Sometimes a trip to California is just what the doctor ordered! After a year of barely seeing my loved ones, traveling still feels like such treat. My girlfriends are so important to me and I LOVE any excuse for a girls trip! My good friend Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin and I recently took a trip to Palm Springs, California, to visit our dear friend and a talented interior designer, Tracy Turco. Tracy is the queen of all things desert chic, bright, bold, and midcentury modern.

Palm Springs

Even her KitchenAid mixer is fun!

Tracy moved to Palm Springs three years ago and has made an amazing life for herself there. She currently lives in Zsa Zsa Gabor’s house! For those of you who don’t know, Zsa Zsa Gabor was a Hungarian American actress and socialite famous for her bubbly, flirtatious personality.

From left to right: Tracy, Consuelo, Me

Tracy bought two properties in Palm Springs and turned them into party hotels, a genius concept of her own creation. One property is called the Art Hotel and the other is called Tiki House, which you can check out here on Airbnb. Tracy’s houses are crazy colorful and funky, even down to the hot pink toilet paper! While in Palm Springs, we stayed at the Historic Willows Inn, a charming hotel with wonderful service. After Palm Springs, we headed west to LA to meet up with a couple of other friends. On the way back from Palm Springs to LA,  we stopped at In-N-Out for some lettuce-wrapped burgers and they were out of this world!

Our beautiful breakfast at The Historic Willows Inn

Tracy gave us a tour of different famous homes in Palm Springs, including Liberace’s house with a piano for a mailbox!

Los Angeles

In Los Angeles we stayed at friend’s houses and I ate my way around town! We went to an LA staple, Craigs, (it was so hard to get a table here!) and had their infamous chocolate pizza with molten chocolate, creamy vanilla ice cream, and a crunchy crumble topping. It was insanely decadent. We took the afterparty to Cecconi’s — a restaurant in West Hollywood known for its A-list crowds — for drinks and shenanigans.

Shenanigans at Cecconi’s!

We also went to a party at Joey Santos’ house. Joey is a celebrity chef, columnist for The Eden magazine, and the co-host of a weekly podcast called “Two Guys From Hollywood” on iHeartRadio. Oh, and I can’t forget the sushi burritos at Howdy’s in Malibu. Los Angeles is always so ahead of the curve with their cuisine! One of my favorite parts of my time in LA was going to Erewhon, an upscale health-food store known for all kinds of local and sustainable options.

Joey singing!

Newport Beach

I spent 10 days at my family’s house in Newport Beach, California, where we cooked, danced, ate, and spent plenty of time at the beach. With Mother’s Day coming up, I wanted to spend quality time with my son, daughter-in-law and precious granddaughter. Becoming a grandmother has been such an incredibly rewarding experience and I couldn’t be more in love with her! I’m even amazed at her palate and how adventurous she is with her foods. She went to Nobu and ate salmon roe and black cod with miso! Definitely taking after her daddy! An adventurous taste in food must run in the family.

My son Zach is a fabulous cook — patting myself on the back for this one 😉 — and we ate most of our meals on our front deck where we recently installed gorgeous fire pits and heaters. My brother, sister, and I all worked together to redo my mother’s house after she passed away. It was a HUGE challenge to combine all of our design preferences, but we made it work and the house looks so beautiful! I know my mom would be so proud of all of us.

This trip was exactly what I needed. Sunshine, amazing food, and quality time with my friends and family. It doesn’t get any better than that! If you’ve been to any of these restaurants or hotels I’ve mentioned on this trip, I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone!!

XO,

Pamela