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From S/V Rapture

The Marina del Rey Convention & Visitors Bureau is holding a digital photo scavenger hunt called Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Cute, huh?

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know much about MDR other than it’s a beach town, so I think doing a scavenger hunt would be a good way to explore and learn more about the area. And the visitors bureau is giving away some great prizes to the winners, too.

To participate, you’ll have to take photos of yourself in front of or next to the “iconic, unique and quirky” items listed in certain categories representative of the MDR community — family, foodie and wedding. You’ll need to collect at least five photos to qualify for prizes; if you collect all 10 photos in a category, you’ll be entered to win grand-level prizes.

Each category has prizes with values up to $2,200, including:

To enter, upload photos either to Facebook, Twitter or by email to marinadelreycvb@gmail.com. The deadline to submit all photos is Oct. 27, 2010. The grand prize and runner up winners will be announced via Facebook, Twitter and the Visit Marina del Rey Blog on Nov. 10, 2010.

Going to the desert usually isn’t my idea of a good time. I don’t like long drives, and heat doesn’t sit well with me. So I hesitated at first when the opportunity to spend a weekend in Indian Wells, Calif., presented itself because that’s, like, past Palm Springs.

You see, I was invited by the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa, a Marriott property, to stay a night and experience its restaurants, Sirocco and CAVA. I wasn’t sure about the desert location as I knew very little about Indian Wells other than a big tennis tournament happens there every year, but then I saw this on the hotel’s website

and immediately changed my mind. Indian Wells, here I come!

In this post I’ll discuss the hotel property, and in a subsequent post I’ll feature the resort’s food, so stay tuned.

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Do you miss the free-room contests from The Westin Bonaventure? Miss the thrill of possibly being the lucky one to score a gratis stay? Well look no further than these deals:

SLS Hotel: To celebrate its first anniversary, the SLS Hotel is randomly giving away two rooms a week for $1 a night to lucky winners who happen to visit its Web site at the right time. But hurry because the promotion ends Nov. 30.

Embassy Suites: If you stay at any Embassy Suites before Dec. 31, you can enter to win a grand prize of a trip to one of nine Embassy Resorts, which include properties in Lake Tahoe, Waikiki and Myrtle Beach. The prize includes a five-day/four-night stay, airfare and ground transportation. There will also be 100 first place prizes of $100 Visa gift cards.

Marriott Hawaii: Marriott has put together the granddaddy of giveaways — seven nights at two of five Hawaii hotels (so you can visit more than one island), airfare (including inter-island flights) and a private luau for you and 11 of your friends. Yes, that’s right, a trip for 12 to Hawaii. All you have to do to enter is make a three-minute video before Dec. 20 showing why you love Hawaii.

Cezanne restaurant at Le Merigot

Saturday, Aug. 15, would have been Julia Child’s 97th birthday. To celebrate (and capitalize on the popularity of the new film “Julie & Julia,” no doubt) the Le Merigot JW Marriott hotel in Santa Monica is having a special dinner featuring dishes from Child’s famous book, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

For $40 per person, Cézanne restaurant at Le Merigot will give you a three-course meals featuring an appetizer of coquilles St. Jacques à la Parisienne (scallops and mushrooms in wine sauce), a main course of piece de bouef braisée (beef braised in red wine parsley potatoes, leeks, glazed turnips and carrots), and a dessert of tarte tatin with crème fraiche. (Drinks are extra.)

This dinner is served from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. To make reservations, call (310) 395-9700. And if you can’t make it on Saturday, you can always check out the hotel’s late-night happy hour during the week.

Le Troque terrace bar at Le Merigot hotel. From LeMerigot (Flickr).

• Le Merigot: The Le Troquet terrace bar menu at this Santa Monica JW Marriott hotel recently introduced a late-night happy hour. From 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on weekdays, the bar’s appetizers and small plates (e.g., tuna tartare, crab quesadilla) are 30 percent off, and well drinks are 50 percent off (excludes beer and wine).

• Cafe Roma: The Beverly Hills eatery just reopened after a remodel, and it has a happy hour from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on weekdays where you can get two-for-one drinks (per person) and free finger foods at the bar. That’s one way to get people back in the door!

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San Juan Marriott. From Don Riddle (Flickr).

Through June 12, Marriott International Inc. is offering a “Deal of the Day,” with up to 60 percent off rates at a different Caribbean, Hawaii or California hotel each day for 24 hours. Other deals that’ll be offered include free nights based on a minimum length of stay, and free services and amenities. You can find the deals starting at 7:00 a.m. on either Marriott’s Twitter feed (@marriottintl) or at www.MarriottDealoftheDay.com. Today’s deal is 10 percent off daily room rates to $167, with a fourth night free on either a pool- or ocean-view room and free daily breakfast for two at the San Juan, Puerto Rico, Marriott. Though Marriott won’t release the locations of the hotels beforehand, the company says most will be beach resorts. You’ll have to find your own way there, though.

Of course for L.A. locals, the Westin Bonaventure has been giving away free rooms since March via its Twitter feed (@thebonaventure).