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I’ll confess – I would never in my wildest dreams have thought I would travel anywhere, at any time, just to go to the mall.  But South Coast Plaza and the Westin there invited me for an evening of holiday revelry and a morning of traipsing around the mall.  And since Costa Mesa is not far from Los Angeles, I thought it would be a nice little drive, a quiet stay in a nice hotel, and a bit of a stroll around a decked out mall.

But haha!  This is Los Angeles, after all, and what I got was a three-hour crawl in gridlocked traffic, a mad dash to the tree-lighting ceremony, a pricey martini, and the biggest surprise of all – a mall that should have its own Zip code and required a vehicle to drive me from one end to the other to make it to breakfast on time (at the newly remodeled Ruby’s Diner).

To be fair, the service and staff at the Westin South Coast Plaza were very nice, and very helpful, from the top dog all the way to the porter, before and whether or not they knew I was a guest of the hotel.  The room was lovely and had a coffeemaker in it, which is a standard by which I judge any hotel stay.  The view?  Meh.  This is a business hotel and also a place to stay if you are doing some serious shopping.  You don’t need a view.

The whole complex of South Coast Plaza – don’t call it a mall – wants to be your destination for shopping, food, and entertainment (the Orange County Performing Arts Center is nearby).  During the holidays they are stressing their VIP treatment: valet parking, a special lounge, discounts at participating retailers, etc.  There are many features to visit for families including two Santa cottages, a holiday train, a miniature village, holiday shadowcasting balloons by Treb Heining ($10 a pop, that’s a splurge, but they stay inflated and blinky for a month), crafts, and special events and entertainment.

If you are a shopper, you’d love this place.  If you are a label-conscious shopper with a pile of cash to burn, I say go for it.  But if you live in Los Angeles and you want to head down there on a Thursday evening with gathering clouds, it would be faster for you to fly from Burbank to John Wayne airport than to drive.

From guest blogger Marsha Takeda-Morrison of Sweatpantsmom

When I was asked to write about ideas for a three-day weekend, I panicked since we are a notoriously last-minute kind of family; planning ahead means calling the hotel from the parking lot to see if they have any vacancies.

So I decided to check the paper to see what everyone else was doing, and judging by the endless ads and inserts it was obvious how 99% of America would be spending their holiday – shopping. This was a great idea that involved minimum forethought, and another excellent way to help our economy! My husband wouldn’t be too thrilled, but neither was I when he made me camp in the rain that time, either. Besides, I get just as much joy from bringing home a new purse as I would from lugging back a piece of driftwood.

We’ll start off our weekend by heading out to the mother of all shopping malls, the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. Supposedly they have something like five million stores in there – I’ve heard that the owners don’t even know how many and when they’re done counting their bags of money at night they just go right back and build another store in the morning.

But first we’d have to eat, so we’ll stop at Coco Noche in Manhattan Beach, a wine and chocolate restaurant that serves excellent tapas dishes. We’d order the Korean beef served with lettuce leaves and their chicken sandwiches. My husband would still be fuming over the whole shopping thing, and would just down a couple of beers. Afterwards we would sample some chocolate – they have exotic ones like chili pepper and cinnamon.

When we got to the mall we’d first have to appease our two tween girls so our first stop would be Hot Topic. I would limit them to 30 minutes because to be perfectly honest that place scares the hell out of me – I’m always afraid I’ll come out of there and realize I’d gotten my tongue pierced and a skull tattooed on my stomach.

Next I would go to Bloomingdales and not come out for three hours.

After hours of spending my husband’s hard-earned cash we’d need to eat again and luckily food was nearby. I truly believe that next to stretch jeans, man’s greatest invention has got to be the Mall Food Court, where a family of four can eat tacos, baguettes and pizza all at the same meal. Next we’d head to our hotel, which I had just reserved three minutes earlier.

The next morning I’d be feeling sorry for my husband, so we’d head across the street to one of our favorite places in the city, Isamu Noguchi’s California Scenario. You wouldn’t expect to find a sculpture garden created by a world-class artist wedged between a Chili’s and FedEx office, but there it is. We’d wander around the cactuses and rocks and listen to the amazing silence in the middle of the city. I’d try to enjoy it and not think too much about that fajita pan I put on hold at Crate and Barrel.

On our way home we’d stop by Huntington Beach and sit out on the sand for awhile to count our receipts enjoy the sound of the waves. We’d all agree that it had been a great weekend – and while we were coming home poorer, we could all rest in easy in the thought that we looked stunning in our new clothes.

What are some ways you spend a three-day weekend? Are you a plan-ahead or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of person?