more PitchFest

Here are some wonderful pictures taken by Carolynn Broeke, professional photographer. It gives you an idea of the scale of the room.

night market

The Richmond night market.

BBQ Squid... Japanese Octopus Balls... Bubble Tea.. Oh my! Definitely worth a trip for the food. Yummy.

my latest purchases

I bought these two beautiful tea cups on sale at this shop in LA.



I also bought these from the local asian supermarket. I am completely obsessed with the kinoko (mushroom) set and the fairytale tea cups. Obsessed I tell you! Look at how cute they are! I'm not made of stone people! Here is the official website so that you can see all of their cute products.



We went down to Main Street this afternoon after having lunch with Blue Skies, Blue Olive and Jeanie Ow. I found this beautiful blue teapot made of tin. I love it. I am either going to use it as a vase or as a planter.

last few snaps

Here is the last 3 pictures from our trip. I feel like I have been gone forever, but it has only been a week and a half. It was weird to hear the sound of rain outside the window today. Where did the sun go? Isn't it almost July?

This weekend is all about cleaning the house and catching up on work...


Taken in downtown LA. I love the Los Angeles street sign.


Beautiful sculpture of the ocean in the newly renovated Sea Tac airport during our 3 hour layover.


Vancouver at night.. a view from above.

pool party

Monday, the day after the event, was spent lounging and splashing in the pool for a number of hours. I'm not sure how long we were in there for, but enough to begin getting pruny. Fun times.

second to last day

Today is a balmy 84F =) It's funny how quickly we have acclimatized. Since we arrived, the weather has ranged between 94 to 104F which is 34 to 40 C.

Monday was spent exploring Los Angeles' Chinatown. It was very different than the one in Vancouver. Kind of beat up and very few grocery shops lining the streets. They had a huge open air market, but most of the stalls were filled with imported clothes, underwear and toys made in China. Not the best, but glad we went. We had dim sum with Kim at the Empress Pavilion in Chinatown. It was ok. Vancouver definitely has the best sushi and dim sum hands down!

Last night we all piled into the car after spending several hours in the pool and made our way to Glendale. We discovered a huge shopping complex that is very similar to the Grove (same shops), but larger! We had dinner at the cheesecake factory and then rolled home. Literally! Have you ever been there? The portions are HUGE. Rob and I shared two dishes, but barely touched one and made a slight dent on the second.

Well.. its time to go home...

Carolyn left last night. Lorene and Jess flew home this morning and Kim is catching the 4:30pm flight. Our flight is at 6:45pm and we get in around midnight. I can't believe it is already time to leave! Although I am sad to leave, I can't wait to sleep in my own bed and I miss cleo so much!

GAP

Why are we in LA? We are part of the team that produces this.

porto's

Porto's is a famous Cuban bakery here in Burbank. Absolutely delicious! See the cakes pictured above? $23 each! We are talking big, huge, intricate cakes!! Their staff is also amazing. I ordered 12 items for the event and she didn't even have to write down anything!



Yesterday was day 1 at PitchFest and after a few bumps, things smoothed out nicely. Its hot here. I mean... HOT. Even people in LA are complaining how hot it is. I have basically been enjoying the hotel's air conditioning for the last two days. It was so hot outside that it started a car fire. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me as hotel staff ran over with fire extinguishers and the fire truck arrived. However, here is a picture of what was left. Poor car next to it got it too!



A picture snapped somewhere on the highway between Burbank and downtown LA. We were off to pick up some photocopying.

today's view

Somebody was practicing their helicopter maneuvers this morning. Round and round for about an hour.

the Grove

Lorene, Jess, Carolyn, Rob and I all jumped into the rental car and drove through downtown Hollywood to the Grove. The Grove is an outdoor shopping plaza that is a cross between Vegas and Downtown Disney. Don't get me wrong though, the Grove is lovely and they have an excellent Farmers Market (original Grove) next door. Signe first introduced me to this place last August when we were in town for site visits. I knew that this was definitely a place that I wanted to come back to. If not for the ambience, then definitely for the Forever 21 store!