We had the most wonderful week with our Dad! Exactly what we needed to clear our heads a little and escape from the madness of LA - even though we were still in LA.
Dad arrived Saturday morning, so we woke up early and got everything ready, then went out to the airport to pick him up!
We got there right on time but ended up waiting a while because a HUGE flight had just gotten in from Korea. Getting excited every time a man would round the corner only to have it not be dad has, rather unfortunately, conditioned us to be disappointed when we see Asians (just kidding! Haha we're seeing someone about it). But then finally Dad was here YAAYY!!! We each got a massive and long overdue hug from papa and headed back to show him our flat!
We hung out and caught up for a while, ready to bunk close quarters in our lovely little place, then went out for a Shakespeare show in Topanga Canyon at the Theatricum Botanicum.
We saw Much Ado About Nothing and it was soooo funny! It's one of our faves but we've never seen it brought to life and they did a really good job! Beatrice and Benedick stole the show and had us laughing out loud, very well done!
After the show we went to a lovely Italian restaurant for dinner and it was so yummy, such a great first day!
Sunday was Aussie Father's Day so we planned an action packed day of activities and food that we'd all love. First off, we made a big cooked brekkie of eggs, bacon, mushrooms, toast, and hash browns, in true Father's Day style, to keep us going. Then we headed to the Getty Villa in Malibu to have a look around the beautiful museum overlooking the ocean.
Once we'd soaked up all the culture we could for one day, we headed to the beach! Woo! The weather was perfect and the waves were HUGE!
Dad and Han went out to swim/jump waves/body surf and Han got absolutely destroyed by a few waves, total dumpers! After those underwater somersaults, nearly losing her togs, and half the ocean up her nose, Han called it a day in the water - so exhilarating! We hung out for a while, loving the vitamin D, then went to a little fish and chips place down the road for dinner. It was absolutely perfect, looking out over the ocean, eating some seriously delicious calamari and fish, and just catching up on life.
After dinner we went down to Malibu pier and had ice cream sandwiches for dessert and watched a surfing competition on the beach.
It was a wonderful Father's Day and we were so glad to be able to spend it with Dad!
On Monday we had a chill day. Luce and Dad slept in and Han worked out in the morning, then we walked down Laurel Canyon to have a sticky beak at a film that was going on! They'd turned the whole street into a derro, post-riot type set and it was really convincing!
We've never seen a location set so distressed and altered, very cool!
After that we went to the Americana at Brand to do some shopping! We bought Eddie a birthday present and Dad found some really nice stuff, then we had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.
We had a quiet evening in, the two of us cooked a curry for dinner and then we all played cards for a couple hours, lovely!
On Tuesday we went to LACMA for some more culture and it was such a cool museum!
Then we had a yummy, organic lunch at Urth Caffe.
We spent the evening going to Amoeba Records then to the Arclight cinema in Hollywood to watch Guardians of the Galaxy - and it was SUCH A GOOD MOVIE! Hilarious, unexpected, badass, we highly recommend it. We took Dad to Cactus for authentic Mexican food for dinner then headed home and played another round of cards.
On Wednesday we had our big day trip - out to Catalina Island! The weather was incredible and it was such a relaxing day in paradise.
All too soon we were back in hectic LA but it was a wonderful day of beaches, shopping, food, and fun!
On Thursday we hung by the pool in our apartment in the morning then met up for lunch with an old colleague of Dad's who's living and working in LA. We had a great chat and got to walk around one of the studio lots where he works - they filmed True Blood there! After lunch we went over to Bronzed Aussie to say hi to Samantha and show Dad where we work, which was really lovely, then we went and explored a bit downtown. We went into MOCA, the museum of contemporary art, and had a look around but it honestly all seemed a little self-indulgent and a bit of a stretch as art. Still kinda cool though! We didn't stay long anyway cos we had a dinner res to get to at a beautiful tapas-style restaurant in Hollywood called Eveleigh. It was AMAZING! One of the nicest restaurants we've been to in LA - a beautiful outdoor seating area, great waitstaff/service, and fantastic food and drinks.
The perfect combination of hipster-cool and inviting warmth. The perfect way to spend our last night!
Before we knew it, it was our last day together..! What?! Where'd the time go?? We packed so much into the week but the time flew by and we weren't ready to say goodbye! We still had one more day though and we made the most of it! The two of us had another Disney audition in the morning, this time for Tokyo disney, but it was honestly a bit of a fizzer cos they appeared to only be looking for Jasmine/Pocahontas look-alikes, sooo not us. Han also had to finish her script in the morning to submit it for a screenwriting competition we'd heard about, which was really exciting! She felt really satisfied to have it finished, even if it wasn't quite perfect. Gotta be in it to win it! After all that stuff was done, we went to Santa Monica for some more shopping, beach time, and food! We spent the afternoon on this awesome shopping street, 3rd street Promenade, and had a look around. Once we got to the end of the street we found a smoothie making food truck and got drinks to sip sitting in the shade overlooking the beach.
We had a light seafood dinner down on Santa Monica pier, then went back up to 3rd st for crepes for dessert! All too soon, it was time to take Dad to the airport. Noooo!!! The only thing that kept us from being teary messes was knowing that we'd see him and Claire and the kiddos in just a few short months! Already soooo excited! The week couldn't have been more perfect! We're feeling very rejuvenated and have a lot more clarity on some things we were unsure of about with the future, so that's great too. Nothing like a week with Dad to help us get some perspective and figure out our priorities, whatta lege!
We had a relaxed weekend and then we were straight back into a big work week this week - more details on that to come!
