LA to San Diego

Gentle readers, now that I feel like I might not actually die of influenza (more on that later), I'm going to try to catch you up on the highlights of the past week or so. These posts will read in order; future posts will be at the top of the blog as usual.


After a quick trip to the Wizard of Bras In LA for a photo op, my brother and I headed to San Diego to spend the afternoon with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. I got to meet my cousin's girlfriend (she's totally cool) and we had a wonderful lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

After lunch, Aaron and I took a walk down the pier at Ocean Beach, and then headed back to spend a little more time with our relatives. It was great to see them. All too soon, it was time for me to meet Monica so Aaron could go home and we could begin preparations for our excellent adventure.

I met Monica at her favorite restaurant where she was saying goodbye to people she saw there evey week. We also made a couple of new friends. This is Howard and Estelle. I didn't really get a chance to get to know Estelle; she was just so awesome I had to get her picture.

Where's Auntie: Jet-Lagged Edition

My first day in California.

My brother took me to the Griffith Observatory to get an overview of Los Angeles. I thought the building was really pretty, so I took this detail shot.

The southeast view from the observatory (so my brother tells me; I am directionally challenged).



The view to the north, with the San Gabriel mountains in the background.

We left the observatory and drove down to Hollywood. I think that in my mind I had it confused with Beverly Hills because I was surprised at how tacky Hollywood was. I mean that in a good way.

I enjoyed seeing Mann's Chinese Theater, where apparently they had a big opening last night for a scary movie starring Anthony Hopkins that I guarantee I will never see.

This is a random elephant on top of a building. I have no explanation for it, but I felt duty bound to share its coolness with you, gentle readers. You're welcome.

Speaking of cool, look whose star I found!

Also speaking of cool, my brother tells me that this very spot, on the corner of Silver Lake and Sunset, is the hipster center of the universe. I could feel myself becoming cooler by the moment while we were there, but alas, the effects are already wearing off.

In the afternoon, we went to a Mexican marketplace that had a plaza nearby where Mexican musicians and native dancers were performing. A guy was singing a song that appeared to be a cautionary tale about getting involved with a "hot woman" while his friends in native regalia filmed it to post on YouTube. I could not make this stuff up if I tried.

Rock On

In my continuing quest to share with you the awesomeness that is The Madonna Inn, I'm going to show you a selection of the extremely popular "rock rooms." This one is called "Caveman." It's one of the solid rock rooms with a waterfall shower. The bathroom also features a caveman stained-glass window, which makes me happy beyond all reason.


Too bad I can't sing. I'll bet that bathroom has some fun acoustics.

I love how the leather furniture in the Caveman room is dyed to look like pelts. Obviously, no effort was spared in creating as authentic a cave home as possible. I never realized our cave-dwelling ancestors had it so good.

This one is called "Yosemite Rock." It features a sort of Wild West theme and a huge rock fireplace.

I just realized that all these rooms, regardless of color scheme or decoration, have bright yellow bath towels in them. I can think of no explanation for that.

This room, called "Rock Bottom," looks like it's the home of the Phantom of The Opera in the basement of the Paris Opera House. That fact alone makes it easily my favorite of the rock rooms. I hope they have a dry ice machine in there someplace.

All Images: www.madonnainn.com

Think Pink

The Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo, CA

I have been in love with The Madonna Inn ever since my friend Annie first sent me the link to their site.

I do feel that for a place called The Madonna Inn, it's short on images of the Blessed Mother. The "Portugal" room doesn't even have one, and that makes no sense whatsoever. Other than that, the inn is truly awesome. The question is not if I want to go there some day (because obviously I do), but which of the 110 uniquely decorated rooms I want to stay in. Decisions, decisions.

Fortunately, I'm a big fan of pink, because apparently the owner's wife is too. This is the Madonna Suite, which she decorated. The "pink rose" carpet is custom designed. Personally, I find those giant blooms a little unnerving.

This room is called "Love Nest," and it features a spiral staircase to a private viewing tower. It also features a plush purple curved sofa and weird chairs that can't seem to decide if they belong in Versailles or a spaceship.



Now we're talking! Check out the pink, sparkly walls and the chandelier right over the bed. This room (called "Carin") has the same bedspread as the previous room but the sparkly walls make it look so much more fancy, don't you think?



"Krazy Dazy" is an elegant homage to 1960s pop art, with a pink shag carpet and giant daisies on the walls. I think this is my favorite of the pink rooms. Enormous daisies don't scare me the way gigantic roses do. I have no explanation for that.


Feeling hungry? I blogged about the Madonna Inn's restaurants here.

Images: www.madonnainn.com