It's true - you never forget...

...how to ride a bicycle.

Sadly, but dead seriously, it had been at least 15 years since I had ridden a non-stationary bike until today. How ridiculous is that?

How does that happen? Where I grew up there weren't a lot of places that I could ride to, I went to a small college where it was just as easy to walk across campus as to ride, and now I live in LA where riding a bike is pretty terrifying. (Kudos to my friend Helen in LA who rides to work almost every day - so impressive)

Anyway, my boyfriend lives in Venice and pretty much every weekend we talk about going for a ride on the bike path. I've always found excuses - I don't have a bike, his roommates' bikes are too big, wouldn't you rather play paddle tennis/bocce ball/Wii, etc - but I secretly wanted to, because I dream about owning a badass beach cruiser one day. I was just worried about wiping out and humiliating myself in front of the hoards of people in Venice.

I'm happy to report that aside from getting completely verbally abused by the above-mentioned boyfriend, I came away from a lovely ride on the boardwalk unscathed. If you're just getting back into riding a bike or are looking for a way to pass an hour on a sunny day without getting a sandy bottom, I highly recommend the bike path by the beach. A lot of it (especially the Venice part) was just repaved. And aside from a few morons, pedestrians pretty much stay off of it. And you're literally along the beach the whole ride from Venice to Santa Monica, passing volleyball games, the awesomely insane boardwalk, jungle gyms....there's lots to see.

There are places to rent bikes right by the path (if you take Venice Blvd til it ends, it hits a parking lot with a rental shop), you can also rollerblade, rollerskate, skateboards, pretty much do anything with wheels and without a motor on the path. Exception: the only thing ok with a motor is a Segway. So go crazy all you Segway owners.

Unfortunately I didn't go anyplace else super exciting this weekend, but if one of you did, please post!

Little Summer Camp

I love the concept of Little Radio's Drunken Summer Camp Sunday - and it's definitely a great value for the money. Basically starting at noon every Sunday this summer, you can pay $10 at the door and get unlimited food, drinks, ping pong, badminton, waterslide action, and 3 bands playing live music.
Sounds pretty awesome right? And it was but...but...but, I came home last night and decided that it's basically for lazy Eastsiders who want a beach-like experience without driving all they way out to the sand. Well, with the extra bonus of live music.

But it's definitely an easy way to pass a few hours on a Sunday. And a really fun idea.

I think a lot of it is my own insecurities - it's a super duper hipster silverlake scene. Lots of American Apparel swimsuits, Urban Outfitters everything, and vintage everything else. Also tattoos are essential. Which is all fine, but in my plain old tank top and corduroy beach skirt I felt like a sore thumb. (Although you could argue that since I didn't fit the hipster mold, I was actually the biggest non-conformist there) Also, while playing badminton, our chairs were stolen. Which is pretty shitty considering we had our bags right in front of them. So that was a little unnecessary. But obviously has nothing to do with the even itself - it just speaks to what kind of crowd was there. It wasn't the friendliest group - everyone seemed to come in big posses and I almost felt like I was crashing someone else's birthday party.

But, this was our first pass, and next time we'll know a little better what to expect. Which probably means I'll have more fun and feel more comfortable. Plus, it's something totally different than I've ever done on a Sunday before and kudos to Little Radio for putting this on every single week. It's a great effort!

Now, who wants to go to the Salvation Army store with me?

On the road to Shambala

I have an addition to the list of places that truly make living in LA special... Shambala.

That's right people, Tippi Hedren's very own cat preserve, and I don't mean the little cats that chase birds. She has lions and tigers and ligers, oh my!!! There are also some strange looking ducks, leopards... and Tippi Hedren's own house right on the premises.

Check it out and sign up for tours at - http://www.shambala.org/

Tippi is not some flighty old-bird (getting all these "Birds" references!) flirting with a cause celebre. She spends her life working to stop private citizens from owning/procuring/raising exotic animals and has rescued as many big cats as she could afford to from pretty horrible situations.

Patrick, the liger, was rescued from a down and out zoo that kept him in a small box which caused his leg muscles to atrophy. Out at Shambala he has lots of room to bound around and has regained his strength.

This is a picture of Patrick the liger eating his lunch.



They even adopted two tigers that were left behind when Michael Jackson fled the country and abandoned his Neverland Ranch!

If you have the moola, you can rent a $3000 per night tent and stay over night. Tippi will come out and dine with you and take you on a midnight tour of the cats.

The drive out to Shambala is not too bad, towards the end it does get pretty circuitous and the "entrance" comes up at the last second on your left so don't miss it.




Isn't he kingly and beautiful?

It's an interesting tour, you might want to avoid doing it when it's too hot as it is all outside and dusty etc. But if you get a chance you might just find an animal that you want to "adopt" and help care for on an ongoing basis!

Milk it

I actually shopped at Milk a month ago, but I just wore the dress I bought there to a wedding last week. I'm still in love with the dress, so I'm blogging now.
3rd St. has become a haven/traffic hellhole of boutiques and chic restaurants. I can't handle it on the weekends because parking is unbelieveably difficult. However one weekday I happened to have off of work, so I indulged, and did a shopping tour in search of a wedding-friendly dress. I had read about Milk in Daily Candy - another reason why I hesitated to blog about it. But I think the experience is worth noting.
First of all, I was pretty shocked how big it was inside - compared to other shops on 3rd street, Milk is enormous. And it has a huge selection to go with the space. Normally, I'm really against shops that only put one size out on display and make you ask for normal human sizes. But at Milk they actually HAD the other sizes in stock, which was extremely refreshing. (Especially compared to the store next door - which I thought I would like more but they didn't have a single item in a size larger than small. boo.) When I first walked into Milk, I wasn't sure I could handle it - it seemed way trendier and hipper than I could ever be. But when I started looking through the racks, I made the most amazing discovery. In between the uber-trendy pieces that should have a 110 pound weight limit, they had the most amazing modern classics - a terrible phrase, but absolutely appropriate in this case.
I have a terrible time finding dresses that fit me - my top is much bigger than my bottom - but I had an armful of fun frocks to try. And one of them - an awesome Diane von Furstenburg navy crochet dress - was abolutely perfect: lovely and comfortable and completely appropriate for all 5 weddings I'm invited to this year.
Honestly, it's not a cheap store. But finding one awesome dress that I can wear over and over again this year, is totally worth it.
So when you have an afternoon free, pop into Milk and just give the clothes there a shot. Even if it's all out of your price range, it's an amazing place to sample a ton of different styles.

A picture of the dress has been requested. I had to photoshop the color because it was only in gold on the web, but it's pretty close. It's totally crocheted with a navy lining underneath and a cute scalloped edge at the bottom.

Grub a dub dub

Yesterday I had a lovely lunch date at the adorable Grub in Hollywood.

Now, as you're driving to the restaurant, you will undoubtedly think, there is no way a cute little breakfast/lunch-y place could be on this street. This section of Seward (b/w Santa Monica & Melrose) is lined with post facilities and studio parking lots. But then suddenly, the oasis is there in front of you!
The patio seating has a relaxing garden atmosphere and inside you feel like you're eating in someone's adorable bungalow. The menu is fantastic and everything we had tasted really fresh and wonderful. I had the Gruyere, mushroom and spinach scramble and my friend had the delicious looking berry pancakes. I've heard it can get really busy there during the weekday lunch hours because it's so close to all of those businesses, but we went at noon on a Saturday and got a table right away.
If I had to find one complaint, I guess I would say it was a little distracting that our waiter's brow was so sweaty. But he provided great service and was very friendly and if I were running back and forth to a hot kitchen, I'm sure I wouldn't have a very dry hairline either.
I can't wait to go back. Yum yum Grub!