Category: Travel

Palm Springs 2009 – We have arrived!

Carrie and I have a tradition of going to Palm Springs for her birthday. Each year, it gets just a little bit swankier and swankier. Now all these years, we have visited the glamorous Viceroy, whose interior design was done by the fantastic Kelly Wearstler (designer extraordinaire and one of our favorite Top Design judges), for dinner, drinks, and even massages, but we’ve never actually stayed here.

Well this year, we decided to finally make it happen. No matter that we’re currently in the middle of a huge rainstorm; it’s just a reason for more indoor cocktails! ;)

Here’s us walking up to the door…the Viceroy Palm Springs’ signature yellow and black theme is foretold by the big yellow doors!

And the swanky lobby!

Love the yellow chandelier.

They gave us champagne when we checked in, so here’s me happily settling in. :)

Carrie more than dressed for the occasion in her yellow cardigan!

And here’s Carrie reveling in the big comfy bed.

We’ll be updating the blog throughout our stay, and you can find all the photos from our trip here. Much more excitement to come – we’re going to dinner tonight at Circa 59, the restaurant at the newly remodeled Riviera, and we’ll have some good fun at the Parker tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Palm Springs, here we come!

I am so excited, Ed made the reservations for our annual Palm Springs trip! We are finally getting to stay at The Viceroy! We have eaten many meals, enjoyed many cocktails and have pampered once before at their glorious spa, but we’ve never gotten to be hotel guests! It is gonna be awesome.  I’m counting down the days until February 16th!

Out with a bang!


So we had to finish off our fab adventures in Buenos Aires with a proper culinary sendoff. So what better way than to finish it off at El Bistro, the in-house restaurant at the renowned Faena Hotel + Universe?

What’s Faena? Well, Alex Faena is sort of the Donald Trump of Argentina, but with considerably more taste, style, and flair. The Faena Hotel’s interior was designed by none other than Philippe Starck, one of our favorite designers. On many of our vacations, we’ve sought out his hotels – we’ve been to the Clift in San Francisco, the Delano in Miami, and now Faena in Argentina! Ironically, one that we haven’t visited is the Mondrian, which is right in our backyard in L.A.

Anyways, this was one stylin’ and upper crust meal. We’ve seen chefs prepare “foam” on Top Chef & the Food Network all the time, but this was the first time we got to actually try not 1, but 3! – during this meal (in between courses). And, as you can see above, the space is striking. It’s ornate, but nearly ALL in white with red accents peppered throughout. And the food and wine? Exquisite. Here’s a sampling of the amazing setting in which we dined:

Oh, as a little bonus, after dinner we walked outside the hotel and saw a monument to Juan Manuel Fangio, one of history’s greatest racing drivers and of course an Argentine. His heyday was in the 1950s when he drove Formula 1 for Mercedes-Benz. Here’s Ed posing next to the statue.

We leave first thing in the morning, returning back home. Buenos Aires is a most captivating and gorgeous city, one that will remain with us for a long time. Adios, Buenos Aires!

International political discussion

Just a quick update today: we had a full conversation with our cab driver, en español! The summary:


Him: ¿Americanos?
Us: ¡Sí! Vivimos en California.
Him: ¡¡¡SCHWARZENEGGER!!!
Us: ¡Ha! ¡Sí!
Him: Obama o McCain?
Us: OBAMA!
Him: Todos americanos quién tienen 20 años – Obama. 30 años – Obama. 40 años, 50 años, 60 años … McCain!
Us: Pero, nos padres tienen 60 años y los quieren Obama – pero vivimos en California!

There was a little more, but you get the picture. Also, this is not the first time we have gotten the “Schwarzenegger” response after saying we’re from California!