or Disney Land or Disney World for that matter) so I was pretty impressed with all it had to offer. We rode nearly every. single. ride. I must say, we were all exhausted by the end of the day.

By far my favorite ride was the Harry Potter virtual ride. It was so incredibly realistic! Below, Harry Potter land and a shot of City Walk at Universal which is where we ended our day with burgers and beer.

Hello, Hollywood! From one level of the park to the next was the best view of Hollywood! You can see for miles and miles and I swear the sky has never looked so blue.

Just one of the many beautiful beachside sunsets.

Until next time, Cali!