la’s best coffee, neighborhood, and home rental

and finishes like this, wouldn’t you, too?

Intelligentsia Coffee
1331 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, California 90291
www.intelligentsiacoffee.com

After packing up, we headed over to Kreation Kafe on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica for breakfast. Everything on the menu is organic and delicious and the atmosphere is incredibly serene (courtesy of the living succulent walls and nature photographs decorating the rear courtyard).

Kreation Kafe
1023 Montana Ave. #B
Santa Monica, CA 90403
www.kreationkafe.com

From there, we began our journey home, this time via historic Highway 101. Even though it was a physically longer route, we figured it would be less crowded than I-5 at the end of a holiday weekend. It was such a beautiful drive we may do this from now on. We were able to stop in Pismo Beach for lunch at our favorite Central Coast restaurant, too. Remember Marisol at the Cliffs Resort? We had a terrific lunch AND enjoyed live music courtesy of their Sunday concert series. The English Beat (!!!) were slated to play later in the afternoon but we couldn’t convince the kids to wait around for them; they were anxious to get home.

All in all, it was a great trip. The boys (Alex, too) want to repeat it – in near exact detail!

Next post: what I packed for LA (it worked out really well). To be continued…