LA was the first city I moved to when I left Hawaii so this city will always have a special place in my heart.  For some reason I don't go down to LA as often as I want to, thought that might have something to do with the 6 hour drive down.  And I almost always drive down to LA since it's cheaper and more flexible than a flight, and I don't like being without a car there.  Anyway I don't mind driving so really I should go to LA more often.  Especially when I get to explore neighborhoods that I never really knew about back when I was a student.  This time my friend and I shopped around Silver Lake, mostly on Sunset Blvd.  And it was so much fun.  My friend kept saying the people were so hipster it hurt, but I felt right at home (though I have to say LA hipsters look way more polished and beautiful than the SF hipsters, maybe a little too perfect).  But hipsters make the best artsy-fartsy, artisanal (and overpriced) shops! 

The perfect shelfie.

My favorite store in the neighborhood was the Clare V flagship store.  I've seen their stuff in Steven Alan before, but never their own store.  And it was amazing!  So many beautiful soft leather bags.  I just wanted to swim in a pool of leather bags, sorta like Scrooge McDuck in his vault:

So unrealistic in so many ways...

Anyway here are the many things I wanted to buy and didn't:

There were many other really nice stores:

We stopped off for lunch at Pine and Crane, which was the nicest and most hipster Chinese restaurant I've ever been to.  And the food was so good!  It's nice to eat a delicious Chinese restaurant where the waitstaff are actually polite to you.

Sorry forgot to take a picture of the food before we started eating.  We were famished!

Then back to more shopping

Prerequisite tipi in a hipster store.

A store called Bar Keeper (aka Alcoholics' Heaven)

The next morning I caught up with another friend at Gjelina in Abbot Kinney.  Amazing ricotta pancakes with blueberry compote and some baked eggs.  Abbot Kinney was another hipster heaven but unluckily (or actually luckily for my wallet) I didn't really have time to shop there.

And that was it.  Till we meet again LA.  Thanks to my friend Rachel for an extensive list of recommendations!  And thanks to my friend Lynne for letting me stay in her comfy guest room and driving me around (I do NOT miss that LA traffic).