Sister Friends Est.1989

Kate and I have been camp counselors, travelers and roommates together. We got our NJ teaching credentials while carpooling to William Patterns College for two years. We spent a few weeks in a Dodge Shadow driving across the US and another month in a Contiki Bus winding across Europe. I could list our shared experiences forever.

Yet, in the five years since I moved out here we, have only spent a few hours together. Visiting NJ is a flurry of trying to catch up with family and friends. Simply put, there is never enough time to just hang.

So this week, spending nearly five days solid together was wonderful. I didn't realize how starved I was for my sister friend.

We did some sight seeing, shopping and eating. While we considered a movie, I didn't want to miss one minute of conversation sitting in a dark theater. I think the trip was as perfect as it could get, minus one thing. We discovered that we missed the Grilled Cheese Invitational Cook-Off. (It was last weekend.) Too bad, because if one food could symbolize our friendship, it would be the grilled cheese for sure. Warm, filling, and dependable. Now, Kate says she'll come back if I enter the contest next year. That alone is reason to get grill'n.

Thanks for coming Kate, now ahem...Piper?



If you are thinking of a trip to LA, these are links to some of the things we did this week...

Restaurants:

Toast - Awesome breakfast/ lunch menu. They serve dinner too, but I go for the....grilled ham and cheese sammie- "The Italiano."

Astro Burger- They have an amazing avocado bacon cheese burger and terrific onion rings. I had the grilled ham and cheese. Are you sensing a culinary theme here?

Antonio's- The atmosphere is welcoming. The top notch Mexican cuisine and margaritas make it hard to leave the table too!

Barney's Beanery Their menu is bigger than some town newspapers and the food is good too.

Stuff

UCLA Festival of Books- Annual book fair event. This year we saw one of our favorite children's authors-Rosemary Wells, Valerie Bertinelli (she looks great!) and a few others. It was so flippin hot that we just parked ourselves in a somewhat shady spot at the Target Sta ge and watched whatever came on.

Arlington West- This is an amazing tribute to our fallen soldiers that is set up each Sunday on the beach. It's a living memorial and place for people to mourn. Truly a labor of love put on weekly by the Veterans For Peace.

Santa Monica Farmers Market

Tokyo Japanese Outlet Good fun! I bought the some tiny adorable animal pans which will get a post all their own.