Hey guys, just a casual post today on what I’ve been up to lately besides the blog.  We had family in town all week and I’ve basically been on vacation with them, taking them around town and doing all the touristy things.  Don’t you love being a tourist in your own city?  It’s like rediscovering favorite spots, refreshing your perspective on where you live, and remembering where all the tourist traps are, ha.

I took my camera around on a couple days and also took some bad cell phone photos.  I’m finding that to be the challenge with this series, because it’s SO much easier to take snaps with my iphone instead of lugging around my DSLR.  It also didn’t occur to me until like now that maybe I should post about some of this stuff we’ve been up to this past week.  Hope y’all don’t mind the mix, and at the very least get inspired on where you might want to go next time you’re in LA.

I know, this looks and sounds weird, or that’s what I thought the first time I ever drove by this place, and is why I took my boyfriend here for his birthday last year as an excuse to awkwardly check it out for the first time.  It’s meant for children, which we thought would be perfect this time for the nephews to see, but really anyone with an imagination would find the Bob Baker Marionette Theater fascinating.  Definitely a new and different experience.  I had NO idea ever before that marionette shows like this existed.

Salt’s Cure is my favorite breakfast spot of all time.  They make their own bacon and it’s incredible.  Also the best pancakes I’ve ever had.  I could have been more brief about this and just said it’s the best breakfast I’ve ever had.

You can see a glimpse of the babies here <3.  I think they were having a good time.

I’ve never actually been inside Universal Studios…  Same thing happens every time, we walk through City Walk, get to the Universal Studios entrance, reason that we don’t want to pay for tickets to go inside, then go walk around City Walk again.  The ridiculous gift shops are pretty entertaining.

Going to City Walk meant we could stop at Porto’s.  Known best for their cheese rolls, guava cheese rolls, potato balls, and for just being plain amazing and CHEAP.  There’s nothing else like this place.  This photo captures maybe 1/10th of the amount of goods they have.

Griffith Observatory.  You can tell by the amount of people in the photo that this is a pretty happening place.  We came here for sunset and it has the most gorgeous views of LA.  I had always planned on doing a feature just on this place, maybe still will.  It’s so dang pretty.

See the line of cars coming up the hill?  Always traffic.

Bottega Louie.  It’s more than possible that you’ve seen macarons from here on Instagram. Probably not the portobello mushroom fries since they aren’t as pretty, but they’re amazing.  Just a gorgeous place with good food that I like to bring visitors to.

Urban Light at LACMA.  I was trying to be all cool and walk pensively through the lamps while boyfriend took a photo, then the nephew came running up next to me.  Love that little man.  Wish we had taken this one with the camera instead of the phone!  D:

You know that sad, empty feeling you get after you’ve spent everyday having fun with family and then they leave and you think well now what am I gonna do with my life?  Then also think about how you’re going to have to go on a hardcore diet/cleanse after all the delicious crap you’ve been eating for every meal and how you probably shouldn’t eat any of it again for a really long time?  I’m currently a giant ball of these emotions.

After a week like this, it really makes me think about how I spend and prioritize my time.  Work is work and it needs to get done, sure, but the tunnel vision I get from it keeps me from enjoying simple pleasures a lot of the time, like getting out and seeing that I live in a pretty cool place and should really take advantage of it more.  I won’t bore you with another work-life balance struggle monologue, but just wondering if you feel at all the same?

So here’s to a fantastic weekend and taking the time to do some things that we want to do.  Planning for mine to be filled with green juices and some form of exercising.  OH AND, have a happy Valentine’s Day!!  I love you guys a lot <3.