hello, chateau marmont

on saturday, the hub and the old lady's special friend took off in that ridiculous lamborghini and headed off to the west side to start the birthday festivities.  the old lady had to work until noon, so the bean and i waited until the clock struck 12 and then we picked her up from the salon.  we made our way down to the beach to drop the bean off at my mom's, where she was waiting to spend some quality time with her youngest apo.

with the guys happily enjoying their joyride through hollywood and then having some lunch at eataly in century city, the old lady and i arrived at drybar for some primping and pampering.

of course, because i have like no hair (yay for getting old!), it didn't take long for my wash and style to be done.  i'd signed us both up for a blowout and scalp massage, although neither of us seemed to actually get said massage.  as we were checking out the girl asked how everything was, and although we were both satisfied with how our hair had turned out we told her that the massage was nonexistent and she apologized and adjusted our total so that we didn't end up paying the extra for it.  we were both bummed because any massage always sounds fabulous, but that's okay.  at least we looked fabulous.

we were only about five minutes away from chateau marmont, where the boys had already checked into our rooms and were hanging out poolside.  the hub had already notified the valet that we were coming and as soon as we pulled in our bags were whisked away while we were escorted to the pool area.

the guys looked relaxed and happy as we joined them at the bar, already a couple of mojitos in and each with a cigar in hand.  we managed to find a quiet table just behind the pool, where we were able to sit together and enjoy the gorgeous day.  the hub handed me our room key, which was on this really cool keychain:

i was super conscious of the hotel's camera policy - i remembered from the last time we walked through that they really frown upon taking pictures to protect people's privacy.  folks come here to relax, let loose and pretty much get to do whatever they want.  and so i didn't take a ton of photos, out of respect for the rules.  we didn't see any celebs, but there were definitely a bunch of people there who were looking to be noticed.  heh.

i opted out of the mojito and ordered a frosé instead:

and because we hadn't had lunch, the old lady and i ordered some food from the bar menu. i went with the spinata calabria sandwich - sun-dried tomatoes, smoked burrata, balsamic and burrata.  her fattoush salad was served with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, fried pita and feta.

the hub got to open his birthday presents there, too.  i'd given him a fun new wallet and a belt he'd been eyeing, while the kids gave him a fancy bottle of expensive tequila.

i got him to stop and take this with me:

and then we went upstairs to check out the room and get ready for our evening out.

 isn't the best part of fancy hotel checking out what kind of toiletries they give you?  no?  just me?

this was our view:

and look at the fun personalized stationery that was on the desk:

you just see a glimpse of it at the top of that picture, but i was amused at the ashtray and matches on the desk.  like, this is california...you never see smoking allowed anywhere anymore!

anything goes, indeed.