As much as I love Los Angeles, it's so nice to escape the city every now and then. Traveling and exploring new places is my favorite thing to do, but it's not always feasible - which is why I'm so in love with day trips! No need to pay for pricey hotels and flights, small little getaways tame my wanderlust (for a bit, anyway) and make me happy. I'm lucky to live in Southern California, a place filled with cute towns left and right. Ojai happens to be one of those cuties!

I'm in love with how green and lush Portland is! Such a beautiful city, with trees everywhere. It actually reminded me a lot of upstate New York where I'm from, tons of trees on every street. I sometimes forget how much I miss all that green. Even though I love our LA palm trees, there's something so magical about green, leafy forests. Maybe that's why I felt such an instant connection to Portland - it made me feel like I was back home. When I found out there was a Portland Japanese Garden, I knew I had to visit.

Finally got to visit Portland last week, and I fell in love HARD. Being a Portlandia fan, I already knew I was going to really dig the city - but it ended up exceeding my expectations tenfold. What a lush, gorgeous, tree-filled wonderland! Eddie and I seriously loved everything about it. The food was delicious, the people were so friendly, and the shops! I had so much fun hopping around visiting all the perfect little boutiques. A few of my favorite places we visited are below - I can't wait to go back and explore more on our next trip! 

You guys, I finally made it to cactus heaven. I've been wanting to visit the magical Moorten Botanical Garden for a while now after seeing so many glorious photos on Instagram, and I have to say it's even more stunning in person! We were greeted by Clark Moorten when we arrived, the son of the garden's original creators and now the curator himself - he gave us a little map of the grounds and off we went! 

COACHELLA! Another year of amazing music, yummy food, and good times with friends. My legs were so sore from 3 straight days of dancing and running around the Empire Polo Club where the fest is held - it's actually still a lil painful to walk right now if I'm being honest. So here I am, thankfully sitting,  rounding up my fave memories and highlights from the weekend.