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! 

Night on Broadway

So this year I decided to skip the whole New Years Resolution's drama, instead I decided to do one thing a month that was something that I truly wanted to do for myself. Whether its something fun, pampering or personal but its something selfish for myself. The reason for this is because sometimes we get so caught up with our daily lives that before you know it the month has gone by and you didn't do anything for yourself and your left with "one day I will...". So I guess you can say 2017 is a going to be a very selfish year for me. Now don't get me wrong, these 12 things I plan to do I don't necessarily plan to do them all by myself, I will definitely enjoy the company of others. These 12 things are just things that I'm going to make sure I carve time to do for myself. 

Okay, so now that I've explained my 12 things theory lets jump into my first thing I did for myself for the month of January. It was something I've wanted to do for the past 2 years and it involves food, downtown, lights, carnival rides, and much more. Downtown Los Angeles has created a festival that takes you back to Broadway, a street that holds historic theaters and businesses that have amazing architecture and history. The festival is for all ages and all cultures. The entertainment ranges from chess boxing to Mariachi performers. So this year my husband and I jumped on the metro and headed downtown. Our first glimpse of this festival was boxing.

 I don't know if these are professional boxers, but it was fun to watch. 

Oh you know, just some Lucha Libre fighters having a conversation. I wonder what they were talking about. 🤔

The first theater we entered was The Million Dollar Theater. It was so nice to walk into this theater and listen to Mariachi music. The singer had an amazing voice and the mariachi performed flawlessly. It was amazing to see that people of all cultures were enjoying the performance. I wish I would've had better pictures of the performance to share with you guys but I was enjoying the show and honestly didn't have the opportunity to snap better pictures.  

We decided to eat dinner at the festival, in search of what to eat we decided to go into Grand Central Market just to take a looksey of possible food options. Of course we found lots of options but we decided to keep walking and circle back if nothing on broadway was enticing. As we kept going we saw so many interesting people and acts. 

After walking a few blocks we decided a cheeseburger was the way to go. Oh my GOD you guys, this burger was so good.

When my dad was still alive, we would go to downtown every so often and he would like to drive down Broadway and tell us how when he first came to the United States he would shop on this street, and watch acts at these amazing theaters. He would talk about how clean and new it all looked, and how he was in awe of this amazing city. So for me to walk down these streets and finally walk into these theaters was very emotional. I held it together and thought of him along the way. 😢 Lets keep going because I didn't want this to be a sad post. 😉

Some of the artwork that was on display that night. 

As the night ended we made our way to the metro station and jumped on the subway.