Wednesday through Saturday certainly isn’t enough time to learn a new city, but with the right tour guide [a.k.a., the future Maid of Honor] you can see some great sites. While traveling for another conference, we stayed at The Tower Beverly Hills (a quaint little hotel with nice rooms, the first Posturepedic bed I’ve slept in, a great pool and conveniently located between Rodeo Drive and Santa Monica).

For those living in the area, I discovered the best sushi (price/quality) restaurant named Yen Sushi just across the street. Yen is a trendy sushi bar with great prices, a decent wine selection and, most importantly, quality sushi chefs. Finally, a sushi restaurant that understands that Spicy Tuna is actually supposed to be spicy! If you’re not a sushi lover, move on to the next paragraph!

For dinner one night, we ate at Yamashiro. Every city has that restaurant that you must visit because of the atmosphere, not necessarily because of the food, this is the place in LA. For those who’ve seen the movie Memoirs of a Geisha, it was actually filmed at this restaurant. It is certainly a must visit romantic restaurant. It’s located on a secluded hill and easily missed if you’re unfamiliar with the area.

Yamashiro’s has a great view of the LA skyline and a beautiful outdoors Japanese garden inside. Be prepared to pay; our hot tea cost $8. Nevertheless, if you eat sushi and are want a scenic place to take your special someone this may be the place.

The next day, we hit the LA shopping scene and then were off to Santa Monica’s Viceroy. This hotel/bar was the perfect end to a great day. It is exactly what I expect the LA night life should be. Trendy, long lines, and a phenomenal outdoor area with pools, bars, and plenty of couches/cabanas to spend the evening people watching.

Here are some pictures of Jenny, Lisa and I at the beach: