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!

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! 

Things that scare me... part 1

Chicken, wuss, scaredy-cat are all things you can call me and I'm okay with that. Some info about me, I'm scared of roller coasters and reptiles, to name a few. To my surprise, this weekend I was exposed to both.  They do however make for nice pictures. 

These pictures were taken with my iphone 6. 

p.s. you're probably thinking part 1? Yup, I have many fears.  

Mini Road trip

You guys, I went on a mini road trip two weeks ago. It was semi work related but I was able to take my family. Our destination was Pismo Beach, which is in the central coast of California. I was in a mad rush to make sure everything was packed and that we left on time that I completely forgot to take my Nikon camera. So all of these photos were taken on my iphone 6. 

Our day started somewhat gloomy and as we drove towards the ocean it became even more gloomy. This picture was taken from the passenger seat while stuck in traffic on the 101 freeway.

As soon as we reached Pismo Beach, the sky cleared up and it was nothing but sunshine. 

We had lunch at Dinosaur Caves Park and walked around and enjoyed the view. 

We made our way down a stair case but weren't able to walk through or around the caves because of the tide. The view was amazing and once the sunset came we drove towards the downtown area and had dinner on the beach. 

Sunsets like this never get old!

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast in Santa Maria and drove off to Solvang to play tourist for a while. If you are not familiar with Solvang here is a quick little history on this cute town. Solvang is a small town in Santa Barbara County that was founded in 1911 by a group of Danes who traveled West in effort to establish a Danish colony from the mid-western winters. The majority of the town consist of unique half-timbered buildings that make you forget your actually in California. 

The town has cute pastry shops, restaurants and gift shops. A replica of a 19th century Danish streetcar, is available for sightseeing tours.  

Since we were doing good on time we decided to make a quick pit stop in Santa Barbara. 

Living in California we are so fortunate to have great weather and have so many places to visit that sometimes we forget how fortunate we really are and we get stuck in our routine. Needless to say, it was nice to getaway for a weekend and spend time with my family.