La La Land

First off, please forgive my appearance! My friend, Mary, looks adorable as usual, but I woke up at 5:30 am to catch a flight and traveling gets the best of me. I have not been out to visit Mary since she moved to LA four years ago, so a short stop on my way to an event was the perfect excuse to finally make it happen! I flew in for a few hours and was able to grab lunch before heading back to the airport to fly on to my next destination. Santa Monica is a short distance from LAX, so that is where we dined. We ate at this adorable tapas restaurant, Bar Pintxo, that has the best Spanish wine selection and paella that I could not stop eating. After we finished lunch we had to rush me back to the airport, but I was able to fly back to LA on Sunday night to have dinner with Mary and her husband Bryce. We met at this adorable Italian restaurant, Maccheroni Republic, the ambience was on point with lights hanging outside and courtyard seating. The food was impeccable with all the pasta being handmade and authentic dishes covering the entire menu. I could not decide what to order, but I finally settled on a black/white pasta with mushrooms and shrimp! Don’t tell me that doesn’t sound amazing! In addition to having an incredible meal, I was able to share in a bottle of wine from Italy that they brought back from their honeymoon. This restaurant allows anyone to bring their own wine and you only have to pay a small corking fee. After dinner we headed back to Burbank and I was able to see their adorable home. Tim Burton’s grandmother used to live in the home and because of that Burton spent lots of time in the attic writing. Also, the writers of Jimmy Fallen used to live in the home right before Mary and Bryce moved in. To say their house has creative mojo would be an understatement. We continued to talk and enjoy ourselves until late in the evening until finally retiring to bed. The next morning I woke up bright and early to head to the airport for a 10 am flight. I had to leave their home at 7 am! I thought I would be in traffic for about an hour. I sat and spoke with my Uber driver for 2 hours!!!!! 2 hours!!!! Never in my life has it taken me 2 hours to drive 24 miles. I have always heard that LA has rough traffic, but I never knew how bad it could actually be and for now on I will fly out of Burbank!