2nd Day of Girls Trip

On Saturday we woke up and the girls in my room drove to Coffee Bean to grab coffee for all of us. Coffee Bean is like Starbucks, but SOOO much better. There are a couple of Coffee Bean's in San Francisco, but not many.

We headed down to Robertson Blvd. for some breakfast and shopping. Breakfast was at The Newsroom. Its' biggest claim to fame - being right across the street from THE IVY (the famous celebrity restaurant with so-so food). The Newsroom has REALLY good food, regardless of whether you go there for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I had:
Monja's Scramble eggs scrambled with spinach, bits of broken vegan sausage, caramelized onions & Parmesan - roman w/ciabatta toast.

Amazon Power Smoothie Acai...natural brazilian rainforest energy fruit with antioxidants, amino acids and essential omegas. guarana...increases stamina. vitality, heightened awareness. sambazon acai blended w/apples, strawberry, banana

The omelet was wonderful. The "vegan" sausage tasted just like REAL sausage. Very tasty. The smoothie was SO YUMMY!!!

After lunch we went to Kitson Kids (an off-shoot of the infamous Kitson boutique/store that celebrities seem to flock to for no real good reason). We all got the kids some really cute gifts (come on, we're a group of moms, we have to get the kids gifts). Some of my friends stayed on Robertson to continue shopping and some went to the Beverly Center to continue their shopping. Sadly, I had to take out a couple of hours to get my taxes done in the middle of the day.

I came back to my friends and drove some of them to The Grove. Stars come here too, but so does EVERYONE. There are cute boutiques, regular stores, an amazing American Girl multi-story store, restaurants and a farmers market. Also, there are fountains and constant concerts and other events here. If you are in LA, especially with kids, I would HIGHLY recommend coming to The Grove.

I left 45 minutes later and drove to meet 2 of the girls at a spa on Santa Monica. Voda Spa is a clean, spacious, relaxing, wonderful Spa right in the heart of the Russian part of West Hollywood, on Santa Monica Blvd.

I got the Voda Platza:
Platza master massages the warmed and relaxed skin with the venik branches, using a series of rhythmic taps and strokes. This motion both generates heat over the body and releases the essential oils from the leaves. The platza is said to draw out impurities, improve circulation, prevent premature aging of the skin, improve metabolism and refresh the spirit.

Truthfully, during the treatment, this felt like Chinese Water Torture. The heat is almost unbearable when the "master" is "beating" you with leaves and branches. Once the treatment is done, he makes you stand under a freezing "shower", then FULLY dunk in a "freezing" pool, then jump in a regular pool, then stand under a very cool different shower twice!

Somehow though, the complete treatment is WONDERFUL (I know - I can't believe it myself :) ).

I will definitely come back to Voda. It's like a little oasis in the middle of Santa Monica Blvd.

We got back to the rooms at 7pm and started getting ready for the evening.

Saturday night deserves its' own blog post...tomorrow.

Here are some pictures to tide you over until then.

This is us chilling by the pool on Friday night:


Here are 4 of us posing at The Grove: