I have to admit I have been quite intimidated to write this blog post. Our week in Los Angeles was nothing less than amazing, and I just couldn’t imagine how to fit it all into one post. Then Bill told me we HAD to get it done, so I figured I would give it a shot… 😉

We arrived in LA Wednesday evening before the CrossFit games. We got to my grandfather’s house, and spent a good hour or two catching up with my Grandpa and Nana. We finally got to bed at what was about 3 am east coast time, but still managed to jump out of bed at 7 am. Although we didn’t get nearly enough sleep, we were too excited for our day to stay in bed any longer. We ate a quick breakfast and headed off to The Grove to pick up a few of our favorite “foodie items” to bring to our lunch date. After purchasing some fantastic look chocolate bars, truffle salt, and white truffle butter, we headed off to Malibu to have lunch with Mark Sisson.

We had a lovely time with Mark at lunch. He really is a wonderful, kind, and very generous man, as well as very easy to talk to. When we got back from lunch, we had the pleasure of meeting Marks wife Carrie for the first time. She is just as sweet as she is beautiful, and she is VERY beautiful!

After lunch we headed back to The Grove to meet up with our good friends George and Diane. We shopped around for an hour or so, and then headed to Salt’s Cure to meet Michelle for dinner. Our dinner at Salt’s Cure was awesome! Most of us got a killer pork chop, but Michelle ordered braised short ribs. She really is the queen foodie, and always knows the best places to eat! After we had all finished licking our plates, we realized we should hit the road because Jimmy Kimmel was waiting with his friends for our table. It’s always so strange seeing celebrities roaming freely in the wild… After dinner we went home and hit the hay so we could get up bright and early for the CrossFit Games.

{The grains shown here were not consumed by us!}

The CrossFit Games were amazing, and a bit overwhelming. I was warned by our paleo BFF Liz to wear as little as possible, and I did as she said. I figured there would be some incredibly fit people walking around in their Lulu booty shorts and sports bras, but I didn’t realize how HOT it would be. Coming from Pittsburgh where it’s humid and overcast most of the time, we view LA as have the perfect weather. The heat definitely was a shock. We were literally sweating all day, every day that we were there, and I’m pretty sure Bill and I both left LA a shade darker than when we arrived.

At the games we got to meet Henry and Michelle’s adorable little boys, Big O and Little O. They are absolutely precious! We also got to spend some time with Steve Liberati, and of course Liz!! We also made some new friends while we were there. We finally got to meet the geniuses behind Paleo Treats, as well as Jen’s Gone Paleo, Mee and The Foodee! Everyone was even more lovely in person than we expected, and we had some pretty high expectations.

After the first day of the games we got really smart, and hit up the Whole Foods near UCLA to get some grub for lunch. We weren’t really prepared the first day, however that didn’t seem to matter, because with all the taste testing we did we really weren’t hungry for lunch. We got to try several Paleo Treats, some awesome Paleo friendly bars called Cocomo Joe, and of course Paleo Kits. The first night of the games we went to an amazing kabab place (recommended by non other than Michelle) with George and Diane, and the second night we hit up The Counter (not to be confused with The Corner as I embarrassingly called it a few times) for some yummy burgers. The last night of the games we decided to cook dinner for my grandparents since we really hadn’t gotten to spend much time with them.

Monday was totally open for us, so we met our friend Sean Coonce at DogTown CrossFit in Culver City for our first CrossFit football WOD. Sean has been healing his epilepsy with a Paleo diet, and in doing so he is doing some wonderful work to spread the word of treating epilepsy with a Paleo diet. Please check out his website and facebook page to see what he is up to! He has an amazing story, which unfortunately we didn’t get on film, but we will be sure to interview him about it when we see him again in Boston for AHS.

After we got our butt’s kicked with heavy power cleans and sandbag walking lunges, Sean took us to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant where they designed a Paleo menue specially for DogTown. The meal was awesome!

Luckily we still had some room left in our bellies, because after lunch Sean led the way to the ChocoVivo store front on Abbot Kinney in Venice. ChocoVivo was heaven on earth (literally), we met up with Sean’s lovely girlfriend Suzanne, who works for ChocoVivo, and we taste tested every chocolate blend they had while she educated us on all that is ChocoVivo.

Once we had bought out the store, we decided to walk off our chocolate buzz by strolling around Venice beach. We walked, talked, and shopped for about an hour or so after our impromptu chocolate tasting, and then sadly said goodbye (just for a few weeks) to our friends. We ended our trip with a wonderful dinner out with my grandparents, and then hopped on a plane back home to Pittsburgh.

Our trip to LA was really wonderful, and although we were sad to leave, we are excited to do it all over again in Boston in two weeks for AHS!