Los Angeles

May 1, 2013

After spending all day Saturday at Disneyland and California Adventure, we wanted to stay downtown LA so we drove back from the parks Saturday evening to our hotel, the Hotel Wilshire. It was such a cool hotel and I’ll speak more to it in my upcoming new Hotel Guide (stay tuned for that coming up in the next couple weeks) but overall, we loved the stay there.

We started Sunday morning with breakfast on the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, called The Roof at Wilshire. Such a cool spot, I highly recommend checking it out just for the atmosphere and the views over LA.

After breakfast we headed to the Grove, an outdoor shopping center with an amazing selection of stores. I stuck to the stores that I don’t have here to avoid paying tremendous amounts in sales tax at stores I can shop at here in Portland (yes, if you didn’t know, Oregon doesn’t have sales tax.)

That meant that I was quite happy to spend some cash at Topshop, Zara and Madewell,

three of my favorites!

After shopping, we met up with my aunt and uncle who live in Beverly Hills.

They met us for lunch at Morel’s at the Grove and we had a lovely al fresco

lunch of steak frites and salads.

Afterwards, it was time for us to head back to the airport for our evening flight home.

All in all, it was a lovely weekend full of great memories!

The Roof at The Wilshire

Mimosa and tea at breakfast

View from the rooftop at The Wilshire Hotel

My shopping rewards

Relaxing at the Grove before lunch

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Travel Style for Europe in the Spring

April 19, 2013

More Travel Style posts for more destinations!

One of my favorite parts of a trip is packing for it… I know, I know… that’s not the normal response to packing. But I happen to love laying out outfits for the trip and then figuring out how to fit 10 days worth of outfits into a carry on (because that’s usually all we take).

And so after many comments on our trip posts about my travel outfits, I thought it might be worth it to try something new and divulge some secrets to travel packing and what my outfits usually consist of for any given trip. And while this isn’t a style blog, I think this relates enough to travel that I feel comfortable branching out a little bit.

So here we go…

Traveling in the Spring to Europe can be any sort of weather. Last year in March we had 70 degree blue sky days in Paris while this year is was in the 40’s and gray and rainy… so you need to be prepared for anything. And when you’re gone for a week or 10 days, you generally don’t know the weather that far in advance, so packing to prepare for what could come is important too.

My spring travel outfits consist of a few key items:

-trench coat / raincoat

-sweater / long sleeve t-shirt / or both

-dark denim

-scarf

-cross body purse

-comfortable shoes to walk in – usually keds/converse & a pair of flats or boots

-gloves as needed

Every trip to non-tropical climates in the Spring that I’ve done, I’ve needed every one of those items mentioned above. You can layer and adjust as needed on the go easily with that assortment of clothing.

Now on to packing 10 outfits with said items in a carry on…

I generally lay out all my outfits that I want to take on my bed and then I go through and take out items that I feel like I don’t really need.

To give you an idea what I took on this past 10 day trip through France and Italy,

here’s what I took:

-3 coats (1 raincoat with hood, 2 trench coats)

-3 pairs of pants (1 dark skinny, 1 black legging jean, 1 dark flare denim)

-4 scarves (and I purchased 2 more on the trip because I LOVE scarves)

-1 long maxi dress and blazer for nice dinner out

-assortment of about 4 sweaters/long sleeve combinations

-2 purses (black Dooney & Bourke and a smaller cross body bag)

-3 pairs of shoes (black flats, navy flats and my white converse)

And yes, all of this fit in my carry on roller bag.

The most important part of packing like this is to make multiple different outfits with the assortment of clothes you take. That way, even when you repeat pieces, the look is different.

I also like to have a noticeably different look on any given day so when I look back at the photos I can sort of pick out where 1 day ended and another began by what I was wearing.

Most of my travel outfits are from very economical places, mixed with some pricier items.

And all of these looks can easily be put together with probably what you have in your closet.

Another important part of travel outfits is taking care of your clothes when you get home from the trip.

I almost always take all the coats I traveled with into be dry cleaned upon returning home, this way they stay really well kept for the next trip.

Bon voyage and happy styling!

Paris (March 2013): Day 4

April 15, 2013

To start the week and end my day by day posts from our trip,
I leave you with our last day in beautiful Paris.

Our final day in Paris is always a sad one for me and every time I’m in the city it gets harder and harder to leave! But we made our final day in Paris a good one.

We started our day with something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Every trip in Paris, we always cross the Pont de l’Archeveche behind Notre dame to get our croissants from our favorite place on the Ile St. Louis and this bridge is one that has been taken over by locks. There are many bridges in Paris that have done this, lovers lock a padlock to the bridge with their names on it and then throw the key into the Seine. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and so this trip, I brought a lock with me and our final morning we locked our love to the bridge and threw away the key into the river below.

After that, we picked up croissants on the way to Nick’s family’s hotel. It was another cold day in Paris, and actually we saw some snow flakes falling later in the day but it was clear in the morning and the sky began to open up as we walked over to the Louvre.

The Louvre for me is a place I really try to avoid after we went our first time in Paris and I’m sure someday I’ll get back there on a quiet day to enjoy it, but it’s so over crowded, people everywhere and loud that it makes it hard for me enjoy it. But we wanted to make sure my in-laws saw at least the Mona Lisa and a bit of that wing, so we ventured to the museum in the morning.

After that we parted ways and Nick and I enjoyed a lovely last day in our favorite city.

We headed first for lunch at a little Spanish restaurant I had read about in the Bastille area. It was a charming little place and totally off the beaten path. We enjoyed Spanish Tortilla, Potatoes Bravas, Paprika Chicken and bread and delicious tomato relish all ordered in French from a chalkboard daily menu they bring to your table. It was here, while we were eating this delicious lunch that we looked outside and it had started snowing.

After lunch we jumped back on the metro and made our way back to our area near Notre Dame.

We picked up a few souvenirs that we always do (we always get some Eiffel Tower keychains while in Paris) and I had really been wanting to try a place I had read about on another blog called Odette, which is basically a little shop with all different flavors of cream puffs. I wasn’t totally sold and while I liked the chocolate ones, the other flavors weren’t my favorite. But overall, it’s an adorable little shop and worth at least a visit.

We finished off the day with dinner with everyone to cap off our trip. Afterwards, Nick and I said goodbye to Paris at one of our favorite brasseries, Le Petit Pont Cafe, across the street from Notre Dame, having a cafe au lait and crepes. We watched the city light up as the evening fell and enjoyed our last moments in the City of Lights.

Paris was lovely as always this time around, and while bitterly cold, it always holds such a special part of my soul. I feel totally in sync in Paris, a feeling that I find rarer and rarer as I see more of the world.

It’s a city that I will always hold dear and until my next trip, au revoir my dear Paris.

On another final note, I’ve updated my Paris travel guide here with a new hotel and restaurant recommendations and some new activities.

Photo copyright to Nick Nieto Photography

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Paris (March 2013): Day 3

April 12, 2013

We returned to Paris at the end of our trip for a day and a half. The evening we returned from Nice to Paris, we took Nick’s family to one of our favorite restaurants in Paris, St. Regis on the Ile St. Louis. It’s a picturesque little French bistro with an awesome menu that changes all the time. I’ve never had bad food here and it’s a little more elevated than your typical brasserie.

After dinner, we walked Nick’s grandma back to her hotel and wandered by Notre Dame at night which is always a favorite sight of mine and so full of that magic of Paris.

This evening was so quintessentially Paris and the city truly sparkles at night.

Photo copyright to Nick Nieto Photography

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An Evening in Monte Carlo

April 11, 2013

While we were in Nice, I really wanted to check out Monaco which is only about a 15 minute train ride East. I didn’t really know what to expect with Monte Carlo and in the end, I’m really glad we went, even if it was just for the evening. We took a taxi from the train station (a process in itself, since you aren’t supposed to flag taxi’s down in Monaco, so you have to call from a taxi stand and needless to say, my French came in very handy with this process.) We headed toward the Hotel de Paris since that’s such a landmark and I didn’t really know any other landmark at the time to tell the taxi driver.

We walked around the grounds of the Hotel de Paris, the Casino and the hotel and took in the ornate architecture and the expensive cars driving around the area. After that, we wanted to have a nice dinner in Monte Carlo, so we headed downhill toward the water from the Hotel de Paris and ended up eating at the Meridian Hotel Monaco for dinner. Their restaurant was lovely, with views out over the Mediterranean and the food excellent. Had I the opportunity to do this over again, I would have picked a specific restaurant in Monte Carlo that we wanted to go to and to know the hours, because most of the restaurants we passed didn’t open until 8pm. But all in all, we had a nice dinner and evening walking around Monte Carlo.

I know this isn’t peak season for the principality, but I was really taken aback by the almost eerie quality of Monte Carlo. It appears as such a cosmopolitan city, with it towers lining the mountain edge, but in reality I think it’s a city that’s half empty most of the year and that definitely showed while we were there. It was an interesting experience and not a place I’d rush back to but a place I enjoyed seeing. I’m sure too that during the warmer months it’s probably a much more magical setting and I think that would be worth experiencing too sometime.

Nice: Day 2

April 10, 2013

On to our second day in Nice, we’d originally planned to take a train for the day to Menton, a little town famed for its lemon trees about 15 minutes East of Nice but we really needed a day just to relax and enjoy Nice, so we decided we’d hit Menton up next time.

We ended up having the best day just on our own starting with room service for breakfast overlooking Nice and the Mediterranean from our balcony. We slept in, rested, hung around the room and then finally ventured out to head up Castle Hill. This hill which you can see from pretty much everywhere in Nice is famed for its views over the city. So we walked along the ocean until we found the elevator that takes you part way up, then walked the rest of the way up. There is a beautiful waterfall up there and it’s truly a gorgeous area, but the view from the top, seriously takes your breath away.

I’m so glad we made it up here and it really shouldn’t be missed when you’re in the area.

Next we headed back down and wandered along the Quai des Etats-Unis along the water, taking in the breathtaking views of the Mediterranean and watching people go about their days.

That evening we ventured into Monaco… but more to come on that in tomorrow’s post!

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Nice: Day 1

April 9, 2013

So moving on to Nice… I immediately fell in love with this city.

The red buildings of Old Nice, the Place Messena, the Mediterranean, the greenery, the rocky beach… seriously one of my favorite places I’ve ever been.

I immediately said to Nick the first day there, “I could seriously live here.”

And while Paris probably still tops off my number 1 favorite place, Nice is definitely up there high on that list.

We started our day actually in Milan with an early train to Nice. After about a 4.5 hour train ride with gorgeous scenery, we arrived in Nice and spent the rest of the day exploring.

I took a little break alone and did some shopping as I was so excited to see a Galleries Lafayette there

(a favorite of mine in Paris) and we ended our day and evening eating lobster in Old Nice, among the old orange and red buildings, watching the pedestrians saunter by.

Another favorite of mine from Nice was our hotel and the view from our room. We stayed at the Meridian and I would highly recommend it. The view from our room was seriously incredible and a view that was truly inspiring to look out over all of Old Nice and the Mediterranean Ocean.

Nice for me was the beauty of the Riviera, the ancient colorful feel of Italy, and everything I love about France rolled up into one city. Many of the buildings reminded me a lot of the architecture of the French Quarter in New Orleans as well, intricate rod iron balconies and soft shades of all
different colors. This place is gorgeous. We will definitely be returning and I’d love to explore that region of France more, heading into Provence and the other Rivera cities as well.

Nice was my favorite part of this trip (other than Paris of course) and a beautiful new edition to my favorite places in the world!

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A Few Hours in Verona

April 8, 2013

One of the things I really wanted to do this time in Italy was take a train to a smaller city for a day trip from Milan. One of my favorite movies happens to be Letters to Juliet, which is based in Verona and when we decided on Milan, I knew I wanted to take the hour and a half train ride to Verona for the day. I really wanted to experience a smaller city in Italy and Verona is a place that’s not super well known, so I thought it would be quieter and less touristy. Well it was quieter than Milan but still packed with people exploring the city, even on a cold rainy day.

I really liked Verona, though it turned out to be a day packed full comedies of errors. I started the day by banging my knee on an ancient stone (which throbbed the rest of the day and ended up creating a huge bump and bruise for the rest of the rip), Nick dropped his camera in a puddle (which thankfully did no harm to the camera), and he didn’t have a hood or umbrella and we got caught in a terrential downpour which left him looking like he had jumped in the river. In the end, we ended up grabbing an earlier train back to Milan that we had originally anticipated because we really couldn’t walk around anymore in the pouring rain, but we had a nice day exploring Verona and some stories to look back on and laugh at.

I loved the colors in Verona. The buildings, the monuments, everything was colorful. And mixed with the cobblestone streets, the ancient colosseum and the tiny only pedestrian streets, it was truly magical.

Verona’s pretty small and we basically did a big loop through the city, starting at the Piazza Erbe, where we had lunch and I had the most amazing lasagna I’ve ever had. Then we wound our way to Juliet’s balcony which is supposedly the house that Shakespeare modeled the Romeo and Juliet story after. Next we headed to Piazza Bra where we needed a respite from the rain and enjoyed a macchiato and gelato (and Nick had Tiramisu). After an hour taking our time with our coffee and desserts, we headed out into the weather again and wandered toward Castelvechio, a castle and fortress from the Middle Ages along the Adige River. This was a really interesting place and it had great views of the town and really took you back in time.

Overall, I really liked Verona albeit through the cold and rain and the obstacles throughout the day.

I’m really glad though that we spent the day there… it was truly one of those places that could exist no where else than in Italy and that made it so cliche in the best possible way.

I can see why Shakespeare chose this little Italian city as his location for the tale of Romeo and Juliet.

And no doubt his notion of Verona is still alive and well today in this little storybook Italian city.

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Exploring Milan in a Day

April 5, 2013

When we were planning this trip way back when, Nick and I really wanted to experience Italy again after our mishap in Rome a couple years ago. After our trip to Rome, we weren’t very eager to return to Italy for a number of reasons, but when I tell people that, I get this look of shock like I’m utterly crazy. So we decided we needed to try Italy again and when this trip came about, we wanted somewhere central between Paris and the French Riviera and a place from where we could do a day trip to a smaller Italian city too. So that’s how Milan came about and to be honest, I was really curious to try Northern Italy and Milan specifically. We didn’t have a lot of time though so here’s how we ended up exploring Milan in a day.

In the end, it wasn’t my favorite place but I liked it much better than Rome in the small amounts of the city I saw. In all honesty, we really only spent a day here, as our second day we used to take the train to Verona (which I liked a lot.) So in the day we spent wandering around Milan, it was also freezing cold and rainy but I did enjoy seeing the city.

We started the day off with the Duomo, a couple blocks from our hotel and wandering around the Piazza in front of the grand church. It truly was remarkable. Next we jumped on the metro and headed to Santa Marie delle Grazie to see Da Vinci’s Last Supper painting. This was one of my favorite moments of the trip and this painting is seriously incredible. I was expecting it to be like 4′ wide…. in reality it’s an entire wall of a chapel and totally spellbinding. To sit in the chapel right where Da Vinci painted that work of art, to imagine him there was truly incredible.

I also really liked that neighborhood of Milan, grand big apartment buildings with intricate detailing,the quintessential hanging lights known to Milan and streetcar tracks running down the cobblestone streets… it was the kind of scene where you know you could only be in Italy.

Following our viewing of The Last Supper, Nick and I finished off the evening wandering around the Duomo and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall. We had dinner in one of the cafes in the Galleria, watching the people go by and totally in awe of the building itself with its glass domes.

Overall, I enjoyed Milan, at least the day we spent here. It was definitely a different feel than Rome, more cosmopolitan but also I felt less chaotic than Rome. It didn’t have the “romantic” quality that Rome can have, but is unique all its own in a whole different way. I’m glad we gave Italy a second chance and even though we tend to connect more with France, Italy definitely has a character all its own that is truly memorable.

exploring milan in a day travel outfit for Italy

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The Kingdom

March 14, 2013

After my last few posts on my childhood growing up in Saudi Arabia, many readers wanted to know a little bit more about the country that I called home as a child and my time spent in Saudi Arabia.
I thought it might be beneficial before I delve too far into my childhood home in posts to come, if you all knew a little bit more about the kingdom of Saudi Arabia
to understand that part of the world a little better.

via Google Maps

Saudi is a place that many know the name, but few really know much about it.

It’s a land equal parts mysterious & sheltered,

yet incomparably & irrevocably linked to the West.

Here are a few things about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that you might not have known:

Saudi Arabia is the home of 2 of the holiest Muslim cities in the world: Mecca and Medina.

Mecca is the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed

(in Islam the words “Peace be upon him” would follow the prophet’s name.)

Mecca is also only allowed to be entered by Muslims and is home to the Kaaba, where Muslims travel often for pilgrimage.

Medina (named this by the Prophet himself) is the home of his burial place and is the second holiest city in the Islamic world.

Both are located in Western Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia allows no other religion than Islam.

Now, while as expats on ARAMCO compounds we practiced different faiths, the whole of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic nation. That means that the call to prayer (known in Arabic as adhan) rings out across the country 5 times a day from mosques throughout each city.

When I lived within the kingdom, shops always closed during prayer call, restaurants shut down,

TV was interrupted with the prayer and an image of the great mosque would appear.

The whole world stopped, Muslim men would stop on the corners of streets to stop and kneel down and pray to Allah.

I’ve always found this particular part of Islam pretty powerful and to see public devotion like this is truly a unique experience unknown to us in the West.

Now when I was in Morocco last year (another Muslim country), prayer call still resounded 5 times a day but life didn’t stop, no one paid it any attention in public so I think it totally depends on where you are and how traditional the country is.

The name Saudi Arabia comes from the royal family’s name of Al Saud.

In the 1700’s the Al Saud family grew to become the Saudi Royal family and helped to put Saudi Arabia on the map.

Today the Saudi Royal family is vast and numbers in the hundreds. Because many of the princes take on more than one wife (as allowed in Islam), there are many families within
even the smallest royal circle.

Saudi Arabia is a pennisula, with the Persian Gulf on the East, the Red Sea on the West and the Gulf of Aden/Arabia Sea to the South.

A large peninsula, the Persian Gulf on the East was where I grew up. To the South of Saudi are the nations of Yemen, Oman, the UAE and Qatar to the East as well as the island nation of Bahrain.

It’s very hard to enter the country of Saudi Arabia.

While I’ve heard from friends still there, that it’s gotten better, Saudi Arabia is still enormously hard to get into as a tourist. Unless you have a connection there, a direct person you’re visiting or you’re working for ARAMCO, it’s virtually impossible to enter many parts of the kingdom. Visas are very hard to come by and when I lived there, even incredibly difficult to get family inside.

So when we left, we really left. We knew we wouldn’t be able to visit easily again.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s 13th largest state.

A huge landmass, Saudi Arabia is mostly desert but the climate varies greatly throughout the kingdom. While most of the country is dry and very hot, I grew up directly on the Persian Gulf where our humidity levels most often were higher than the temperature (which could reach into the 120’s), never feeling dry like the desert. The geography of the country varies greatly as well, from mountains in the West to huge stretches of desert dunes to ocean beaches.

“Sledding” on the sand dunes – wearing long sleeves and long pants because the sand could get very hot to touch.

Los Angeles

Travel Style for Europe in the Spring

Paris (March 2013): Day 4

Headed to Paris?

Paris (March 2013): Day 3

Headed to Paris?

An Evening in Monte Carlo

Nice: Day 2

Nice: Day 1

A Few Hours in Verona

Exploring Milan in a Day

The Kingdom

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