CicLAvia

Last Sunday I participated in my first CicLAvia event! Your'e probably wondering what is CicLAvia, I'll tell you.  According to the CicLAvia website, CicLAvia catalyzes vibrant public spaces, active transportation and good health through car free streets. Basically, you get to ride your bike in the middle of the street with out the fear of a car hitting you. It's free, it's fun, it's a community event and it's a must! 

Before you scroll down, I should mention this post is picture heavy. Also, have you ever seen that movie Yes, Man? In that movie, Zoe Deschanel's Character plays an instructor that teaches a photography class while running. Bizarre right, and you can only imagine what the photos would look like. I felt like that during this event. I snapped these pictures while riding my bike, so forgive me if some are not as crisp, centered or clear.

We

We started our path down Broadway, went above the freeway and headed towards China Town. Got a quick glance of a parade that was happening and returned back towards second street street tunnel. Riding a bike through the tunnel was probably one of the coolest things of the event. 

The path through the tunnel led us through Echo Park and eventually to Mc Arthur Park. Now, I know a lot of my post consist of flowers or plants, and I was really trying to do this post without flowers, but come on! How can I skip these beauties.   

After the park we jumped back on 2nd Street and went through the tunnel one last time. This time instead of turning on Broadway we kept going straight and headed towards Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights. The road towards Boyle Heights led us through the arts district and through the 4th Street Bridge. 

The murals in the Arts District are amazing, definitely worth a visit. These are just some of the ones I was able to get a quick snap of. 

Around noon we arrived at Mariachi Plaza, we decided to stop and eat lunch. Ordinarily I go for a hot dog when I'm in DTLA but this time I went with tacos, they were delicious and spicy just the way I like them! I was hoping to see actually Mariachis playing but that was not the case, I just saw some walking by. There was however a DJ spinning some English and Spanish classics that made me want to get up and dance.

The views and the access to typically busy streets were pretty awesome. The art and the community feeling was pretty awesome as well. But I think my all time favorite was the people watching. If there is something I love to do, it's people watch and this was an awesome place for just that! 

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!

Art & Antique Street Fair

On Saturday my mom and I accidentally found ourselves at an Art & Antique Street Fair. I've never really been into antiquing, not because I dislike it but because I guess I've never really had the opportunity. So as we started walking through the fair I started snapping away.

Don't mind the Garfield plush, these boots and bongo jeans will make a pretty awesome outfit for a country theme party, don't you think? 

We saw a set of four chairs that spelled out "Home" but I was thinking "Me" would be better, my mom not so much. #selfish

New hats made to look old.

 

We came across this cute couple...

and a child's book.

I was surprised to see the different collections people have acquired through out the years,  miniature alcohol bottles....

matchbooks from various bars and cities, 

and balls!

As we kept walking I found myself paying attention to all the treasures women collect. From the time we are young girls we start with dolls...

As we get older we begin to collect jewelry. 

We treasure our bridal attire and try to preserve it for as long as possible.  

As we continue to grow we try to find our signature scent in the hopes that it will trigger a memory for a loved one.

As we gain confidence with our own skin we begin to be a little adventurous with our attire and while some styles are classics some we wish we could completely forget. 

I thought this gal looked pretty adventurous with her warm big hat and sparkly necklace. 

 We buy and collect things that interest us but sometimes the things that make us feel pretty, sophisticated, stylish and classy are our personal treasures. 

The last art piece I saw at the fair was of this classy sophisticated lady. I imagine it would look beautiful mounted in a big gold frame hanging in a museum wall or in my house. 

I only bought a broach for my mom but I must say I did see a lot of treasures and I hope all my junk will one day be considered an antique treasure.