Post by GayCities editor JJ Keyes
California is that bad boy at the end of the bar. The past few years, it seemed to wink at me from across the country, occasionally sending a drink my way. I hadn’t visited Los Angeles in a few years and with gay marriage debate fresh in my mind, I decided it’s the perfect time to take a week in West Hollywood.
There are plenty of great hotels in West Hollywood: Andaz, the Standard and Le Parc Suite Hotel were all on my list. My boyfriend and I ended up booking a room at the Chamberlain West Hollywood. We rented a Hybrid at the airport and were pleased to find out Chamberlain offers a parking discount for them. The hotel, designed by David McCauley, is nestled in the residential corner of West Hollywood, right around the corner from Lindsay Lohan’s apartment. We arrived just when Lindsay received her bad news–the paparazzi was lurking at her building, trying to get a picture of poor Lindz buying shampoo at the drug store or sneaking out to meet Samantha Ronson.
Chris and I were well protected from the shutterbugs and Lindsay inside the hotel. The fourth floor suite featured a reinvention of the 70’s-era design. It was if we had stepped foot into Marcia Brady’s dream loft space when we walked in the room. We set up shop in a rooftop cabana beside the pool. The 360-degree view of Los Angeles seemed to fan out forever, and after a few sips of my cocktail we decided to slide out of the cabana and into the pool for a quick dip in the afternoon sun.
After our swim we finished our drinks and set out down Westmount Drive to meet up with friends on Santa Monica Boulevard. The gym bunnies were marching from Starbucks to 24 Hour Fitness and back again. Our friend Monte pointed out the current West Hollywood fad of going commando to the gym. We experienced more commando WeHo boys on the walk down Santa Monica. Then we came across some cute designer underwear nearby at LASC, and laughed about the potentially vanishing gay male market. I whipped out my credit card and raided the underwear floor.
After grabbing a quick bite at Hugo’s, we venturing over to the Abbey to kick off the nightlife portion of our vacation accordingly. The next week was spent enjoying the great outdoors by day (R&R at Will Rogers Beach, art at The Getty, the perfect James Dean flashback at the famed Griffith Observatory, and a sweaty hike through Runyon Canyon) and West Hollywood by night (lazy cocktails at the Abbey, Musical Mondays with Scott Nevins and Ryan O’Connor at Eleven, Janet Jackson serenading the crowd on the big screen at the Mother Lode, dancing in the back of the “it” spot Here Lounge).
We had the perfect time in Los Angeles. West Hollywood (and Chamberlain) treated us well, and Chris would agree we’d both take a dirty martini from that Sunny bad boy at the end of the bar again real soon.
Thanks to Chamberlain West Hollywood, SYNDICATE Los Angeles.
Photo Credits: JJ Keyes, Chamberlain West Hollywood, SYNDICATE and LASC.
