Celebrating Mary Week, West Coast Style

Mary Week- noun, the entire week leading up to and following the birthday of Mary Garis (January 30th) during which numerous celebrations take place.

Mary already wrote about our extensive tour de SoCal museums during her Mary Week visit (which included more exhibitions than I've seen the past 5 years of my life combined in the span of one weekend), so now I shall write about the other fun things we did while she was gracing the west coast with her presence.

Commencing the fun weekend at Covell. 

She arrived on a Thursday, so I thought after our full days of travel/work, we would do dinner/drinks at my favorite neighborhood wine bar and then head back to my place for a relaxing mini marathon of The O.C. However, dinner/drinks unexpectedly evolved into a mini pub/diner-crawl around my neighborhood that lasted until approximately 3:00 AM.  (Thank goodness I was taking Friday off work!).  Our dear friend, Garrett, joined us for the dinner portion at Covell.  I love this Oklahoman-owned place walking distance from my apartment. I think the LA Times describes it well when it says "This Los Feliz spot is hip. But a passion for soulful wines and a relaxed atmosphere give it substance."  (Something else that gives it substance is the deliiiiish macaroni-and-cheese. So dang good).

My drink was in a plastic bamboo cup and called "All Wong."

Shortly after Garrett left, another OU friend, Mike, joined us.  A few glasses of wine later, we weren't ready to call it a night, so we checked out another Los Feliz staple called Good Luck Bar (which I accidentally kept calling the Joy Luck Club the rest of the weekend... whoops).  It was very cool in an eccentric, slightly divey, lets-patrons-bring-in-pizza-from-an-outside-establishment kind of way.  I definitely want to go back sometime.  After a cheesy (yet delicious) tropical beverage with an Asian-inspired name, we were on to the next one...


I don't even remember the name of our next stop but it was a total dive bar and we got there just in time for last call.  After we closed that place down, we went to my favorite 24-hour diner, Fred62's where we enjoyed a delicious 2 AM feast. Somehow after that, Mike made it to work my 8 the next morning and Mary and I were up before 9:30 to begin our intense museum tour.  Yowza.

View at the Getty. We could see the ocean!

We started at the Getty.  The weather was sheer perfection which made the views of the city even more amazing than usual. After a couple great exhibitions there, we headed to Beverly Hills where we ate a delicious lunch at Real-Housewife-of-Beverly-Hills-owned Villa Blanca.

After a trip to the Gagosian Gallery and LACMA, we came back to 90210 to get blowouts for Mary's birthday party that night. A "blowout" is essentially just someone washing and drying your hair.  It's apparently becoming all the rage; there are a number of salons that ONLY do blowouts.  When Mary suggested this, I said I didn't need one-I could blowdry my own hair. She insisted, and I'm so very glad she did.  Yes, I can indeed blowdry my own hair...but not like that I can't!
DryBar in West Hollywood was full, so we went to MyBlow LA (where was their P.R. manager when they were deciding on this name??). Despite the unfortunate name, this place was amazing. They gave us champagne and magazines as they worked their magic. My hair's never looked better.  I'm totally a believer in blowouts now. (Thanks for showing me light, Mar!)

Cheers to the birthday girl!

Mary has been on a Mai Tai kick since her recent trip to Hawaii, so for her birthday din, we headed to the (self-proclaimed) creator of the Mai Tai, Trader Vic's. For living 3,000 miles away, Mary had a great group!

After that tiki extravaganza, we went to one of my favorite bars, Harvard & Stone. We had a great time drinking masterful cocktails, dancing to oldies, and watching the burlesque dancers (see: reasons I love that bar), but the most exciting part of the night occurred after closing time....

Mike, Mary and I decided we weren't ready to call it a night, so we went an after-hours Thai restaurant/bar/karaoke place called Pattaya around the corner. As to be expected at 2:00 AM on a Friday, it was totally packed; there were literally no open tables. Luckily one opened up a few minutes after we got there, so we pounced on it.  Another group pounced on it at the exact same moment.  Given that it was completely packed and there likely wouldn't be any other tables opening up soon, we looked at each other and said "Want to just share the table?" and so we did.

Our table buddies weren't just any old table buddies, though.  Our tables buddies were a fun group that included these two familiar faces: 

Yes, we shared a table with Michael Cera (sporting this unfortunate 'stache) and Alia Shawkat (aka George Michael and Maeby Funke from Arrested Development). When I first saw them heading towards the same table as us, I only saw Alia.  I recognized her but didn't know her name, so (in my not completely sober state) I ridiculously combined two different movies to describe her and whispered to Mary, "There's Juno's friend from Whip It.  There's Juno's friend from Whip It!" Mary responded with, "Anne, there's Michael Cera!" So, yes, we were very aware of our notable table buddies, but we played it cool.  We chatted a bit for the approximate 1.5 hours we shared the table with them (we closed down the after-hours place!). They were really nice and funny.  Apparently people thought we were part of their posse; several different people came up to Mike and asked if he thought it would be okay to get a photo with Cera.  Hahaha.  Such a random end to the night. #onlyinLA. 

The next day, Mary and I met Garrett at MOCA downtown for a couple more exhibitions before we made a quick trip to Palm Springs. This was my first time to go to MOCA and I really liked it! My favorite of all the Pacific Standard Time exhibitions we went to.  We then took a completely unnecessarily complicated route to Palm Springs (novice mistake which we corrected on our way back) to spend the night with Mary's fabulous grandma, affectionally known as Mamma.  Mamma's birthday is 2 days before Mary's, so they had a divine joint birthday dinner.  Mary and I got lobster pot pie and it was absolutely delish.  Happy, happy birthday indeed. 

Backyard Oasis, fo' real. 

The next day we went to our final exhibition at the Palm Springs Art Museum.  It was called Backyard Oasis, and it was all about swimming pools in Southern California photography from 1945-1982.  It was very cool! After a couple hours there, we went back to Mamma's and enjoyed our own little backyard oasis before heading back LA. 

I haven't gotten to celebrate Mary Week since college, but I think we packed so much fun into the few days that Mar was here, we made up for lost time. A+ visit, my dear! So glad I got to celebrate your birthday with you. :-)

xoxo, 

Annie.