Our anniversary at the spa

Our anniversary was actually last Tuesday, the 9th, but we celebrated it on Saturday. This year, we decided to have a couple's treatment package at the spa in the Four Seasons Westlake Village hotel. We chose the Ultimate Indulgence package, which included an aromatherapy wrap, a massage, a facial, a manciure and a pedicure, lunch, and a fruit smoothie. It also came with a private couples suite, which included a patio with a plunge pool.

We started off our morning fairly early so that we would be able to make it to our appointment on time. We checked in at the front desk and were immediately greeted by our spa concierge, Meridee. She was basically our personal attendant for the entire day--we could call her if we needed anything, like a drink or food. She showed us the entrance to the men's lounge, and we then met up with her on the other side. Next, she showed us to our suite, which was far better than anything we had imagined. First was the treatment room:


This was where all of our treatments would take place. These beds were actually quite amazing. At the foot of the bed, you could pull up the sheets and the cushion to reveal a sink. The head of the bed could be tilted up allowing us to sit at a 45 degree angle with our feet soaking in some moisturizing solution. The only problem with the room was that if any of us walked to the right of the front bed, we constantly kept hitting our shoulder on the fireplace mantle :(

There was a separate bathroom, and also a separate shower with 13 shower heads:


We tried to use the 12 shower heads on the walls, but they started to make some strange noises, so we turned them off.

In between the shower and the bathroom was a sitting area with a daybed, fireplace, and TV:

And then outside, our room connected to the public garden where the featured attraction is a pagoda:

According to Meridee, the pagoda was shipped from China and reconstructed once it arrived at the hotel. The garden itself was a nice place to walk around. It even housed a greenhouse which contains all the orchids that are used within the hotel itself.

And finally, here's the picture of our private patio:

There were 6 lounge chairs and a table. We wondered why there were so many chairs, but we found out from the women doing our nails that this suite is sometimes rented out by groups of women for group mani/pedi parties. I guess that makes sense, although they'd have to take turns using the pool since the two of us felt cramped in there.

We could have spent all day there, but we didn't plan for it. Next time though, we might bring some more reading materials so that after out treatments are over, we can sit by the pool and relax. Even though the drive was only 40 minutes, it was so far away from the city that it felt like an escape...and it made for an awesome anniversary.

We have more pictures posted on our Picasa web album

Shopping...in an alleyway!

Sunday, Nick and I had an interesting shopping experience at Commes Des Garcon's Guerilla Store in downtown LA.  Commes Des Garcon is actually a Japanese fashion house, and has numerous stores in Japan and Paris.  In fact, the reason we even visited the LA store was because we liked some of the clothes that we saw at the Paris store, and were hoping that there were some clothes that would interest us here.  

When we returned home, I started researching the label to see if they had stores in Los Angeles.  It turns out that they don't have a permanent store here, but they did have a Guerilla store.  What is a 'guerilla' store?  It's a concept store where Commes Des Garcon rents out a space for one year (and one year only), and places them in the less fashionable areas of certain cities, which is why the LA one is in downtown and not in Beverly Hills.  They spend very little money on decorating the stores, since they're planning on closing them down after one year.  

So back to the experience of finding the store and shopping there.  We find a parking space on the same street as the store, however, Nick needed to parallel park on the left side of the street, which was a new experience for him.  We get out, and see this:

Yes, the entrance to the store is a metal door that leads to an alleyway.  We go through and see this:

If it weren't for the traffic cone and the door which are both covered in the Commes Des Garcon Guerilla Store posters, we probably would have missed it.  The dumptser at the end gives it a certain...charm...  

The inside of the store is very small.  In fact, it was, and still is, a small artist's studio.  There were some interesting art installations, which we think were there before Commes Des Garcon rented it out.  Here's a tower of shopping carts, which has some items for sale hanging off of it:

Here's another photo of the inside, showing more garments hanging on the racks, as well as a drum set, which had some wallets on them.    

And another photo:

The clothes weren't too similar to what we saw in Paris.  After reading up about it when I got home, I found out that the Guerilla stores carry clothes that are exclusive to those stores.  What was also interesting was that it was difficult to determine which clothes were for men and which ones were for women.  The clothes were mixed in with each other on the shelves, and this label tends to be non-traditional with their fashion.  For example, there were numerous skirts for men...skirts that would have also looked fine if a woman wore them, but they had the label "Commes Des Garcon Homme Plus" on them.  Nick and I had to constantly read the label to make sure that we were finding the men's clothes and not the women's, although, I think the point of this organization was that if you liked it, you should get it, no matter who it was intended for.

The only problem with this store was that because of it's small size, they didn't have many items in our sizes, so we were limited on what we could buy.  However, we were still able to find a few shirts that we liked.  

The store opened up in February of this year, so we have until February of 2009 to go back again.  We might do so to see what their Spring/Summer selection is.  But after taking a look at Commes Des Garcon's Spring/Summer 2009 line, I'm not sure that there'll be anything tame enough for me to wear...and no, I'm not buying one of those skirts :)

Dinner at Matsuhisa

So I thought I would actually update this blog with entries that don't have to do with our vacations :).

Saturday night, Nick's parents and the two of us went to Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills. It's owned by Nobu Matsuhisa (we're still not sure which one is his first name and which one is his family name), who's been featured on Martha Stewart numerous times and has many restaurants around the world. We chose this restaurant because we wanted Nick's dad, Fred, to enjoy a very nice dinner at a Japanese restuarant while he's still in LA--while New York might have many more Michelin starred restaurants, LA has far better Japanese food.

As we were walking to the front door, we noticed Nobu himself standing outside. As we walked closer to the door, he graciously opened the door for us. At the time, Fred and Jan didn't know who he was, so as we sat down, I told them that Nobu was the one who was standing outside. This brought a wonderful smile to their faces, and we knew that with Nobu in the restaurant, that the food would be exceptional...and it was! We're definitely going back there again when we have a chance.

Sunday night, Nick and I went to Jane and Rob's apartment to play SingStar, which was a lot of fun, although I can't help but feel a bit guilty for making them download two songs that only I knew. Apparently, this means that I need to come over more often to sing Ace of Base's "Life is a Flower" and the Spice Girls's "Who Do You Think You Are?" Later, I suggested that we play Mario Party 8, which resulted in everyone, but me, wanting the game to be over as fast as possible. Next time, we're playing 10 rounds, instead of 15.

And that was pretty much it for our Labor Day weekend. We spent a lot of time with Nick's parents, which was great. Fred's doing much better now, and is able to walk without any help...in fact, I can hardly keep up with him! I think the current plan is that sometime next week, they'll fly to Tahoe to spend some time there until Fred's next appointment at Cedar-Sinai. That'll be good because Fred really misses Tahoe and it'll be nice for him to get away from the craziness that is LA.

That's it for today's post. I'll try to update it more regularly, although I'm not sure how amusing my posts will be :)