A Ballerina Abroad: Day 4 of A Hip and Healthy Guide to Los Angeles

words by Saskia Gregson-Williams

Day 4

For breakfast we revisited Urth cafe. We generally go between Le Pain and Urth for breakfast. Today we opted for Urth, as they really do do the best coffee in LA.. And it was one of those days! Then off to Pilates we drove. We were feeling quite tight after Yogahop yesterday, so it was great to work through the tightness with a leg and ab workout. After Pilates we met a friend at Mandeville Canyon for a hike and catchup. This canyon is located in between Brentwood and the Pacific Palisades, the views are stunning the atmosphere so serene and the air so fresh you feel you can think again, after being surrounded by the noise of LA. We hiked for over an hour stopping in between to do a few yoga poses, a really therapeutic way to start the day.

After the hiked we returned to the hotel freshened up and met my Dad for lunch at Planet Raw. Such a delicious Raw Organic Cuisine. We all ordered three different items to share.  The first order I chose was the ‘Cheeze’ Enchiladas; a pumpkin veggie nut & seed pâté wrapped in nori with a guacomole,salsa and sour ‘kream’ dip. It had a spicy kick and is a delicious healthy skin-loving combo. We then ordered the Babylon Lebanese falafel rolls wrapped in a collard green with garlic cream tahini, olives, bean-free hummus and avocados. This also went down an absolute treat. The combination of the tahini, avocado and hummus was to die for. Lastly we ordered their famous full of goodness Dinosaur Salad to share, with kale, wild seaweed, Marine Minerals, cayenne & nutritional flakes. We ordered very, very well and played pass the parcel with are food until every scrap was gone!

Mum and I then headed off to Fred Segal, a small luxury boutique department store of 4th and Broadway in Santa Monica. It’s a quiet, relaxed place to shop with a great selection of new stores. Another great celeb spotting location. We spent ages in all the stores, until having to sit down with a bad case of shopping legs!

For dinner we went to Vincenti Restirante on San Vincente,Brentwood. This is a smart dressy Italian restaurant it’s a great place to eat, and very family friendly. When I was little and we lived here we ate out regularly, this was one of our favourite spots, they all new us and the staff were all so kind to the little me. Returning today we were greeted by all the lovely Italian waiters and waitresses, who looked after us so well and treated us like we’d never left. The food was delicious, presented exquisitely. A wide menu of fresh, roasted and baked fish, flat base quality pizzas straight out the stone oven, seafood pastas, fresh dairy-free soups the list is endless and everything is cooked to perfection. It is easy to understand why this place is always busy, so you have to book in advance.