A Summer Visitor

The weekend is just a few hours away but I haven't even written about all the fun I had LAST weekend! #badblogger

Last weekend Gerrick came into town from Dallas to spend a few days in LA! Ordinarily when I have a friend coming to visit, I get really excited and kinda go overboard planning a crazy fun jam-packed itinerary, but this time, aside from some general ideas of things she had never done in LA before, we decided to just take each day as it came, depending on what we were in the mood to do. 

She landed Friday morning and first thing we did after she unpacked and relaxed a bit at my apartment was OBVIOUSLY go for some sushi. Here we are at Izakaya, my favorite place - it's easy to smile this big when you've just had some delicious spicy tuna on crispy rice!

Afterwards, we did a very "LA Thing", according to Gerrick, and went to go watch a taping of E! News! It was hot and I was cranky so I sat in the shade with Serena while Gerrick and Greene enjoyed the show, but their patience was rewarded - they got to take pics with Guiliana Rancic and we didn't. Gerrick is now referring to her as "her new best friend." Don't worry, I'm not that jealous.

It was a fabulous coincidence that the weekend Gerrick decided to visit was the first weekend of the month, so we got to show her First Friday on Abbot Kinney! On the first Friday night of every month, Abbot Kinney - this awesome street in Venice - becomes a mile long block party, lined with food trucks and bars and boutiques that keep their doors open late. It was insanely crowded but we still managed to have fun. One food truck was offering the craziest looking potato spirals on a stick. Gerr could not resist.

Saturday was just as fun as Friday - we woke up super early and drove out to Arcadia to Din Tai Fung for some authentic soup dumplings and Chinese food. RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME AND WORTH THE SHLEP. Look at those delicious babies.

Then we decided to lay out and swim at my moms... Completely forgot to take a pic, but as soon as we put our bathing suits on and walked out to the pool we started cracking up - we were wearing the exact same bathing suit! Great minds think alike :)

Because I am lucky enough to live in a city with a lot of my friends and sorority sisters from college, we planned a big fun night out on Saturday night, so Gerrick could get a chance to catch up with everyone and finally meet some significant others and boyfriends she had only seen on Facebook so far :) so we hit up Benihana! MANY MANY SAKI BOMBS LATER (yes, I even did a few, and certainly paid the price for it...), our boyfriends kind of hated us by the end of the night.

Probably my favorite thing we did all weekend? On Sunday morning we took a little trek east to the famous Hollywood Farmer's Market. I love farmer's markets and walk to the tiny one in Brentwood almost every weekend, but for some reason had never been to the one in Hollywood before. 

Well... I never want to miss it again. It was amazing! At least four times the size of the one I normally go to, and jam-packed with deliciousness - gorgeous fruits and vegetables, milk and cheese, freshly baked pies and pastries and breads, all kinds of spices, beautiful flowers... I was in heaven. We even found a seafood stand where they were shucking fresh oysters! We gulped them down... at 10am :)

And then, later that afternoon, we cooked a nice big dinner with all of our fresh produce and dairy! On the menu: fresh peach, burrata, and proscuitto crostini, chickpea salad with homemade honey balsamic vinaigrette, roasted heirloom tomato compote, and Gerrick's unbelievable garlic spiced chicken with onions. Does that not look amazing or what?! 

The weekend went by way too fast :( it's one of the saddest things in the world, living across the country from your best friends. I miss her already! Come back soon!!!