star struck.

I went down to Los Angeles this weekend for some much needed QT with Ali and it was the perfect getaway weekend with my first lady! I had never spent any time in LA and the city is just cool. It also helped that Ali grew up there and has recently moved back and has the pulse on the city and is the ultimate host.

We packed in a lot in 48 hours. And that included a dinner in Santa Monica at a small little Italian restaurant (that only Ali and her sister, Emily, would know to take us to) and it just so happened that Woody Allen and Diane Keaton were there, as well as Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga! It was epic. And here are some of the other highlights in case you are interested - hat-tip to Ali on all of them....

• SQIRL ~ Breakfast - they are not kidding around about the ricotta toast at this place!
• Cafe Stella ~ Dinner - perfectly french cafe tucked in the very cool Silver Lake neighborhood. 
• The Farmer's Market ~ Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner - super cool and the original outdoor market in LA - you can wander the stalls. We got tacos at La Lotteria and they hit the spot!
• Giorgio Baldi ~ Dinner - little Italian place on a corner in Santa Monica and turns out is a gold mine! 
• Lincoln Pasadena ~ Breakfast/Lunch - super cool cafe with indoor and outdoor seating and perfect for a laid back bite (bonus: super cute looking store as well to window shop after!). 

On Saturday, we also ended up on quite the hike to get up and behind the Hollywood sign. It was a true hike, if you're interested, we hiked up Cahuenga Peak and then over to Mount Lee - more or less this same hike. And on Sunday, Ali and I went to check out the Rose Bowl Flea Market. Damn - that is huge and overwhelming. 

Not pictured and listed are drives through West Hollywood, Larchmont neighborhood and Brentwood. I also got to finally meet Ali's niece, Charlotte and catch up with Emily and Roy. 

juvenile justice.

Wednesday night, Ben and I went to a film screening and discussion hosted by Human Rights Watch focused on juvenile sentencing and justice issues. The film, They Call Us Monsters, is a powerful statement about what we are doing to children who have committed crimes and the ripple effects more broadly.

Elizabeth Calvin, at HRW, heads up the Children's Rights Division and has worked tirelessly over the decades to help pass legislation to provide more protections and hope for these minors. I had no idea that currently in California, kids can be taken out of school without informing the police and interrogated by police without their parents present. Last year, in large part thanks to Elizabeth, the California legislature pushed through a bill (Senate Bill 1052) that would ensure that before an interrogation, youth are talked to by an attorney to understand their Miranda rights before they waive them. Of course this makes sense. How does a child understand what giving up your Miranda rights means for them. It is hard enough for an adult to understand this and not succumb to the pressure of a police officer, let alone a child.  The bill passed the legislature last year, but unfortunately, Governor Brown vetoed it. The plan is to reintroduce the same (or very similar) bill again this year.

The film and discussion were interesting to say the least and it is an issue we hear about peripherally but I definitely wasn't aware of the details and just how slow progress has been on these issues.

If you are interested, the trailer to the film and also the short HRW video about the senate bill are below. Powerful stuff.

week's end.

Oh man, I am really ready for the weekend. What are your plans? We don't have all that much scheduled. We are, of course, going to MK's spinning class tomorrow and a long training run on Sunday morning. And we'll be watching the Final Four games tomorrow night and going to dinner up at my brother's in-law's house in Orinda on Sunday night. A nice and casual spring weekend...hope that you have something good planned!

And, for your weekend reading, here are some links of interest...

• Loving this throw - especially the price point on it. 

• Hannah - my sister-in-law - started a new blog all about her reads and you'll love it!

• This NYTimes Magazine piece from a couple weeks ago about public schools. 

• San Francisco Date Spots according to Eater.

• I really want to buy this side table for our patio. Thoughts?!

• We are a strong PB&J house - this is a great NPR spot. 

• Bay Area real-estate is nuts. Nuts!

• Mike sent me this song this week - happy listening!

travelogue ~ palm springs.

We went to Palm Springs the week before Christmas with two of our best couple friends from DC. When we were in DC, we started having "family meals" every month rotating between our three houses and hosting great dinners together. It is one of the things that we miss most about DC.  This year was our first "family getaway" and Palm Spring was a perfect pick.  We rented this AirBnB, which was a fantastic deal when you split between our three families and the layout was perfect since Sarah and Geoff have 1.5 year old Freddie and Molly and Anthony just had Nora three months ago.

Palm Springs is an AirBnb bonanza. There are so many beautiful houses to rent and if you are planning for a group, they are super affordable especially when you factor in a pool and an open layout for just hanging around the house. We loved it!

Turned out that we ended up with three days of rain (Palm Springs gets on average about 3 days of rain a year and usually in the summer - talk about some bad luck!) - but even in the gray, we loved it. We hung out in the pool, cooked great meals, played with Freddie non-stop and ventured out here and there to explore the area. Here is a quick recap and recommendations in case you are going to go any time soon....

Our view from the pool - not too bad....

I dragged Sarah and Freddie over to the pink door house to check it out...

And this copper door house was right across the street - what a looker.

In the spirit of family dinners, each couple made a dinner and on the last night we all pitched in for a pizza night. We cooked up some good meals....

Molly started it off with Thai - including a pork larb appetizer which was fantastic and pad see-ew to follow...

Ben and I made carne asada and enlisted Molly's cocktail skills to make some killer margaritas...

Sarah capped it off with italian and some fantastic lasagna. And finally, we ended with pizza night...

We also went over to The Saguaro Hotel to check out the infamous color themed pool and to grab a drink at their bar, El Jefe.

Molly, Sarah and I snuck away for an afternoon to the Parker Palm Springs for massages and facials. The Parker was on my short bucket list - it is this awesome boutique hotel and the spa treatments were great...

We took the tram up to check out the incredible desert views...

And we trekked off to Joshua Tree (just about an hour away) where we stopped at this Country Kitchen for a fantastic hole in the wall breakfast and the best pancakes in 2016....(click here to watch Anthony Bourdain's special on it!)

And while we were in Palm Springs, we tapped into the vintage spirit and visited a bunch of consignment stores. No amazing finds, but they are certainly their own culture...

In short, Palm Springs was fantastic. It is an awesome spot for a group vacation and here are some of the restaurants and other spots that I put together for our planning purposes in case you are going any time soon and want to check them out...

• Restaurants: Cheekys / Wilma & Frieda / Workshop Kitchen & Bar / The Barn Kitchen / Rooster and the Pig / Jake’s / King’s Highway at the Ace Hotel / Appetito / Tyler’s / Great Shakes / L’Atelier

• Coffee: Koffis (there are two locations)/ Earnest Coffee

• Bar: Birba

• Shopping: The Fine Art of Design (Consignment Store) / The Estate Sale Company (Consignment Store) / Just Modern / Bon Vivant / Resale Therapy / Victoria’s Attic Antiques / The Shops at Thirteen Five Ten

• Things to Do: Aerial Tramway / Drive by the Albert Frey-designed Tramway Gas Station / Palm Springs Architecture Tour / Hike Tahquitz Canyon

• Links/Articles: 36 Hours in Palm Springs (February 2016) / Travel & Leisure - Palm Springs + Joshua Tree / GOOP Travel Guide - Palm Springs

• Joshua Tree National Park:
• Smoothie Stop
• Pioneer Town
• Three mile hike to foot of Mastodon Peak

changing landscape.

Oh 2016. In the aftermath of the election, on a personal level for me and Ben, an underlying question and anxiety has been how this changes our long-term plans and goals, and very specifically, when will we move back to DC? Will we ever move back to DC? To be clear, we had no set time-line and this was not going to be an imminent return. We just got out to California and we are happy. But we also miss the east coast, and we have both felt we would head back east eventually - we just assumed it would be DC. That is no longer a foregone conclusion. When we were in NY, we debated whether a river town might be a new reality for us. So, who knows....

With all this said, we do really miss DC the city, so we were psyched to see the announcement that a new indian place, August 1 Five, is opening in SF and the chef was previously at Rasika! Can you say Palak Chaat? For anyone who knows DC and Rasika - this is huge news and this little piece of DC coming our way warms our hearts. DC we love you and miss you dearly - hang in there!

paso robles.

The weekend flew by in a blur. On Friday, we drove down to Paso Robles with my Mom for two nights. It is wine country and about 20 miles from the ocean, so we got a taste of both the rolling hills and the coast. We rented this vrbo, drove to the ocean for a short walk, stopped in Cambria for a cup of coffee, walked through downtown Paso Robles, and grilled up quite a meal to celebrate my Mom's belated birthday. It was a great weekend (though a lot of driving!) and our first time we were south of San Francisco. Here are a couple pictures...