Just spent the last ten days with Janine on our annual girls' trip away – this time heading to the delights of California. And blimey did we pack a lot in – we both agreed it felt like quite a long week (which it was, as it was 10 days!) but also a short one as we whipped from one activity to the next and they were all very different!
Kicked off with a spot of Los Angeles – staying in a cool bit of town in a cute hotel that amazingly cost (considerably, phew) less than the $400-500 that everywhere else in LA seems to these days. And was very close to a great Marketplace area to wander round on nights 1 and 2 as we tried to stay awake and adjust to the time difference. And also not far from – hurrah – our first foray into the US malls. And we saw many while we were there…
On the Sunday morning we were up very bright and early to drive off to Indian Wells – the main focus of our trip out there this year, as J was v keen to see the 1000 tennis event as her (final, thank god!) but of her 60th birthday treats. I had the huge pleasure of telling her at 4am as we woke up that we didn't actually just have ground passes for the day, as my very kind chum Mary Greenham had sorted us out not just Main Court tickets, but also guest passes into the very comfortable Paribas Suite for the day – all communicated on a rather snazzy email saying they were 'courtesy of Martina Navratilova and the ITHF'. It does rather help that Mary is Martina's agent – bless you Mary for snaffling those for us.
And it was proper desert hot there! Fantastic sunshine amid a really unexpected and beautiful mountainous backdrop in the desert – what a place to experience.
Having stayed in Palm Springs (half an hour's drive away from the tennis) for 2 nights, we then whisked ourselves up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway the next morning to 'get some views' – hilarious as it was so foggy and cold there was cock all to see one up the top! We had no idea it went so high – to the point that I practically had to drag J outside for a photo… in the snow!!!
Having descended back down into the desert we then nipped into the Joshua Tree National Park to go and see, yes, the many thousands of Joshua trees. And to have a walk around a bit of a loop, to get the not-quite-full desert experience. J was back in her hooded puffa, complete with woolly hat and nifty sunglasses combo, while I braved my sleeveless puffa, making the most of the sun in some parts.
And from there, we drove a couple of hours to San Diego, making the most of the en route malls and popping briefly to check out the beach in the wind! No chance of my Conde Nast mags getting read while basking on a sunbed this week..
Then it was Friday – where the one upside for me was managing to get 4 packets of specially-requested Potato Salad Seasoning from the Knotts Berry Farm shop for my chum Fiona – and which I then had to carry all day packed round my waist inside my two puffas (!) like a drugs mule. Knotts Berry is – sigh – a theme park – so definitely Janine's day. She was loving the rollercoasters and hideous rides. I managed one crap ghost train, a quick thrill on some ride on horse thingy and the bumper cars. Not quite my $200 worth!
900 miles of driving later and we were back in LA – this time heading for the Warner Bros Studio Tour – which was actually pretty good. Liked the fact that they will take photos of you on your own phone sitting at the various attraction e.g. the Friends couch, rather than trying to nail you for the $40 badly framed version that most places only offer.
And this one was a winner – a way of taking a pic where Janine looks far bigger than I do – a first!!
Finally we headed to Malibu, for dinner and a night at Marc Agostini's (very beautiful) house with him and his wife Cayese. Good to see him after all these years since the AV days and very nice to have an extremely comfy bed and some lovely French cooking – and a chance to slag off Trump over dinner.
All in all, a hugely varied trip and now it's back to the different whirlwind of the build up to Mr H's 60th (yes really!!) birthday next week. Heeeeeeellllllppppp!!!!
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