Normally, a weekend getaway when you live in Pennsylvania is to Boston; Washington, D.C.; or New York City — maybe the N.J. shore in the summer. When your offspring moves to Los Angeles, your weekend getaway includes an airplane ride. I look at it this way: It could take you five hours to get to Cape May on a Friday night!
This trip started on a Friday afternoon and, with the time change, I had plenty of time to rent a car and settle into my hotel, the Kimpton Hotel Palomar on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The hotel is centrally located to my son’s apartment in Brentwood and the ocean — a necessity for me in the winter. My room had a nice view of the hills, some nice artwork of LA and a large bathroom with a separate shower and tub. The hotel is dog-friendly and made me miss my own pooch.
My son loves to eat and is in charge of dining. We met up at Spago for dinner, Wolfgang Puck’s famous restaurant. The crowd had a cool vibe, and the food couldn’t have been better. I ordered the black cod, which was delicious, and my son had steak.
The next day we went to the Getty Villa, J. Paul Getty’s Museum of Greek, Roman and Etruscan Antiquities in Malibu. I thought it seemed a little incongruous, but once there, gardens, an outdoor Greek theater and the villa that has a central courtyard with fountains surround you. The collection has 44,000 items and are arranged room by room. My favorite was the mosaics from across the Roman Empire — beautifully preserved, offering a look into the ancient lives in Southern France, Italy, Northern Africa, Turkey and Syria. To me, it rivaled the mosaics in the Naples Museum where I first saw such a stunning display.
We ate lunch at its cafe and headed for a walk on the beach in Malibu. We saw a wedding taking place and, as we walked by oceanfront properties, looked up the selling prices on Zillow — don’t even ask — and watched the sun set on the Pacific, a novelty for this Jersey-bred girl.
We headed to the hotel to change for dinner and then were off to dinner at Hamasaku, a sushi restaurant in a strip mall in West Los Angeles. My son warned me not to judge, so I tried not to as a valet took the car. He is always right about restaurants, so I didn’t say anything. The atmosphere was spartan and casual, but the sushi was spectacular and I would highly recommend it. I had a Blondie — shrimp tempura, crab, spicy tuna, asparagus and avocado. He had Omakase, meaning trust the chef, which consisted of 14 different types of sushi. I love it when he’s right.
I left Sunday morning and was home to feed the dog her dinner.
— Kimberly LaGueux, director of sales
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