Graduation Days in Los Angeles

I'm Back! I'll try to do better, I really will. I've gotten very lazy now that I have all this empty-nest/summer-off-from-teaching time. But it's been an eventful year, all the same. As you know, my eldest son was married in January. A few days later, my Dad passed away. Then, in May, my youngest son graduated from the University of Southern California! Hurray!

It was a splurge-y kind of celebration long weekend.  We brought along our oldest son and our *new*! daughter-in-law, and we stayed at the Viceroy Santa Monica.

Of course, we immediately hit up the gorgeous lobby bar for drinks:

Later, the soon-to-be graduate joined us for dinner at Mercado in Santa Monica (the recommendation for which I owe Femme Curieuse a big thank you!):

Graduation day dawned cold and foggy. We froze through the main ceremony, but I did get to see Kathy Lee Gifford and her daughter Cassidy (her son, Cody, graduated from USC too...my son has waited on him at a local restaurant and says he's pretty nice)! The sun came out eventually, and Max got his Bachelor of Science!

Max and a few of his housemates:

The proud graduate...

Back to the Viceroy for lunch and cocktails with my brother, sister-in-law and niece, who came down from the Antelope Valley to celebrate with us.

Other highlights of the trip included:

• Mother's Day brunch at Duke's in Malibu, where we saw a whale AND met the REAL Gidget!
• Seeing Conan O'Brien and his children crossing Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica.  He is damn tall!
• Other celebrity sighting:  Elizabeth Perkins at James Perse in Malibu.
• SHOPPING!  I hit up Planet Blue and Lululemon big time. 

We adored staying at the Viceroy. The Kelly Wearstler design is not only beautiful, but amazingly comfortable, and we loved all the employees we had the pleasure to encounter. Although we didn't get to enjoy the pool because it was so cold throughout our stay, we took full advantage of the heated pool-side cabanas for meals and for late-night martinis. On Saturday night, my husband and I hung out in the lobby and met so many interesting people.  I'd say if you can afford it, stay at Shutters  or Loew's because they're on the beach, but the Viceroy is a bit less pricey (though of course still a splurge!), and is just a walk across Ocean and down a bit to the Pacific.

No.  More. Tuition.  Hurray!  And congratulations to my darling college graduate, Maxwell.