The Persuasion

So you may be tired of seeing me with one of my besties, Sarah, but I am so excited that she decided to move from Chicago to LA! My week of persuasion worked wonders! As a hostess, I knew she was using this week in LA as a test-run to see if she'd like it...so of course I did everything possible to make sure LA was the BEST PLACE EVAR. And you know what? My scheme totally worked *evil laugh.*

If you have friends/family coming into LA, hopefully these activities give you some ideas!

We started off with gel manis and pedis at Lovely Nails in Culver City (super cheap for gel mani + regular pedi = $35!), waxing at Sassy Ladies Beauty Bar in Westchester, and she got spray-tanned for the first time at Glo Studio in Venice. Obviously I didn't need a spray tan - I've gotten pretty tanned this summer just from running outdoors. Later we went to Sonoma Wine Garden in the Santa Monica Place for dinner, then to The Other Room for a finishing glass of 10-year tawny port wine.

we found these rings at the beauty salon and thought they were too hilarious to not put on

huge glasses of port at sonoma wine garden

attempting to pose turns into awkward laughing

To avoid the longest post ever, read more after the break!

The day after, we were off to Vegas where we did a somewhat impromptu photoshoot, drank at a party pool at the Hard Rock Hotel, partied with Travis McCoy at Pure in Caesar's Palace, and spent the next day completely hungover. On the way home we got a flat tire because I ran over a nail, and after we switched from our flat tire to a donut, we could only drive 55mph...it took over 8 hours to get home. :(

drinking huge vodka lemonades...uhh, they were $30 each!

in line at Pure

a huynh-dizon tradition: serendipity iii 

On Labor Day, we were poolside at Ryan's place, then we walked around the Venice Boardwalk where we all went to the Freak Show! Best $5 spent...and by best, I mean worst. But we did meet the Wolf Boy and we saw that guy put a hook through his nose and out of his mouth. Stuff of nightmares.

wolf boy was featured on ripley's believe it or not. i wanted to ask if i could touch his face.

seconds before doing this, he said, "children, go to college." if that isn't motivation, i'm unsure what is!

amazing beach sunset

group photo!

enjoying the scenery and sunset

a couple that wears neon together, stays together

We went to dinner at James Beach, which you may remember from "I Love You, Man," and though the novelty was nice, the wait and staff was terrible and food was mediocre. I might go back just for drinks or happy hour, but overall, it was meh.

the waiter gave our food to the wrong table, but we got free dessert and wine!

The day after was Sarah's real birthday, where we went to The Churchill and then to Busby East for karaoke! (Ace of Base was our artist of choice)

besties

this is dubbed "the albie k"

birthday cake that i refused to eat thanks to MyFinessPal

DenuoLA team

one of the only photos i have with ryan the entire week

Then the week finally wound down with us going to dinner The Lobster and attending the last Twilight Series concerts on the Santa Monica Pier and finishing up the night at Circle Bar in Santa Monica.

one whole lobster EACH

where do i even begin?

it's okay to be touristy when you have a tourist in town!

at one of the bars before circle bar (they had a live band so we watched them for 20 minutes)

with one of my childhood friends and ryan's coworker at the ends

And in case you're wondering, NO Ryan and I normally don't party this much or frequently and YES, we were exhausted after 7 days of going out in a row. It was well worth it! Feel free to comment/AskPhivy if you have any questions about the above places we went to!

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