after parting ways with our friends outside of lucha libre, tom & i set off a little ways north to spend the night in escondido.  i was a little nervous about the place we had booked…a two star rating, $55 a night, the word “motel” in the name, but it was the #1 rated hotel in escondido on trip advisor & trip advisor has yet to steer us wrong.

i was still a little skeptical when we pulled up.  it looked like an old school motel, sign & all,

{helloooooo 1950s, photo credit}

but we went ahead & checked in, & the woman at the front desk was really, super nice.  keys in hand, we went around back to find our room, where i was {thankfully} surprised.  luxurious?  no.  decently updated & clean?  yes.  $55 a night with breakfast included?  bonus.  thank you jesus trip advisor, because the travel & the wedding festivities had finally caught up with us & we were tiiiiiiiiiiiired.

{this photo of Motel Mediteran is courtesy of TripAdvisor}

on the way out in the morning, i snagged what i thought was a lime that had fallen from these trees right outside our room.

we hit the road to LA, which should have been a two hour drive, but we hit deadlocked traffic just outside the city at 1pm on a monday.  which isn’t out of the norm for LA, so i’m not sure how anyone in that town gets anywhere on time.  ever.

we grabbed some lunch, checked in to our west hollywood hotel & set off for beverly hills & sprinkles, the cupcake shop responsible for starting the whole cupcake craze.  they did not disappoint.

after a quick stroll window shopping down rodeo drive, we made our way back to hollywood for some touristy stuff.

back to the hotel for a quick change & it was time to hit the town!    first up, the surly goat.  it’s an unassuming, dimly lit bar on santa monica that also happens to be part of the ladies of craft beer‘s west coast bar crawl on untappd.  they pour some pretty amazing beers & we made it just in time to catch some of them for happy hour.

a few beers later, we grabbed a cab back to hollywood boulevard to check out a place we had just seen on drinking made easy, & another stop on the west coast bar crawl, blue palms brewhouse.  they rotate their 24 taps daily & showcase the selection on giant projector screens around the room.  & there isn’t a bad beer on the list.  probably ever.  at this point, it was getting kind of lateish, we were hungry & sitting right where all the food was passing by us.  it was hard not to order something, but we were saving our appetites for our dinner reservation at pizzeria mozza.

i had been looking forward to this dinner for about a month, since that’s how far in advance i had to make the reservation.  with a team of nancy silverton, mario batali & joe bastianich, i just knew that anything there was going to be delicious & after fried squash blossoms, a goat cheese, leek, scallion, garlic & bacon pizza, and butterscotch budino with sea salt & rosemary pine nut cookies, we knew firsthand that it was the truth…too dark for pictures though.

the next morning, we kissed LA goodbye & went just outside the city to meet my cousin, his wife & two gorgeous children in montrose.  we all walked downtown for lunch {where their little girl has her routine down pat: ring the bell at the store, look in the window of the dance studio…} & caught up at a shaded table along the little main street.

{photo credit}

the very same street where this occurred.

it was so great to see them & we probably could have wasted the afternoon away there, but we had already interrupted nap time & had a few hours’ drive ahead of us, so we said goodbye & headed north on the 101.