Train to Portland, Oregon

Dec 31, 2016

It’s funny how we ended up back in Portland during the same week as our summer road trip last year. Since we were heading north to visit Evelyn & Dion in Seattle, I thought it would be fun to take the train back home to LA with a stop in Portland to visit our friends Story & Chris. The Amtrak train from Seattle to Portland was just under four hours.

We departed early from the magnificent King’s Street station. Traveling by train felt so elegant. The station is by far one of the prettiest I’ve seen in North America. To be fair, Union station in Los Angeles is pretty too, however all the times I’ve been there it’s been under construction or populated with homeless people so I haven’t enjoyed the beauty of it. We didn’t have to stand in long frustrating lines like at the airport and I was the first person to check my bag. We were expecting a hectic morning so with our leisure time, I spent most of the morning photographing the empty station. I realized I wanted some coffee for the trip so Liv and I walked a few blocks to a nearby Starbucks.

The train had an authentic Alfred Hitchcock film vibe. Everyone was very friendly, it almost better than flying. Less rude passengers and we could walk around as we pleased.

In the observation car, we had a historian/national parks ranger aboard giving us a lecture on the National parks and the people who founded the cities we travelled through.

This is the famous Tahoma Narrows bridge known as Galloping Gertie that collapsed in 1940 due to a strong wind. Did you know that the only fatality from that day was a pet dog who refused to be rescued from a car?

We purchased business class tickets for this leg of the trip, it was about $60 per person. I highly recommend taking the train, the scenery was incredible and we were in Portland in no time.

Victoria, British Columbia

Dec 30, 2016

We have friends who recommended taking a day trip to Vancouver Island, so we spent our fourteenth wedding anniversary in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. We sped across the Puget Sound on the Victoria Clipper. The ride was two hours but it felt like a few minutes because we were flying.

Victoria, Vancouver Island British Columbia is beautiful. It’s a shame it was so hot but being close to the sea gave us a nice breeze. Liv insisted we tour the city on a horse drawn carriage.

We stopped so we could pick apples to feed to our horse.

The Parliament buildings were fascinating.

These guys were reenacting the history of Victoria in British accents.

This is our favorite Misha Lulu dress which was a gift from Karen.

Out of all the whale watching boats that went out that day, we were the only ones to head east and we saw a huge pod of orcas hunting for fish. We saw entire families and learned that the grandma was 80 years old! It was such an incredible moment seeing them jump out of the water but my camera was too slow to capture it.

The seafood was fresh and the service was amazing. Our waitress was so excited to speak French with Olivia. I was delighted to discover the dollar has more value to the Canadian dollar so our anniversary meal was less than half then what I would pay in LA.

My only complaint about Victoria is they don’t have Uber. We were lucky to find friendly taxi drivers and our last one gave us a quick tour of the city on our drive back to the boat. I was lucky enough to even catch some rare Pokemon *nerd alert*

Victoria was so much fun and quaint town. I loved seeing the intricate totem poles, the grand Parliament building and the harbor were so picturesque. We would love to return and spend a weekend at the Empress hotel and have high tea.

Seattle Day Two

Sep 30, 2016

We spent the next day being typical tourists and hitting the popular Seattle spots; the Space Needle, Chihuly Glass Garden and Pike’s Place Market. It was one hundred degrees!

Can I please put a vintage radiator in my house? Just look at that iron detailing!

After breakfast I saw our neighbors were checking out of a cool Shepard Fairey themed room. I originally requested that room but it only has a twin bed and no private bathroom so I’m happy with our fancy cat room.

My floral ascot is from Etsy shop Fox & Brie.

The Ace hotel is within walking distance to most of Seattle’s landmarks.

During the 43 second elevator ride up the Space Needle, we saw these spiders that were sculpted to look three dimensional from above.

I must admit, Liv has an issue with heights lately and I somewhat feel responsible. I try not to show my fear of heights and I was much more comfortable here than on top of the Eiffel Tower yet there was a slope in the floor that Liv didn’t like. She was a trooper to actually go outside and face her fears but those smiles you see were after tears were shed.

Please help yourself to a huge slice of cheese this photo is serving.

Evelyn and Dion met us at the Chihuly Glass Garden Exhibition. They ride their bikes all over the city and told us that Seattle has the safest bike lanes they have ever ridden. The Space Needle is next door to Chihuly, we bought package tickets for both venues but honestly, you don’t need to go on top of the needle. However, I would highly recommend visiting the glass garden. The exhibits were stunning! I couldn’t take enough photos to do it justice and forgive the quality of my photos, the attraction were in low light which I find impossible to shoot.

We kept finding hidden items in this ceiling exhibit, cherubs and cute little objects, it was overwhelmingly beautiful and ornate.

This room reminded me of my favorite singer Björk, all that was missing was her whimsical Vespertine album playing.

This is my favorite shot Antz took of our day! He goes through great lengths to get the perfect angle!

Next we boarded a trolley for a tour of the city. I was going to book the Ride the Duck land and sea tour with but unfortunately they had an accident not too long ago that made me reconsider. I love any activity that involves learning interesting facts and history while relaxing (sitting on my lazy butt!).

I’m bummed we didn’t have time to stop at the UPS Waterfall park which is such an incredible small space on a city block. We got off at the most famous place in Seattle. I’ve wanted to go here ever since The Real World Seattle aired in ancient times (1998!)

Pike Place Market reminds me of LA’s 3rd Street Farmers Market. It has classic charm and numerous vendors with beautiful produce but is somewhat ruined by the hordes of tourists. I luckily did my research and read about the lower level that is less crowded and has a quirky area dedicated to the world’s tallest man Robert Wadlow. Random I know but I love anything related to weird and obscure.

One of my favorite free things to do while on vacation is check out playgrounds. So far San Francisco hold’s the title for the best slides and Paris has the prettiest playground but the Artists at Play adjacent to the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project was pretty rad.

Since it was the final stop on our trolley tour, we stopped for Liv to play while Evelyn & Dion rode their bikes home. It was too hot to stay as long as we wanted so we took an Uber to Evelyn & Dion’s house. We got stuck in traffic but our lively Uber driver gave us a scenic tour of the lovely Queen Anne district. We only see our niece and nephew once a year so it was great to spend precious time with them.

We ended our day at Olivia’s request taking a ride on Seattle’s Great Wheel.

I love these two curly-heads!

Summer Vacay 2016 Seattle Trip

Sep 22, 2016

Hey There,

I have returned to the blogosphere! I really wanted to blog about our summer but I have been so dang busy. Cough, lame excuse! I just renewed my WordPress premium account because guess who ran out of photo storage space again? This girl!

Our summer trip was similar to last year’s…we headed back to Portland, but this time we flew up to Seattle for a few days and then hopped aboard the train. Our favorite niece and nephew (shh… don’t tell the others!) moved from Lake Placid, New York to Seattle for new teaching jobs. I found a sweet deal on Virgin America for $59 tickets so we decided to visit them. The return flights were more expensive so I thought it would be fun to take Amtrak train back to LA. We rode the train from Seattle to Portland where we spent a few days with our friends Story, Chris and their adorable kid. The train ride from Portland to Los Angeles was THIRTY hours long! It wasn’t so bad since we had a cool sleeper car with a private bathroom. I was so excited to head to the Pacific Northwest for the weather, it was scorching hot in LA so I packed sweaters and scarves. Guess what? Seattle and Portland had record heat! I’m talking in the hundreds. Oh well, I couldn’t be upset because we did enjoy all the lovely trees and greenery that Los Angeles lacks. The highlight of our trip was spending our 14th wedding anniversary on a day trip to beautiful Victoria, British Columbia where we went whale watching. If you would like to see photos I took on Instagram look for #antzlizandlivinSeattle

We took our first Uber in LA! Our driver was awesome, he took this photo of us on our way to LAX. I made the dumb mistake of not wearing socks so I ended up walking barefoot through security. Lame! I must remember to keep a pair of ankle socks in my bag.

We gave our flight attendants a gift and they returned with booze and candy. We even got to hang in the cockpit with the handsome pilots!

Our room was adorable and cozy with a view of Pugent Sound. The Seattle Ace hotel is the first one opened in 1999. Most of the room have shared bathrooms but we got one of the few rooms with a private bathroom.

After we arrived and checked into our hotel, The Ace, we met Evelyn and Dion who biked over from their apartment. My plan was to Uber to the Seattle Public Library. The architecture of Seattle was exquisite.

I saw the library building on Pinterest and was excited to photograph it at sunset.

Guess who arrived at 8:03 pm? Yep, they were closed. We took a long stroll through the city looking for a place for dinner that wasn’t 21 and older (tip for those with kiddies, most of Belltown is not child-friendly) I loved the extraordinary buildings, most under renovation in downtown.

Totem poles are my jam! I wish I could photograph the intricate details better. This guy was so rad.

Evelyn found an Italian restaurant that was fancier than we anticipated. We were laughing because we were dining at a five star place but dressed like we were going on a picnic. Oh well, the lobster ravioli was incredible!

Cheers!

Liv’s Lemonade Stand

May 30, 2016

Hello There,

I finally have a moment to catch up after a busy last few weeks. Liv has been requesting to have a lemonade stand for months but we wanted to wait until it was closer to summer. Antz outdid himself building the stand. He used pieces of wood we had left over from Liv’s Alice in Wonderland party. Liv helped him build and paint and I sewed the banners. I love how cheery it turned out!

Due to the drought, our lemon tree wasn’t doing so well. I was worried the tiny green lemons would never grow but thanks to a few rain storms our lemons exploded! Antz and Liv picked three baskets of lemons and there are still hundreds left on the tree. We had so many left over we were giving out free lemons to folks.

A few days before, Antz made these amazing flyers that we posted in coffeeshops around the neighborhood. Everyone kept asking me if I had them professionally made. I suppose I did since hubby is a pro, I’m so lucky to benefit from his talent for free!

The night before Liv and her Dad must have squeezed a million lemons. I was so stoked I grabbed the very last kids size Hedley & Bennett apron yellow at their studio sale a few months ago. Isn’t it the perfect shade for her big day?

The morning started out cloudy, all month has been gloomy weather but right around 11:30 the sun began to shine and we already had customers lined up as we began to set up.

We brought one of our kitchen stools and I brought the frill from my Geronimo balloon.

My dear Bff Aimee and her husband were our first customers of the day. We couldn’t have picked a better spot, so many kids came out of York park and asked their parents for a cup. We had so many generous people donate without having any lemonade. Liv was so excited! She is a natural businesswoman. I’m positive her cute face helped with sales.

This sweet girl only had a twenty and told Liv to keep it!!

So many of our sweet friends and family came out to support Liv. We felt like it was a party since we knew so many of our customers. Thanks guys!

Antz sister Clinnie and his Mom came by for a visit. It was Clinnie’s birthday but she refused a complimentary cup and gave us a big donation!

Liv’s friend Kaia came by and enjoyed being Liv’s assistant. They took their job very seriously can’t you tell? Merci Mia and Kaia.

We stayed open for about three hours because it was getting unbearably hot. We still have a full jug of lemonade left. A coffeeshop owner friend of ours offered to buy all our lemons so that was awesome. We plan to sell more lemonade later this summer, Liv is hooked!

I am so full of love for everyone who supported us in person and online. We are overjoyed to raise money for Olivia’s incredible school. Hooray for Liv the young, female entrepreneur!

Bon weekend!

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Apr 25, 2016

Olivia’s school follows the French school calendar so her Spring break was last week. I love that it’s later in April after Los Angeles public schools because less crowds! We had a busy week and the highlight was Antz taking a day off so we could go to Universal Studios. Unsuspecting Liv received a Hogwarts school acceptance letter in the fireplace early that morning.

We bought some parchment paper and Liv wrote a letter *in English and French* to her class and we sent it from the Owl Post, postmarked in Hogsmeade!

Although it was a Tuesday and most of the rides had a wait time of less than 30 minutes, we had to wait over an hour to see the wand keeper at Ollivander’s wand shop. This is the kid who had a wand choose him. That didn’t stop Olivia from having Hermione’s wand choose her.

Little did she know this wand was capable of producing several spells throughout the park.

Liv had to practice charms and incantations, she is a natural witch!

Inside of Hogwarts castle for the Forbidden Journey. I was so impressed by the attention to detail. The portraits actually spoke!

The food was excellent at the Three Broomsticks restaurant. And yes, butterbeer lives up to the hype!

I must admit, I could have stayed in the Wizarding World all day just snapping photos of all the impeccable details featured from the films/books but I’m a dummy and I left my extra camera battery at home and of course the battery died in three hours. I was lucky to have my iPhone as a backup but I wasn’t happy with the photo quality. We spent the rest of the day going on the Studio Tour and all the other rides. I sat out for the Jurassic Park water ride but Liv was totally into roller coasters. We bought a season pass so we can return and I can take more photos and bring my butterbeer mug for a refill.

Universal Studios Hollywood
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608

Hours 9am – 7pm

Ojai Meadows Preserve

Mar 28, 2016

All the flowers! Every year I seem to miss the spring flower explosion that occurs in Antelope Valley. I was monitoring the California poppy’s bloom schedule this year and was bummed to find out the storm we had last month killed the flowers in the valley. The other location to find wildflower fields was in Death Valley which is three hours in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t sound like the fun road trip I had in mind so I was stoked to hear that wildflowers were in full bloom in nearby Ojai. The Ojai Meadows Preserve is only an hour and a half drive from LA and no hiking in hundred degree weather to see them.

Liv and I were in flower heaven but I was also thinking “Please don’t let there be snakes in here!”

Ojai has a great park that Liv was dying to play at, so we stopped by on our way back home.

I couldn’t see adding this crazy merry-go-round in our small park. We saw a bunch of kids fall down while pushing it and other kids came close to trampling the fallen kid. Even I thought the spinning metal cages were dangerous. Yet, I can’t help but feel proud of how badass my kid is!

I really would love this modern swing (which can fit a few kids at once) in our York Park. It’s much safer and comfortable than our generation’s old tire swing.

Ojai Meadows Preserve is located just north of or adjacent to the Nordhoff High School football stadium. To get there, take Highway 33 west (towards Maricopa) from the Highway 150/33 intersection at the Rotary Community Park. Go past the high school and the stadium, turn left at the next break in the highway’s dividing island, park in the little parking lot or along the curb.

I recommend taking the Highway 150/Santa Paula route which is less crowded and much more scenic than the 101 freeway.

Due to California’s drought, I’d recommend getting there soon before the flowers wither and die!

Calico Ghost Town

Mar 24, 2016

Hello there! I celebrated my thirty-ninth birthday last Sunday, YAY! And also boo, I am not ready to hit my forties. Do I start wearing Mom jeans and drive a minivan? I’m old and lame, haha.

My BFF ordered this yummy ice cream cake for me before she left for Paris. Merci Aimee!

I spent the weekend with my Mom in Apple Valley. We found the sweetest little bunny (actually it was a baby Jackrabbit) outside in my Mom’s yard.

It was hard to not keep him as a pet for Olivia but we knew the little guy wasn’t suitable to bring home. We did put him in a box so it wouldn’t be cold during the night. He was gone in the morning so we hope he was reunited with his Mom. We didn’t touch him so his Mom wouldn’t smell us.

We took Monday off from school and work so we could check out Calico Ghost Town which is halfway on the drive to Las Vegas. Olivia loves all things Wild West. She was excited to find ghosts and gold in Calico. The town has a impressive history dating back to the late 1800s. Silver was mined from the mountains for years until the process of extracting the silver became more expensive than the value of the silver. The population of Calico went from 50 to a peak of 1,200 and currently has nine residents. We found it picturesque and lovely because the weather was nice and there weren’t too many folks there.

Doesn’t every little girl wants a creepy, demon-eyed doll?

I was lucky to find an awesome fox tail Davey Crockett hat for Liv (that fits over her big hair!)

I love train rides, so relaxing and we learned about the history and folklore about the town.

Liv and Antz were adventurous enough to go mine hunting in the mountains.

Doesn’t this schoolhouse remind you of the one from The Birds?!

I discovered that I would not last five minutes one hundred years ago. I think I would be better suited for the 18th century in France. I am sure I was royalty in my past life!

This pesky lil varmint was jailed for not eating all her vegetables!

I was excited at the idea that this was a Pet Cemetery !

Calico Ghost Town
36600 Ghost Town Road
Yermo, CA 92398

Open Mon – Sun
9am – 5pm

Yee-haw y’all!

Trejo’s Tacos

Mar 15, 2016

A new taco spot opened a few blocks from Olivia’s ballet class called Trejo’s Tacos. You may know Señor Danny Trejo as Machete or From Dusk Till Dawn but have you seen him as a chef? Me neither!

Antz and I had lunch there this Sunday while Liv was at her ballet class. It was crowded but I’m sure it wasn’t as busy as it usually is. They have valet parking available but we found street parking. Danny’s sweet face was everywhere.

I love the outdoor open seating but don’t worry if it’s chilly, there are built-in heat lamps in the umbrellas.

Since the restaurant just opened that week, they were offering a limited menu and that meant no custom orders, so I had to deal with onions in my food (bleh, I am not a fan of raw onions!) However, I loved the fresh made guacamole with crushed pistachios as our appetizer. I also enjoyed the refreshing watermelon fresca.

The line was long but moved quickly. You pay for your order and then find a seat. I have gotten used to family-style seating but picnic benches drive me nuts because I always hit my knees sitting down. (Oh how the tall suffer)

We each had the fried jidori chicken lettuce wraps with chipotle cream and the beef brisket tacos. Both were excellent, full of flavor although I liked the fried jidori chicken best. We had to rush our meal since we only had an hour but we will definitely return for a longer visit and try new dishes. My biggest disappointment was I didn’t get to meet the man, Danny, himself. Proximo dia!

Trejo’s Tacos
Mon thru Sun 11 am – 4 pm
1048 S La Brea
Los Angeles, CA 90019

Before I go, I must profess my love for my new, rad skirt! I bought it from an African boutique and I adore it. I have wanted an African print outfit for years but I never found the right pattern. What drew me to it was the vibrant yellow and I was stoked to find it had pockets!! You know pockets are my fave. The best part is the length. I have yet to find a maxi skirt that was long enough and this guy practically drags on the ground. I love that I can dress it down with a simple top and sneakers. I hopped out of the car for this pic on the drive home because I was feeling SUPER that day.

A bientôt!

California Love Art show

Mar 7, 2016

Antz was asked to paint a few pieces for Leanna Lin’s Wonderland for their California Love art show. He doesn’t have the time to paint like he used to so when he does finish a painting, it’s a big deal. I was bummed to discover he entered a painting I want to keep for myself but I just may buy it as a birthday gift.