Travel

Hotel Review: Westlake Village Inn in Westlake Village, CA

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Sponsored post: I was compensated in the form of a discount, free product, or monetary payment in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.

I love a good excuse for a mini getaway, and luckily for me, my cousin provided me with one at the end of last year when he got married in Westlake Village. Westlake Village is a gorgeous suburb of Los Angeles (if you’re a fan of the Bachelor, it’s Peter’s hometown). As soon as I found out the location of my cousin’s wedding, I knew I wanted to stay at Westlake Village Inn because it is one of the most stunning properties I’ve ever seen. I coordinated a wedding there a couple of years ago, and my other cousin got married onsite, and I’ve always absolutely loved the grounds.

We arrived onsite early because Matt needed to be able to watch the Oklahoma Sooners playoff football game which started at 1:00. They were so accommodating of our early check-in and it made our whole day go so much more smoothly. Walking from the lobby to our room allowed us to take in some of the absolutely stunning surroundings.

And this is what we saw when we opened the door to our room! I mean, I would have been happy holing up in this room for a straight week if they would have let me.

My first stop in a hotel room is always the bathroom and my jaw literally dropped when I walked into this one.

LOOK AT THIS TUB!!! This is where I spent the majority of the football game, after it became abundantly clear the Sooners were not going to come out on top. I dropped in a bath bomb, cued up some reality TV on my iPad, and I sat in this bad boy for probably an hour. And it was heavenly.

In addition to a stellar bathtub, the room also had this cute little patio (it was a little cold so we didn’t make use of it, but it would be amazing to sit here with a glass of wine during the summer).

And a fireplace! We don’t even have a fireplace in our house. It was the perfect weather for a fire, and it was *chef’s kiss*.

Aside from this huge and super comfy bed, we also had a little sitting area, which was great since part of the reason we checked in early was to watch the game.

I cannot say enough great things about the Westlake Village Inn, honestly. Trust me when I say I have never seen a more beautiful hotel, inside and out. Even Matt was thoroughly impressed with the gorgeous aesthetics! We had an awesome time at my cousin’s wedding, but we would have had just as good of a time hanging out in our room! In addition to the fabulous room, the staff of the hotel could not have been nicer and more helpful. If you have an occasion to visit Westlake Village, the Westlake Village Inn should be where you stay. You won’t be disappointed!

Our first brick or treat at LEGOLAND!

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I was compensated in the form of money, discount, or free product/experience in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.

So we were super stoked to head down to our first ever Brick or Treat at Legoland last weekend. Squirt is just starting to get into Halloween in a way that actually means something, and he is basically the world’s biggest Legoland fan so this was the perfect opportunity for us to celebrate. Matt and I hadn’t been back to the park since our trip last December, but Squirt was lucky enough to go with the grandparents a couple months ago (and he asks to go back pretty much every week). I was excited to get to explore some different areas of the park and see what tricks and treats were in store for us at Brick or Treat.

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Trip Report: New York City

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It’s hard to believe my most recent trip to New York was a month ago. Honestly, at this point NYC feels like my second home (which I’m not mad about), but this trip was different from my others (but also, the same, yay contradictions!). I headed to NYC for my birthday week (also Matt’s birthday week and our anniversary week, so sorry for skipping out on those babe!) for the Romance Writer’s of America’s annual conference. It was my first time attending the event, and it is deserving of its own blog post, so more to come on the conference itself. I was hesitant about going to the conference because peopling is so not my thing, but the fact that it was in New York, and in Times Square in particular, made it a little easier for me. So I hopped on a red eye and flew my butt across the country, all by myself, because I’m a grown up.

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A Girls Weekend in Napa

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At the end of January, my long distance bestie and I hit the road (well, first I hit the airport, then we hit the road) and made our way up to Napa Valley, aka girls weekend mecca. We stayed at the fabulous Vino Bello Resort, ate some amazing food, and of course, drank all the wine. Here’s the highlights from our trip!

The first thing we did (literally first thing, before we even checked into our hotel) was hit up downtown. We stopped in and purchased a discount tasting card for $15 each that got us half off tastings at a bunch of wine tasting rooms downtown. Even though we didn’t stop at all of them, it was still worth the price for what we saved on tastings. Our first tasting was at the Napa Valley General Store, where we got to choose five different wines to sample. I’m a big fan of tastings where you get to choose what you want, and this one offered some great selections.

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Hotel Review: Vino Bello Resort in Napa, California

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At the end of January, my long distance bestie Ashley and I hit the road for our annual girls weekend. We loved last year’s San Francisco please get me away from my life trip that we decided to make it a yearly adventure! For this year’s trip, we decided to go to Napa, and the whole weekend was perfection. I know we plan on trying to go to different places every year, but honestly, I would be happy with just doing Napa every year until we are eighty and move in together a la the Golden Girls. We stayed at the Vino Bello Resort, which both of us had stayed at before, and it was magnificent. When we each had visited last, the resort was pretty new, but now it has an awesome shopping center across the way with some small wine tasting rooms and a grocery store. Between that and their downtown shuttle, we were pretty set on being able to drink and not drive (though we did have to drive to a couple wineries to do some tasting, but we kept it safe-and by that I mean I made Ashley drive so I could drink and she was very responsible). The Vino Bello is on a gorgeous property, but the best thing about it is the size of the rooms. Here’s a quick tour of the resort:

We stayed in the one bedroom suite, so we had a full kitchen, living room, and a separate bedroom and bathroom. The sofa in the living room also folds out into a bed.

There is nothing I love more than having access to a real kitchen when traveling. I want a fridge, I want a microwave, I want to have real cups and silverware, it all feels like a luxury. Especially when drinking wine, it’s important to have access to a good charcuterie and having your own kitchen lets you go grocery shopping and prepare your own meals and snacks, which is ideal.

There’s also a huge dining table in the space, which about five seconds after this photo was taken was covered with all of our books, wine tasting cards, receipts, various purses, etc. But even if it didn’t fulfill its intended purpose, it was a nice space to have.

The bathrooms in the one bedroom suite are huge. My only real complaint about the room is that the toilet isn’t in a separate area, so if one person is showering, you either gotta go for it, or wait to pee. In the grand scheme of things, not a huge deal with two people, but could become a pain with a larger group.

I’m ashamed to say we did not make use of this glorious bathtub, which really was stupid on our parts. It’s a pretty spectacular tub.

The bed is huge and super comfy, and luckily very warm, since it was freezing while we were there.

One of my favorite parts of the space was our little patio area. Even though it was chilly, we sat outside in the afternoon and drank some wine and it was lovely. Our patio was also steps away from the pool, which was good, since when we went to the jacuzzi, there weren’t any towels left (it was pretty late) so we had to run from the pool back to the room.

And of course, you can’t have a trip to Napa without wine. This bottle was waiting for us in our room, which was a nice surprise!

Overall, we had a lovely trip to the Vino Bello Resort. I would one hundred percent stay here again, and even as I’m writing this, I’m thinking about what excuse I could find to go back. Stay tuned for more details and highlights from our girls trip!

Sea Life Aquarium at Legoland California

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One of the first things I noticed when I was checking out the Legoland website was their inclusion of an aquarium on property. Squirt is obsessed with aquariums, sharks in particular, so I knew right away we had to make it part of our first trip to Legoland. When it came time to choose which pass to buy him, we automatically went for the one with Sea Life included. And we were not disappointed. We spent a good chunk of our day exploring the aquarium, and I know that it will be one of our must dos on all of our subsequent trips (of which there will be many-I bought the pass, we’re going!). Here are some highlights from our first trip around the Sea Life Aquarium!

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Taking in the Sights of Los Alamos

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In November, I was able to travel to Los Alamos and spend a few days in what is quickly becoming one of my favorite cities. I discovered Los Alamos and the Alamo Motel a couple of years ago when I coordinated a wedding there, and I’ve been in love with it ever since. I spent three days there last year to get some work done on my latest novel, but I also spent some time exploring the tiny strip of town and some of the cool shops and restaurants they have to offer. As I mentioned in my hotel review of the Alamo Motel, I was there Tuesday through Thursday, and unfortunately, much of the town shuts down on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I didn’t get to check out as many places as I would have liked. But that just means I’ll have to go back! Here are some of the highlights from my time in Los Alamos…

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