Lovely Saturday

Currently: still dazed from saturday's date
Mood: exhausted

So B bought me tickets to see Vampire Weekend for my 20th birthday, and it was a surprise..which really did catch me by surprise because we talked about it before, but the idea was not really concrete.
We started that morning by heading over to Brandy Melville's sale at OCC at around 10A, but people had lined up at 12A the night of. Since I wasn't really crazy for the sale, we just decided to go last minute and see if it was possible to make it in in a timely manner. Boy were we wrong. Following their twitter, I had seen the tweets sent out about letting two groups in already, but as we were browsing the entire line, there seemed to be more than 400 people in line still (not exaggerating on the numbers) and the line wasn't moving at all. Therefore we skipped the sale and headed to Santa Monica.

We got to SanMo at 12, and first browsed the farmer's market that was going on, then grabbed a slice of pizza at Stefano's, then shopped the promenade. After walking up and down 3rd St, we went towards Santa Monica Place where we browsed Kitson, and joined FP for their Detox and Detangle event. FP partnered with Brambila Salon and Vita Coco, and giving out free coco water and letting their customers get their hair braided. I got mine in a fishtail :)
After the fun little event, B and I went to Fred Segal. Lucky for us, they were having their huge sale! We did not get to go to the Fred Segal shop (on 420 Broadway) but instead we only had time for The Closet at Fred Segal (500 Broadway, another building). I have never been to Fred Segal before, and I am not familiar with their layout, but I can only assume that The Closet is just more contemporary clothing or high end designer clothing because the array I see inside is targeted towards young adults. Anyways I had a fun time shopping at Fred Segal, I hope to get lucky with their sale again the next time I come, about 1/3 of The Closet was 50% off!
B took me to Brentwood after Fred Segal, he said he had a little surprise for me...that is... after we go to Union Made. Union Made was in a dainty cute quiet little shopping plaza called Brentwood Country Mart. Everything is so nice and artsy in the little center and I love it so much! Turned out that the surprise he had planned for me was Caffe Luxxe. Because it was almost time for dinner, we just shared a cup of (house) cold brew, and let me tell you- oh. my. gosh. It was THE best coffee I've had yet. And B, who isn't even a coffee connoisseur was gushing over how amazing the blend was. I have to go back again! At this hour, we were already running a tad late on schedule, so we panicked about dinner. Luckily there was a nice italian venue across the street- Louise's Trattoria. I ordered the chicken piccata and B had the eggplant parmigiana. Although the service was slow, (we were sitting outside, though mind us that there were only two other tables eating at the early hour) the focaccia bread was heavenly, as was the dipping olive oil and balsamic, and both entrees were fab.

(media source: tumblr)After that we drove super fast to Westwood, hoping we wouldn't miss our 7P shuttle. We made it just on time thankfully. The shuttle ride took about 30 min or so (the bus also left late), and we arrived at the venue at 820P, when Beirut was already performing. Zach did a talented job singing and playing the trumpet, and the set list was perfect! I was a little upset though, that some of the people...well most...around us were asking who Beirut was (yes I am offended) and when Beirut were going to be finished so they could watch Vampire Weekend. ): Ezra and his team finally came onstage after a 20 minute intermission and wow, it was lively and entertaining. To sum it up in a very short sentence- the Vampire Weekend concert at Hollywood Bowl was basically an 17376 people indie dance party where everyone sang along, cheered, and even stood up to dance. The crowd ranged from high school students to working adults. Mainly grouped around 25-28 year olds though. Most people had drank during Beirut's performance and were all giddy and jivy during Vampire Weekend, making the experience very 'jolly'. Of course, Ezra and pals, ended with an encore playing Hannah Hunt and the ole loved Walcott where for sure 100% of the crowd stood up to sing and jive along.
The concert and day was so incredibly fun, and memorable that I still find myself daydreaming over Saturday's date still. I can't wait for another opportunity like this to arise and so B and I can have fun this much again exploring and enjoying music and LA. Thank you so much again B for the amazing day!!!




♥i