A Day in LA

Although, we live only a 10 minute drive from downtown LA, we rarely go there. Downtown LA isn't the most beautiful place and traffic can make that 10 minutes into 1 1/2 hours. But yesterday we decided to brave the smog and traffic to have an adventure.

LA's Fashion District was having it's monthly sample sale. This is where hundreds of designers (small names and big ones like Betsey Johnson, Joe's Jeans, Calvin Klein, etc.) sell off the samples that they made to show buyers or have models wear for photo shoots or runway shows. There are 4 high rise buildings full of different designers showrooms with sample sales. We were planning on making it to as many as we could. Since we spent 3 hours working our way up a 13 story building, going into sample sales on every floor, we only made it to one building. I was in heaven! There are no dressing rooms, but each designer provides a mirror and everyone is either just changing right there in the open or, like me, throwing the clothes over what they were already wearing. Generally, the prices seemed to be 50% off the wholesale price. They had clothing from previous seasons, but what I thought was really neat was they had clothing that's for this spring that isn't out in the stores yet. The new clothing was usually not as marked down as the older stuff. I walked out of there with some awesome deals. One of the dresses I bought we found online when we got home. It had been featured in InStyle magazine for this spring. My dress is famous! That's the closest I'll ever come to something famous.

After all that shopping, we were starving, so we headed over to Canter's Deli. Canter's is an LA institution. It is a Jewish deli with staples like knishs, potato pancakes, and crazy sandwiches. They also have an amazing bakery with danishes, rugelach, challah bread and lots more. We had some great food and Patrick finally got to have a sandwich he hadn't had since we moved from Boston (pastrami and liver on rye). Now, Patrick was in heaven. It was his reward for being such an awesome husband while we were in the Fashion District.

Since we didn't want our fun day in LA to end we decided to go to one of our favorite places in Hollywood. Amoeba! It is an amazing music store. They have new and used cds, records, dvds. You can find anything you are looking for even if it is really obscure. Usually, you can find it used, as well, so it saves you lots of money. But before we went to Amoeba we bought tickets to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the Arclight Theatre next door to Amoeba. We then spent a good half hour in the music store, walked down to a great tea shop and sat and enjoyed our tea and then headed back to the movie theatre to catch our movie. We both loved the movie. It was so beautiful. We highly recommend it. So that was our day in LA and now we have plans to go back to the fashion district to hit up one of the other buildings of showrooms when they have their next sample sale.

Patrick in his own personal heaven