July 1 - July 7

Last week was an extremely busy and eventful week.

Early in the week I visited LA Live with Grandma Dorothy. We had a great lunch at Rockin' Fish then stopped by the Staples Center before doing a little walking tour of Downtown LA and stopping for a fika at the Marriott. We had such a good time!

Lunch spot

View across from the Staples Center

I also worked on cleaning up a couple of my surfboards. Since I'm going back to Sweden in two weeks I wanted to clean one up especially for Uncle Craig since he gave it to me several years ago and I'd like the surfboard to actually get used!

Before...

After...It's not in perfect shape, but much improved! Still needs a new coat of wax.

On the Fourth of July (aka Independence Day), Mom and I started the day with a hike at Fryman Canyon, followed by one of our favorite lunches at Poquito Mas. 

Later, as tradition requires, we bbq'd poolside at Dad's.

To get the best view of the fireworks, Mom and I walked up to Universal Studios. After watching Universal's fireworks, on the way down the hill we could see all the fireworks shows from North Hollywood and Burbank going off in the valley below. Happy birthday, America!

LA Angst: "Oh Andy...The hot tub overflowed and ruined my cell phone. Then the cappuccino maker exploded and the top on the convertible is stuck shut...AGAIN!"

On Saturday, Mom and I spontaneously decided to have a spa day. After meandering around Pasadena, we made our way over to the Burke Williams spa. It was aaaaaamazing. I think if we could all afford to go to the spa regularly, everyone would look a lot younger for a lot longer. 

On Sunday, Cody, Dad, and I drove over to Victoria's Tacos in Glendale for lunch. This place has a great reputation and serves super cheap but delicious Mexican food. You can even get some not so typical filling for your tacos. For those of you that don't speak Spanish, you can Google Translate what lengua and cabeza mean.

My little vegetarian sope

Dad's fish tacos

That night, Mom and I headed over to her good friend Jen's house. Good food, good conversation, good company, and really funny kids.

Me and crazy Blake, the little Monster...

After asking my mom, "Can I play with your daughter?" Jordan scooted next to me on the couch. Here we are seriously contemplating cake decoration on her iPad game...

Continued Famous People Sightings

Today's celeb sighting was Brenda Song at my favorite restaurant in Studio City, Aroma Cafe. If you don't know her from The Social Network, then you might know her from her past Disney Channel shows, or from her newest role as Winston's girlfriend on New Girl. Really gorgeous in person!

June 24 - June 30

Another whirlwind week has passed during my break in CA. Although presently my days are mostly  filled with watching Wimbledon, tanning, sort of practicing Swedish, and working out (I know, tough life) this week was also full of family time.



Wednesday we celebrated Cody's 16th birthday and the attainment of his drivers license. Scary thought!

Me and cousin Lisa at dinner for Cody

Me and Dad...with a super nice painting behind us...

The next day, Nanny I started the morning lazily watching Wimbledon. And if I recall correctly, there was also a conversation of Tupac, P. Diddy, Snoop Dogg, and Biggie Smalls. Later we picked up Nana and drove over Beverly Glen and Sunset out to PCH where I finally got to have lunch at The Reel Inn, a place I have been wanting to go for years!

After a super delicious lunch, we started back inland but stopped at the Self-Realization Fellowship in Pacific Palisades.

Checking out the view of the lake and swans

Saturday it was time to celebrate Lisa's bridal shower!

Here's the bride-to-be on her gift opening throne:

Pretty excited to finally get to be tall (well, more like normal height) and wear my big platforms. It's a whole new world at that height!

Nanny and all of her granddaughters

Me and my brothers. Lookin' pretty sharp.

Feeling so much taller than Linds!

The best line from the day was Jess telling me, "Kels, you could be a supermodel, like, if you grew a little bit." Wow, thanks, Jess!



Sunday morning, Mom and I drove over Mulholland to Charlie's Pantry in Bel Air for a pre-hike breakfast. Once we had our fill, we made it out to Solstice Canyon. Still trying to follow Hayden's workout regime!

We were driving along the coast when we see a Coastal Access sign in a neighborhood of mostly private beaches and we spontaneously decided to pull over. Not sure where to go, we tried to inconspicuously follow this guy who kinda-sorta looked like he knew where he was going. We ended up finding Lechuza Beach in Malibu, which it was absolutely gorgeous on this quintessential Los Angeles summer day.

Sunday's celeb sightings include Janice Dickinson and Jane Adams, which was pretty cool since I watched America's Next Top Model for years and Jane is in one of my favorite movies, Father of the Bride 2.


I also started reading Chick Hearn's book this week and Grace Coddington's memoirs as well. Both are seriously great!

Continued Summer Adventures So Far

Dinner with the Williams fam at Mucho Mas...

Definitely not the most flattering picture but I thought it was necessary to get a picture in front of George Clooney's house after hiking Fryman Canyon. Mom was so embarrassed but I think George is probably used to it...

Hollywood and Highland with Nanny/Grandma Dorothy/Doron/Farmor and Cody...

View of Downtown LA from Yamashiro in Hollywood...

Spicy Tuna Crispy Rice from Yamashiro. Amazing!

After an already great weekend Mom and I took off for a drive up Pacific Coast Highway which ended with a stop at Malibu...

Me having an obviously amazing time at a kindergartener's graduation party on Saturday morning...

Kelsey in California

After 10 months in Sweden, yesterday I left Lund for a six week stay in California. From Lund to Copenhagen to London to LAX to Studio City, the whole journey took about 18 hours. I watched Promised Land, the last Twilight movie, Beautiful Creatures, This is Forty, and started Gangster Squad during my flight. Being away from LA has given me a lot of movies to catch up on!

This song was stuck in my head for the entire flight:

Californiiiiaaaaaaaa!!!

Except for a 45 minute nap I was awake for about 23 hours. Before I finally fell asleep I was pretty delirious with exhaustion.

This morning I woke up ready for a real American breakfast so Mom and I headed to one of our favorites, Sweet Butter. I'm allowing myself one week to eat everything I missed (including meat!) and then I'm going back on my pescetarian regimen!

I'm pretty relieved that the real summer weather hasn't started yet in LA since I don't think I'm quite ready for temps in the nineties (35C+). But I did tan today! It feels amazing to be back in the California sunshine...

Also, my plan is too look like Hayden Panetierrie by the end of the summer. I am about 20 pounds down after all! Just gotta keep going.   :)

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