travel :: santa monica

A week ago, Lane and I went on a little kid-free vacation to Santa Monica, CA. We love short getaways to explore an area we have never been before, and three nights was the perfect amount of time to do just that with out missing the babies too much!

I arrived on Thursday and Lane taxied up from Long Beach where he had been at a conference. We checked into our airbnb, ate some tacos, and explored the area.

The area we stayed in was known as "the canyon" in Santa Monica, with tiered neighborhoods rising steeply on the North and South side. We immediately fell in love with the area to the South, specifically the neighborhoods of beautiful old houses and one street in particular, Montana Ave, that was so quaint and had the best restaurants and coffee that we experienced.

The next day, at the recommendation of some locals, we rented bikes and rode along the beach south to Venice beach. We explored the beautiful canals and then walked over to Abbot-Kinney Blvd, which we were told was rated "the most fun street in the US". We truly don't understand that status. However, we had a yummy lunch at Neighbor, and then returned back to the canyon and spent the rest of the day on Montana once again.

On Saturday we biked to the farmer's market in downtown Santa Monica, which was not much to speak of, and then explored around downtown. Again, it could not compare with the charming area of the canyon/Montana Ave.

Saturday afternoon we grabbed an Uber ride up to the hills of Pacific Palisades and hiked the Los Leones trail, which was a nice easy (and very popular) walk with beautiful views.
That night we ate at Art's Table (on our beloved Montana Ave.). I am still dreaming about the vegan bowl of rice and roasted veggies I had along with a glass of JuneShine hard kombucha- SO good! After dinner, we went next door to check out the impressive tap selection at Father's Office. Lane had a couple tasty beers, and we turned in early (yet again. nerds.).

Before we flew out on Sunday we had coffee for a second time at the best coffee shop we had found in the area- Primo Passo, then strolled the neighborhoods one last time.

I would have loved to go up to Malibu for a day, but aside from that, I think our quick getaway was the perfect amount of time to spend in the little area that we fell in love with in Santa Monica. As always, though, it was just so sweet to come home!