california road trip: a weekend in ojai

Where: Ojai, California

Since I started taking these NYC getaways, I’ve realized that one of my favorite parts about exploring a new area is visiting the often overlooked (by everyday tourists, at least) towns nearby. So on our recent trip to LA, I wanted to make sure to include a trip to one of the nearby desert towns. I thought about Palm Springs, but after seeing several posts about Ojai on my Instagram feed (yes, that’s really how I make travel decisions!), that sealed the deal. Ojai it was!

Ojai is a tiny town of about 8000 people, located in a valley about an hour and a half drive northwest of Los Angeles.  It’s a sleepy little town, with a small main street area, an emphasis on locally made goods, cute restaurants, health food, and healthy (hippie?) living.

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a love letter to new jersey* from a new yorker**

*This love letter refers to a very specific point in New Jersey, arguably more well-known for the Pennsylvania city across the river

**I’ve actually been in New York 9.5 years, which is about 6 months short of the 10 year mark that, according to urban legend, makes you a real New Yorker, so I’m slightly jumping the gun

weekend escape: warwick, ny

Towards the end of last summer, I had this itch to get the hell out of Manhattan and go to a big house somewhere with a pool. That was literally my only criteria. I searched high and low on Airbnb for anything within two hours of the city that had a pool and there was…. nothing. So, I learned my lesson, and in February or something nuts like that, I booked a house with a pool for August. Luckily, we were able to recruit my freshman college roomie and her man to come along and, it turned out, she actually knew the place that I’d picked totally randomly.

Warwick is a small town at the southern tip of Orange County, NY, just about an hour and a half drive from Manhattan. Jen actually has a bunch of family in that area, some of whom were very connected to one of our main points of entertainment… but more on that in a bit.