THE daily chronicle SHOW

this weekend, the hubs and i are flying to sunny arizona for a short trip coinciding with his conference. i am the designated companion once again that has nothing better to do than to go to the hotel’s gym or lounge poolside with a drink.

i am excited since the last trip planned to NY the past april was once again foiled due to some unforeseen sad events. last september’s plan to navigate the big apple was also cancelled due to the hurricane that chose to cross our path. nevertheless, this weekend get-away seems to excite me and i’m hoping that this is a worthwhile trip however short.

flights to and from destination will be made comfortable with some of my few travel essentials :

summer’s virtually here, i know you’re going somewhere! what are your must-have travel essentials? you can drop me a comment or you can post pics in your site and share it with us!

photo credits : target, puma store online, eluxury, amazon

l.a. was bursting with glamour air this past weekend. as we arrived on a cool thursday night, katherine and i had plans already lined up for the exciting oscar weekend. first, we were there primarily for her wedding gown fitting, then some serious retail therapy and reuniting with other girlfriend, grace. we were not really there to party anywhere remotely related to the oscars, but we feel like we were.

as soon as we got freshened up at the hotel after our late flight, we committed to our reservations at spago for a late dinner and nightcap drinks. we had delicious celery and apple soup (which we heard was served at the governor’s ball oscar night), hudson valley foie gras, striped bass with clams and spinach matched with fine pinot grigio. service was excellent and ambiance was classy yet cozy.

friday morning we got up early to get some warm breakfast at le pain quotidien, a friendly bakery serving all organic flour grains for breads. they sell organic teas, coffee, honey, wine, chocolates and also serve quiches, croissants and many carb delights. after gulping some hot tea and coffee, we walked along rodeo drive in the rain to content our shopping desires. we hit neimans, hermes, barneys, saks and a few specialty boutiques. by two in the afternoon, we retraced our steps back to the bakery where in front was monique lhuillier’s boutique for katherine’s fitting.

after an hour of gown bustling dry run and pinning to fit the bodice, we decided to head back to the hotel to get ready for an early dinner at koi’s, reserved for six thirty. we totally pigged out that night, it was truly uncool. we started with some classic edamame, creamy rock shrimp, yellowtail and salmon sashimi, dragon roll, smelt egg, miso bronzed black cod, some foie gras special for that friday night and finally, their trio of creme brulee flavors for dessert. let me remind you that we both left our men at home. it was just an army of two ladies taking on koi. no amount of paparrazzi were going to dampen our appetite adventure as they hound the outsides of the restaurant armed with their deadly-looking camera lenses. unaffected, we hailed a cab and headed back to the hotel, tipsy with wine and sick with too much food. celebrity sightings : steven cojacaru, jennifer flavin and maria shriver.

saturday was another early start. grace picked us up and we headed to trendy robertson blvd. we first went into tory, then worked our way down to the ivy, where we had two o’clock lunch reservations. the place was packed as usual. we were seated outside in the famous patio where paparazzis stalk celebs. wanna-be actors and want-to-see-celebs individuals were checking out everyone wanting to make that celebrity sighting while lunching. we ordered scrumptious lobster stuffed with spicy crab meat, lobster with linguini and another pasta dish with mussels, clams, crabmeat, squid and shrimp. halfway through our meal, we recognized houston socialite becca, who shares katherine’s hairstylist, who’s salon just hosted a fundraising opening shindig the night before in houston. afterwards, becca made a quick weekend trip to l.a. to attend elton john’s post-oscar party. how fab! we just created our own drama and commotion in the patio, loud texas twang were exchanged while paparazzis were probably wondering who the heck they were? are they worthy of a few snapshots? LOL!

side note : keira knightly was inside the resto, according to a paparazzi we befriended. none of us saw her but there were a hundred people lining the sidewalk to see her! more celeb sighting that day : henry winkler at our hotel’s lobby and nicole richie was at kitson for a book signing engagement - we didn’t want to be juvenile and fall in line, we ended up not seeing her.

for our final night in l.a., we got lazy and ordered in food in our room - hamburgers, pizza and the highlight of the day, chocolate ganache cake. melts in your mouth! yummy!

more pics here.

after the long three hour flight from houston to orange county airport, ben and i propped ourselves in bed after cleaning up. it was almost ten o’clock houston time and we were dead tired. we ordered room service chicken quesadillas and two glasses of water, knowing it was way past our mealtime. forget nothing after six. we then tried to catch our favorite thursday night tv shows before going to bed.

early friday morning, ben got ready for his class while i stay cuddling white pillows. it was too early to get up so i stayed in bed sipping freshly-brewed coffee from the tiny coffemaker by the mini bar. nothing was really planned for my own friday rendezvous except that i’m possibly meeting our friends, jackie and thuan, who’s also in town for a wedding. maybe meet up for lunch on ben’s lunch break. my phone rang by nine o’clock, jackie was on the other line wanting to know how our flight went the previous night. their’s was an hour delayed going to LAX while our’s got on time. we decided to meet for lunch by the costa mesa mall which was a block away from our hotel.

the rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the mall and visiting jackie’s twin sisters and parents at sta. ana. ben had to go back to his seminar after lunch and we finally picked him up later that day and drove up to newport beach on a cool breezy evening. it was too cold for us houstonians to eat dinner by the terrace, so we stayed warm and ate inside the cozy restaurant of the laguna hotel by the beach. after feasting on tasty lamb shanks, tamarind chicken, mussels with butter sauce and clam chowder, we then hang out by the hotel’s piano bar listening to good ole tunes. it was close to eleven when we got back to our hotel, i was too caffeined-up to sleep so we ended up buying an in-room movie which we terribly enjoyed, the transporter 2.

saturday noon, after ben totally skipped the rest of his seminar, we met our other friends, venie and grace whom we haven’t seen for awhile since our last trip to LA. we spent most of the day driving around and chatting about work, vacations and life in general. we had lunch this time by newport beach, eating fresh seafood and enjoying the sunny bright saturday. we even drove up to dana point gazing on lovely beachfront homes and properties. since venie was nursing a horrible jet lag after three weeks in china, we stayed in our hotel suite that evening and continued the endless chatter while he catch up some zzzzssss.

it was a nice trip despite the short days but we were able to do some sight-seeing and spent sometime with friends before our early morning flight sunday. it was a great weekend. weather was perfect. our flights were on time and fuss-free. check out some of our pictures at my flickr album.