Manhattan... Beach that is.

My mom took the name Diana when she came to the States in '79. She came with her fraternal twin who took the name Jenny. When they were babies, they looked alike and were quite similar till their teens. Mom is darker and thinner whereas Aunt Jenny is lighter and taller.

Mom had one kid: me. Aunt Jenny has two kids, Chris and Catherine. Cat is 16 now while Chris is just a few months younger than I am so I grew up with him. Apparently, I used to knock him over the head when he was little. Oops. Sorry Chris. He still lives a pretty sheltered life - at 23, his parents insist that he comes home at 12. If it hadn't been for my liberal father and my rebellious streaks, I would've lived similarly. That's a lot of ifs though.

I don't know why I just told that story, but I thought I'd share. Chris and I were never very close, but we hung out yesterday because he's a safe person to hang out with... plus, I can get him to heed to my demands. :) Yeah, I'm still bossy and he's still pretty nice.

He took me along with him to run some errands and then off we went to help his friend on a on-the-street shoot in Manhattan Beach for a small website. His friend had to ask the question: Are you paying attention to the budget? Why or why not? Something like that. He had to get six good answers. It took 2 hours. I didn't help. I just tagged along and walked on my own.

Manhattan Beach is in South Los Angeles but on the coast so very fancy schmancy.



South of Manhattan Beach, a peninsula juts out. I looked it up: it's Palos Verdes, I think. Everyone was running on this "boardwalk."

I really enjoyed walking around the area. It was quite enough for 1.5 hours so I got bored. I suppose I should've gone into the ocean since it was such a nice day, but I won't lie, I just don't like public water (oceans, pools, lakes, etc.). They're pretty... gross.

Cleanest and nicest fire station ever...


I stumbled upon a designer shoe and chocolate place called Elleni's. Neither was impressive - Uggly shoes and only a bit of chocolate. Still, cool idea.

Cupcakes Couture of Manhattan Beach have pretty cupcakes and cakes in petites, designer, and huge couture cupcakes. These ladies were on "Cupcake Wars." I've been to a few of the "Cupcake Wars" bakeries including a cute American-styled Becker's down the street from Cupcakes Couture, Milk, and The Perfect Circle Cupcakery.

I got 4 petitites: berries & cream, strawberry lemonade, Nutella banana, and salted Tuxedo. Salted Tuxedo and the fruity ones were good especially in minis because the fruity fillings encompassed the whole cake, but the Nutella banana was especially poor.

They had a sign outside hiring front counter staff (interested but far away) and for internships (please!). Sadly, as I mentioned, it's too far away - about 45 minutes too far. :/

Shade Luxury Boutique Hotel's restaurant

Manhattan Beach Creamery was adorable. They had Louis XXI (I made that up!) kind of chairs and high schoolers served homemade ice cream! I gushed at these "old school" ice cream cookie sandwiches. I didn't get one but wanted one as it was a pretty warm day walking up and down the hills.

Pages Bookstore reminded me of a novel you'd read at your shack/cottage with white panel walls and made me want to read another tragic Nicholas Sparks book. I loved it. They have an extensive children's area and on the day we were there, an author was set to appear.

Fun fact: The city's high school, Mira Costa High School, was used in the show "The O.C." and the area was used for "Weeds" and the new "90210."