Traveling has never been an urgency of mine. I hate packing and especially unpacking. Half the time whatever clothes I take with me in a suitcase stays inside until I’m looking for that one specific article of clothing I can’t find in my closets. Being confined on a plane with strangers makes me cringe whether it be the big guy taking up my space, his space and what ever’s left over, the bratty screaming child that pops my ear drums, or the germ infested individual that should’ve waited till they sanitized. These are all the lovely travels until you get to your prime destination.

Okay, this doesn’t always normally happen since my mother knows how to arrange my flights accordingly.

While I hear more than enough adventure stories about everyone’s travels, half of those people are just as broke coming back and I don’t want that either. If I travel, I want to do so with the idea of financial freedom. I know it sounds senseless, but it make sense to me. I remember when my mother paid for an entire family trip to the Bahamas for six of us and it was phenomenal, but it’s just not in my blood to see the world at this time. Then again that might change real soon.

Travel Magazine hosted another yearly event last night that brought out, well, people, all in order to showcase their new Winter issue. Last year, I attended and wrote about their LA Travel Magazine event which was held at Supper Club, and it was a pretty eventful gig. Unlimited flute glasses filled with champagne, delicious ice cream made from a dried ice machine, a grand performance and most importantly my fabulous friends. So I was definitely expecting a huge turn out this year.

Initially, it didn’t start off too well when I rsvped. I had to rsvp twice when I didn’t receive my confirmation,  but after getting an email after the second time, I was told that the guest list was closed. I sent in my invite a week prior to the second one, so without an official confirmation,  I was hesitant to go and not be on the list. With the encouragement of my friends who explained to me how at times pr interns sleep on the job, there shouldn’t be an issue. I can relate to when I was an event coordinator for Fashion Week. With a personal assistant and five interns under my management, I organized the entire invite list and managed the seating for our 200+ guest. Best part of the day was when our laptop crashed and my interns had to read through my chicken scratch notes to approve everyone’s entrance; but we pulled it off and knocked it out of the ballpark, so I can understand if it was a mistake.

My friend Wanted+Desired blogger, Carmen, and I ended up arriving right on time at the door before the crowd. This year, LA Travel chose a smaller venue at Le Jardin, where the last time I was here was to attend a “Playboy” event that wasn’t all what we had expected. So naturally, I had my guard up even though both events were completely different.

It didn’t take too long for the doors to open up even though we had to walk towards the other side of the building after forming a line for 15 minutes. We met a young man,  Dean, while waiting  and quickly became acquainted. A young lady was extremely understanding and put our names on the list once we whipped out our business cards. Yes, we come prepared,  and we were given one raffle ticket and another for a complimentary drink. Once inside, shall I say, I took a photo on the red carpet. Gag. I’ve always said I hate taking photos on red carpets. It’s pointless!  Red carpets should only be granted to those who have earned the credentials to be on it. I’m not quite there yet even though I have the years to account for, but I did  it and walked straight to the bar.

Of course with an event they had a list of special cocktails and of course it had to be my nemesis of all alcohol, Vodka. Tito’s Handmade Vodka gave us three options to choose from and I went for the one that would be able to delude the taste of rubbing alcohol with more juice, so we chose Thrill of the Chill. Normally, I always have cash on me to tip out, but I had completely forgotten to take some out and I wish I did so I could’ve had the other drinks instead. One sip towards the bottom of the glass and I nearly passed out. It was straight up Vodka. I just couldn’t do it, so I had the bartender put more pineapple juice in my glass.

Dean somehow thought I was under age due to my mangled face after that gulp and I presumed him to just be a regular alcoholic.

Carmen and I started taking photos and walked over towards the open seating area. It’s funny how I use to frequently be in this venue three years ago, wow how time fly’s by, and my former social circle would claim the couches.

We sat down facing the wall but I wasn’t sure if there would be a grand performance like last year. Even though we had a young girl distorted behind us like a rubber band, I wanted to sit facing the crowd. I noticed seating on the stage without any reservations, so I had the venue manager ask if my friends and I could occupy that space for the remainder of the night. Once we were clear to sit down, we moved our things and headed onto the stage. Carmen and I didn’t want another issue of playing musical chairs like we did at the Playboy event, so I took the measures of making sure it wouldn’t happen.

We were in the perfect spot. It was limited, so I’m glad that we sat when we did. A nice fire pit, great view of the Cirque Mirage performers and right near the dj booth while Dj D-Dub spun. The people watching was even better and that’s when I observed the crowd closely. It was an interesting crowd to say the least and not at all from last year. In our seating area, there was a pretty large scale of older creepy men creeping on dim witted females dressed as if they were in an escort secret society. A group of people clearly not from Los Angeles or any nearby city at that brought their selfie sticks, and then down below a girl who looked as if she had just made a trip back from Vegas looked like a walking pink flamingo. Yeah I was a bit confused by this crowd so I sat there observing trying to accomplish a much needed buzz off my drink.

Earlier, I had seen a person walking around with a snow cone and quickly made acquaintance with the  Hula Girls Shave Ice machine. With an array of flavors, I chose the Tropical option and it was sugary heaven.

I ended up with four by the end of the night. By this time Carmen had taken the rest of my drink and made her own concoction mixing her shave ice with the alcohol. After other guest kept asking us if there was any alcohol in our shave ice and becoming displeased when there wasn’t,  that gave Carmen a bright idea to make it that way.

We all chose to stay in our perfect spot and watched the young performers as they did aerial strap tricks in mid air. Carmen and I decided that we’d call it a night after the raffles of prizes being given out to guest.

A young blonde walked up onto the stage with two other presenters to begin the raffle that everyone patiently awaited. I wasn’t holding my breath, but I looked at my ticket each time. Not going to lie, but I started getting excited once they read off the first three numbers soon realizing that all of the tickets had the same matching numbers until the last four.

The first prize was a stay at The Chateau at La Quinta Lake that an older woman won. The second was a trip to Palm Springs which another young woman ran on stage to claim and lastly a Valentines trip around the most romantic cities in Europe that the ultimate winner jumped for joy to take. By that time I tossed my ticket into the fire pit and said good night.

Last year LA Travel was a talked about event that I still look back on and say, man that was a great night. This time around, not so much, plus I didn’t even see the host of the party, Necar Zadegan, as the hosts from last year and real life couple of Vanderpump Rules, Katie and Tom, were far more present and engaging with guest.

Well can’t have everything, but I’ll definitely make my travel destinations out of Los Angeles at the rate this city is going.

Xox