Monday, September 28, 2015

Museum Day













I initially wrote this post to describe interesting facts about the museum, but then I thought you can find those details online if you google the museum. So I decided to write a brief recap of our experience. Saturday my mom, sister and myself decided we would escape the heat and hang out at the new Broad Museum in Downtown Los Angeles.  The admission free, but you need reservations. With no reservations we made our way to the long line of people like us that had no reservations. After standing in line for less than 10 minutes, a gal comes up to my sister and asks if we are a party of three. Turns out she had three reservation tickets and was not going to use them. Just our luck we were a party of three. We rushed our way to the line with people that had tickets and after 30 minutes of standing in line we were inside the museum.

The museum is three floors and the majority of the galleries are on the third floor. As soon as you enter  you see a 105 foot escalator that takes you up to the third floor.  Knowing nothing about art we started walking around and reading the descriptions of pieces that caught our eye. While there were plenty of pieces that were interesting and looked very intricate there were some pieces that made us wonder if these pieces were really considered art. We joked that we could probably create something nicer. As we kept walking, we came across some pieces that also made us wonder if they were appropriate for children. We were not alone with this thought, we saw some parents that seemed concerned of what their kids were seeing. With no kids in our party of three, we kept walking.

All in all I thought it was a very cool and interesting experience. I think my favorite pieces were the large installations,  some of these pieces are pictured above.  One of the coolest installations at the Broad was Ragnar Kjartansson, The Visitors. I don't want to give too much away but it's a nine screen video installation and it should not be missed. What we did miss was Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room, there was a five hour wait! It looks amazing and hopefully we can go back soon and check it out. 

If you find yourself in the Los Angeles area you should definitely check it out!

p.s If you are able to visit The Broad Museum take some time to appreciate the building itself, that alone is a piece of art!

Friday, September 25, 2015

70 mph

You guys, I went on a mini road trip this past weekend to Vallejo. In case you're wondering where is Vallejo? It's in Northern California, one hour away from San Francisco and less than 15 miles from Napa. Did I go to San Francisco or Napa, you might be wondering? Nope and nope, I stayed in Vallejo. 

We left early Saturday morning around 5:45 a.m., and  six & half  hours later we reached  our destination. The purpose of our trip was to take my father in law to see relatives that were in town from Mexico. I'm not sure if I've shared this about myself , I HATE waking up! So waking up at 4:30 in the morning was not my favorite part of the trip. I slept a little on the road and when I was awake and over waking up so early I took my camera and snapped some pictures. 

Have you guys seen the movie Yes Man with Jim Carey and Zooey Deschanel? In that movie, Zooey's character teaches a running photography class. Now, you're probably wondering what does this have to do with Vallejo? Well this trip reminded me of that movie because all of these pictures were taken from the passenger seat of a our car while traveling 70 mph. 










The top half of this post are pictures taken on our way to Vallejo. I've driving up North many times but this time I actually enjoyed the sights. I saw how the drought has damaged so many crop farms. It amazed me how dry everything appeared to be and it made me a little sad. Not everything was dry, there were some crops that were thriving which made me realize three things:

1. The hard work the farm land entails
2. How we depend on our planet
3. The importance of taking care of our planet

The second half of this post are photographs taken our way back home. Sunday we slept in a little, meet with my husband's family for breakfast and started our drive back around 1:00 p.m. Since I was able to sleep in that morning, on our drive back I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.


















This was the first time I used the fast mode on my camera and I was pleased with the outcome. Now don't get me wrong,  not all of the pictures were clear. I picked my favorite three blurry pictures to share with you guys. 

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Are You Ready?


It rained today, I don't ever recall rain in September. The month of September is usually very hot in the beginning  and towards the end of the month it usually cools down a little bit. Needless to say the rain was a surprise and caused a mess in Southern California. It's not our fault, us Californians are used to Sunshine :)   Today was a little taste of the change of season that awaits us. 

Are you ready for fall? 



Sunday, September 13, 2015

Favorites

I was in Long Beach today attending a convention at the Long Beach Arena. I've been to this arena many times and every time I go I love admiring the surrounding buildings. Today, I'm sharing my three favorite buildings.  

The first one is the Long Beach Arena. The building is in the shape of a drum and along the exterior  is a huge mural named "Planet Ocean" from artist Robert Wyland. This mural is one of 100 murals of Mr.Wyland's Whaling Walls. For a list of the 100 Whaling Walls murals click here.


The second building is the International Tower, a condominium complex . This building was completed in 1966 and is considered a Mid-Century Modern Icon. I must admit, this building reminds me of a stack of dishes.


The third one is the Villa Rivera,  a 16 story French Gothic building. The building is topped with a cooper roof with a green patina and is adorned with gargoyles. This building is also a condominium complex. An interesting fact, from 1929 through the mid 1950s  the Villa Rivera was the second tallest building in Southern California. 


Once, again these pictures were taken with my iPhone and do not capture the true beauty of these buildings so you should make your way to Long Beach and check them out! 

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Labor Day Weekend

Can you guys believe this past weekend was Labor Day Weekend? This year has flown by! I was caught off guard and had no set plans, however somehow I found myself in San Diego and later at Venice beach. Saturday started with some light shopping and relaxing at home. 


On Sunday we woke up had a quick breakfast and headed south to San Diego. 


With nearly two hours on the road, we found ourselves passing by camp Pendleton, where the soldiers were doing training. 


Our destination was Petco Park for a Padres vs. Dodgers game. I was excited to see one of my ex favorite Dodger player's, Matt Kemp! 


Luckily we did not encounter any traffic and reached San Diego by noon. The weather was perfect, the sun was out and the skies were clear and crisp. Petco Park opened in 2004 and can be considered somewhat of a new stadium. I've been to a few ball parks and I can honestly say it's one of the nicer stadiums. It's so easy to access, it's clean, and in the middle of the city. These are some pictures of the view within and around the park. 









My husband and I try to go to San Diego once a year for the Padres vs. Dodger game. Last year, we took my parents so it was a little bittersweet for me this year. I kept thinking of how the last time I was there was with my dad. I also kept thinking of the road trips to Mexico we would take when we were younger. I tried to enjoy my time there and not  become overwhelmed with emotion. Our day ended with dinner in La Jolla and drove right back home that night.

On Labor Day, we slept in and woke up with a call from my brother in law. He was calling to invite us to Venice Beach. With no hesitation we got up threw on our swim suits and met up with my husband's family. Oh one thing you should know about my husband is, he is an avid handball player. Are you thinking handball?  the sport you played in elementary with a giant ball? Haha! No, he doesn't play that type of handball, it's considered more like American Handball or Street Handball and they use a small blue ball. Now you are probably wondering "why is she talking about handball?" I bring up the sport/game because the whole point we all went to Venice was because my husband, his dad, brother, cousin and some other friends intended to play handball at the beach while the gals and kids played on the beach. So that's exactly what we did.



These are the handball courts at Venice Beach (my husband is not in any of these pictures). 


Monday was a warm day so needless to say, the beach was packed. We soaked up the sun, enjoyed the waves, took a quick walk on the boardwalk and people watched. 

My niece found this huge clam and we were all excited!








The waves were really rough and the poor life guards were on their toes all day. 


In case you guys don't know, Venice Beach is also know as "Muscle Beach, so here are some of the muscles I saw.




With no set plans, this Labor Day weekend was pretty busy.

PS. The Dodgers won. 

PPS. These photos were taken with my iPhone 6.