Thanksgiving in Los Angeles

Thanksgiving in Los Angeles

I went to LA in search of sun but even Malibu beach was cloudy

When it comes to travel, I like plan well in advance because it is part of my life. I figured that by the time Thanksgiving came around, I would need a trip somewhere warm away from Seattle so I had booked my trip to LA months ago. In the days leading up to the holiday there was so much media hype about how hectic the roads would be and that Sunday would be the biggest US travel day of the year that I was relieved to see that I had booked my return flight back to Seattle on Monday following Thanksgiving. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, on 27 November 2019, there were also news stories about upcoming storms delaying flights. I wasn't concerned about storms when I took my carry-on bag with me to work that morning because I was just happy to be getting away. I left the office at 4pm for my 7pm flight at SeaTac and actually took the bus to the airport. Traffic was surprisingly light, I got through security checks in the airport faster than I have ever done before and had time to enjoy a snack in Africa Lounge before departure. I flew United, which was fine except I had to pay to check my bag in because my basic economy class ticket didn't allow a carryon. As soon as I landed at LAX at 10pm and started walking to the pick up point to get my Uber, it started pouring with rain. Of course I had left my umbrella at home in Bellevue so I pleaded with the security guy to let me get into the nearest car and I was out of there. I was so happy to get to Ladera Heights where I was staying and go to bed. I have stayed in that house twice before so it feels like home now and I am very grateful to my friend who lets me stay there since he is absent.

I found Zimbabwean Shona sculpture in LA

It was still pouring with rain on Thanksgiving when I woke up the next morning. I waited for a delivery of groceries from 'Amazon Now', www.amazon.com, then I headed over to my friend's place in Century Park East. She was bringing me along to a couple of dinners that she had been invited to. We picked up some wine and headed to Encino to one of the most interesting homes I have ever been to. It belonged to a professor of anthropology at UCLA who had visited Zimbabwe in the early 1990s and brought back some Zimbabwean artifacts. She had her lovely family and friends over for a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner. Apart from the great company and delicious food, I was in awe of the amazing art and mementos in that home. On the way back, we stopped at another dinner in Cheviot Hills which had a more Hollywood crowd. The host had visited Nigeria when he was a reporter for 'Vice News', www.vice.com, so we found lots to talk about. Everyone was beautiful and interesting, including the hostess and I also chatted with a South African, an Australian, a British guy and a Chinese guy. I loved meeting such an diverse, Angelino crowd of people. The rain had no let up by the time I took an Uber back home in the evening. The next day I went down to the Farmer's Market, www.farmersmarketla.com, where I was not impressed by the tourist food offerings , then I did a little Black Friday shopping at The Grove Mall next door, www.thegrovela.com. I was meeting a friend in Ladera Heights for drinks in the evening and I didn't want to go home first so I went up to West Hollywood, which used to be our favorite party strip when I studied at Pepperdine University 20 years ago. I went up to Chateau Marmont, www.chateaumarmont.com, which is touristy and full but still classy. Then I took an Uber to Sunset Boulevard to look in the shops around Sunset Boulevard. I love Sky Bar at Rande Gerber's Mondrian Hotel, www.morganshotelgroup.com/mondrian/mondrian-los-angeles/eat-drink/skybar, because their staff are always welcoming so I stopped in there for a bit before I took an Uber to La Louisanne, www.lalouisannela.com, in Ladera Heights. This was an old-school night-club in the upscale Black neighborhood of Ladera Heights, which is known as the Black Beverly Hills. If you mention Ladera Heights to any Black person who grew up in LA, they know you mean old money because it is the area where Black doctors and other professionals bought their homes in the old days. The place was full of older folks and pimp daddies who were enjoying music played by a live band. I caught up with an old friend that I had not seen for decades who was with his friends and we all had a good time. It was literally 5 minutes drive from where I was staying so it was very thoughtful of them to choose to meet me there.

I packed mostly dresses, not ideal for the cold.

The next day, Saturday, I wanted to do Beverly Hills and I knew I was in good hands with my girlfriend, Vivian, because she knows all the hot spots in LA. We met up for lunch at Avra, www.avrabeverlyhills.com, which has a very affordable $35 three-course menu for lunch then we went to walk off the food on Rodeo Drive, which is decked out in Christmas trees. It was not very warm and it started raining again, which was not like the LA I am used to. Afterwards we went to the Montage Beverly Hills Hotel, www.montagehotels.com/beverlyhills/, where there were a bunch of NBA basketball players chilling in the lounge. The hotel looked like a fairy tale with all its Christmas décor and a group singing Christmas carols in the lobby. We took lots of pictures and chilled for ages then headed home. It was still early so I decided to swing by Louisanne to check out that evening's band and as usual I was the youngest person in there. The elderly gentleman next to me took a liking to me and offered me a drink then before long I had a second older admirer. As much as I was enjoying the evening's entertainment, I was not used to getting so much attention so I didn't stay long and headed home to bed.

Nobu is the place to hang out in Malibu

On the Sunday, my last full day, we decided to have a Malibu day with brunch at the counter service Malibu Farm Pier Café, www.malibu-farm.com/malibu-pier/cafe-menu, then we went to Nobu, https://noburestaurants.com/malibu/home/ where I ordered one of their heavenly sushi rolls and we just people-watched. Eventually we found seats at the bar, which was pretty entertaining with all the locals like Brody Jenner, the original prince of Malibu and his friends doing tequila shots across from us. We actually ran into our hostess from the second Thanksgiving party with her girlfriends. They went onto Soho House but we didn't have membership so we went to Mastro's Ocean Club, https://www.mastrosrestaurants.com/Locations/CA/Malibu/, which was way more subdued than Nobu. My girlfriend went home while I passed through Santa Monica, for all time's sake, then I went home. The sun finally came out on my last day just as I was about to leave on Monday morning. I had just enough time to pack and clean the house then my other girlfriend picked me up for lunch at California Fish Grill, https://www.cafishgrill.com/, before she dropped me at LAX airport for my 4.30pm flight back. I had bought a cheap ticket on Expedia and this time I flew Delta so I was allowed to bring on my carryon. It was great to get a mini-break from Seattle and even though the rain had followed me to California, a visit to Los Angeles is always a trip down memory lane for me.

 Christmas magic at The Montage Beverly Hills Hotel

Bellevue becomes favorite of Eastside Social Meetups

Bellevue becomes favorite of Eastside Social Meetups

Moving to a new city is now less intimidating thanks to Meetup.com which make it easy to meet people with similar interests. After moving to Bellevue in July, newcomer Debbie Peters, attended a First Friday Meetup in September at the Bellevue Art Museum organized by the Eastside Social Meetup group and found a whole new circle of friends. ‘The Eastside Social Meetup events is one of the better organized  groups on the platform and there is usually something on their calendar every week worth attending. I have gone to the movies with the group in Redmond, attended their Halloween party in Kirkland and got see to places I had never been to.’

Any member of a Meetup group can organize an event so, Debbie, who has previously organized networking events in New York, Johannesburg, Lagos and Harare, soon began organizing events of her own. The first Meetup she organized was the ‘The Bellevue Bar Hop’ in October which was so over-subscribed that on the group’s first stop that night at Joey’s Restaurant, the manager got annoyed but ended up apologizing and gave the group a bottle of champagne. Next Debbie organized a well-attended a music night at Bake’s jazz club, which turned out to be a more accommodating venue which great band. She is organizing a game night and travel talk at Lucky Strike, Bellevue and says she selected the travel talk just to give attendees something to break the ice.

“I usually to attend only business networking events but as a new girl in town I didn’t know anyone in Bellevue and needed to make friends so I joined the Eastside Social Meetup group. Members of the group include other recent transplants to Bellevue including spouses of people who moved here to work in the tech industry as well as local residents who enjoy group outings. I joined Meetup many years ago and as a person who has lived in several places I find it useful in establishing a social life. When I moved to Seattle 6 months ago, I hear a lot about ‘The Seattle Freeze’ and Meetups are a useful tool for bypassing that. I have also attended other Meetups in Seattle and Bellevue, and Bellevue Meetups are better organized in comparison. It is a smaller city so easier to navigate and has classy venues. It is also nice that I know people when I attend events now because I did not know anyone when I moved here. At first, I used to attend everything I could but now I am more selective as I am busy with work and volunteer activities. There are Two other popular Meetup groups I recommend joining in Bellevue are the Monday networking evenings at Stone Lounge and the business venture group. As an organizer I first research my venues by visiting them and then speaking to management in advance so that things go smoothly on the day. I focus on after-work events for professionals and I stick to downtown Bellevue only because it is central so everyone can get there easily. At the last event at Bake’s jazz club one of the members complimented me on choosing classy venues. I will only organize Meetups once in a while as long as I am still having fun doing it, so I am not a prolific organizer and I avoid doing events where I have to collect payment because it requires too much admin’.

My flight to South Africa

My flight to South Africa

 

                                         Seattle weather the morning I was leaving

Welcome to my new travel blog where I'm going to tell it like it is when it comes to travel. I will keep it real with tips for how I manage my life on the road since my lifestyle is spread across two continents. Right now I'm spending a couple of weeks in Johannesburg where I'm overseeing the maintenance on my house. No, it's not a vacation since I've been spending a lot of time at hardware stores buying materials for the contractors. I arrived a week ago on Emirates Airline via Dubai from Seattle where I now live fulltime. Generally I am a great believer in getting to the airport early especially in the US where TSA security lines are long. My flight last Tuesday was at 5pm so I left home in Bellevue just after 1pm since it was raining and traffic was so bad my morning appointment had canceled because he got stuck in a traffic jam for hours. Anyway, I shared an Uber which cost $30 to SeaTac airport and on the way we picked up an Ethiopian airport worker which was great because he told the driver which terminal Emirates left from. I was dropped off after 2pm and when I was checking in, I found out I was only allowed one checked bag based on my ticket. I had paid only $971 round-trip for my ticket on Expedia so that was the catch. I only had one bag to check in but coming back I will need a second bag and they will charge me $200 for each extra bag. I am an Expedia Gold member and they have stood me in good stead over the years but things like this happen.

When I am in Europe where there are fabulous airports, I love getting to the airport early so I can shop and get a nice meal at their fancy restaurants but American airports are utilitarian and my local airport, SeaTac is no different, especially now there is construction taking place. Hopefully the upgrades will be amazing because Americans travel so much for work you would think they would figure out how to build great airports. Anyway by the time I was done with security checks I only had an hour to grab a burger and the restaurant was mediocre. When you have a 14 hour flight, it's important to travel with a full stomach because airplane food isn't as substantial as it used to be even in business class and I was flying economy. When I lived in New York I swore by the breakfast bagel at McDonald's before the 11am nonstop SAA flight from JFK to Johannesburg. McDonald’s might be unhealthy but it is like pouring concrete into your stomach and it holds you down during an 18 hour flight! JFK has got some good shopping and is the closest thing to a European airport in the US. I was hoping to fly the A380 to Dubai but it was the Boeing 777 which is still a decent size plane. My only issue is that the restrooms quickly got messy but the crew did their best to keep cleaning. I stayed up the whole time and watched a record number of movies to catch up on new releases. Three weeks ago I went to the IPIC cinema in Redmond, Washington to watch the ‘Hustlers’ movie and paid $28 so you can bet I'm going to watch all my movies on planes if I can help it. I chugged a lot of coffee on that flight to keep up my binge watching of biopics then I had a 5 hour layover in the fabulous Dubai airport which keeps growing bigger. When I sat down for a meal I found myself struggling to stay awake. There's something comfortable about that airport because one time I passed out for hours there on a layover from a hectic weekend in London and luckily it was a very long layover otherwise I'd missed my connecting flight. I was concerned about that this time so I asked the server if I could lie down and to wake me up after 15 minutes. I was that tired. The flight to Joburg was pleasant enough as I watched more movies and I slept a bit before we landed at 5am.

I went to the home of the multi-talented designer, DJ and publicist Maria McCloy to buy her sneakers. I am waiting impatiently for a pair of mules from her new line! 

I am finding South Africa much more expensive than before but otherwise it's great to be home. The sunshine in Africa is everything. I list my house in Morningside, Johannesburg on AirBnB, https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/238179 and it is a real home away from home. I had some minor renovations to do in order to make the master bedroom available so it is rented as a three bedroom cluster. The great thing about keeping it on AirBnB is that I get to use it when I'm back in South Africa. The house is so popular that I am already getting inquiries for Christmas bookings from some of the regular guests so I am going to keep it as an AirBnB for now. There is so much new construction that rents have fallen and it's hard to find a tenant with so much new housing stock on the market. I drove by the gorgeous Waterfall Estate and it's full of houses now yet I remember when they first started with a sparse number of houses. It's great to catch up with everyone and I have people coming over for the weekend so it's just like old times.