Life: A True Story: cities

Showing posts with label cities. Show all posts

the poetry room.

one of my favorite places to go in the city {san francisco} is city lights books. it's an independent bookstore that consists of three stories of eclectic, sometimes downright crazy bits and pieces of the written word. located on columbus avenue in the heart of north beach, you'll be able to grab a yummy cannoli down the street in a hidden italian pastry shop and browse hundreds of books in a creaky, extremely satisfying store.

i first visited when i was eighteen, as my feet will show you.

you can tell by the converse {which i still own/love} that i had just recently graduated high school. this past visit, i thought it was about time to change up the photo. i'm sure you can tell i've changed a bit.

i'll always love this little piece of north beach literary heaven. my eighteen-year-old self, as well as my twenty-year-self, tells you to GO. and take a picture with my favorite poetry room sign. it makes for a neat picture, if i do say so myself ;)

recuperation.

my lovely followers {and amazing guests!},

i know i usually post a little DIY for a little monday inspiration, but i'm absolutely exhausted. the best friend and i just got home from some family time in san francisco, and five hours in the car? really drains you. honestly, if i did try to scrape out a post it would would sound a bit like this: lkdjagliewh'agiha

so. i'll spare you the trouble. make sure to check back tomorrow and later this week to read about a beautiful weekend in the city!!

four on friday.

it has been a crazy, hectic week. one complete with a bout of the flu, lots of orange juice, biology lab and eighties rock music. i was supposed to head up to san francisco this weekend to see my favorite lady {great-grandma cusamano}, but i don't want to bring all my germs up north. i'll be up there next week, thanks to my sweet/flexible aunt. you can be sure there will be lots of san francisco lovin' on the blog soon!

this saturday? is a special day in los angeles. not hollywood, not santa monica, but los angeles. downtown los angeles. {i might have watched this movie recently..} i hope your weekend is just as amazing, full of skyscrapers and crazy people and good food. i can't wait to catch up on all your blogs on monday and see how each and every one turned out :)

{fried egg gummy candies!}

{too many pictures}

{black tea lemonade, courtesy of the best friend}

{baking cookies on sunday afternoon}

Worker Bee Weekend.

thank heavens. it's friday. i hope you all have an amazing weekend, one full of cookies and milk and ice cream. or...something a little healthier. whatever floats your boat ;)

as for me, the best friend and i will be cleaning our apartment {pics are from a little housekeeping date for friends} and doing lots and lots of homework. oh, yeah. and just watching this amazing photographer get married. it's just going to be gorgeous, no big deal.

other than that? it's all quiet on the california front. i'm trying to talk the best friend into an afternoon in hollywood...wish me luck!

the hollywood bowl.

{ready for a picnic}

have you ever seen the movie, "beaches?" it's pretty much my favorite movie...ever. i cry every time, and chocolate-chip ice cream has proven to be the perfect partner for, "the wind beneath my wings." in the beginning of the movie, bette midler is singing on the stage of the hollywood bowl in LA. {you can watch it here!} ever since, i've wanted to visit the renowned bowl. if not for my own experience, for the exciting idea that i was standing {kind of} in cc bloom's shoes.

this weekend? it happened.

some sweet friends from church gave us free tickets to see the LA philharmonic orchestra perform Tchaikovsky. Our program was complete with fireworks, the USC drum line, the LA children's choir and ballet performed by the American Ballet Theater. in a word? amazing. Tchaikovsky is well-known for penning the score to, "The Nutcracker," and "Swan Lake," music many of us have been accidentally exposed to over the years.

in all honesty? i was a bit nervous, especially before i realized all the neat perks our program had in store. i would never describe myself as, "cultured," and classical music goes right over my head. i love country music and bette midler for heaven sake! as far as i was concerned, Tchaikovsky was going to be accompanied by my nookbook and a bottle of lemonade.

it wasn't needed.

the hollywood bowl is absolutely gorgeous, nestled in the east hollywood hills. it's actually right off the 170, which is shocking. the acoustics were mind-blowing, and the family atmosphere is incomparable in LA. we brought a picnic lunch and blankets {nights get chilly!}, and had a night more than worthy of bette midler. {sorry. i had to throw that in there!}

are you headed to the hollywood bowl?

1. don't use the parking that the bowl offers. it's insanely expensive/frustrating. there are numerous bus lines and shuttles that run the gamut around hollywood. at only $5 a person, you're set!
2. bring a lunch, and wine is welcome. food is a bit pricey, and it's more fun to pick up yummy deli sandwiches and macaroni salad from your local market.
3. try the lemonade/garlic fries. okay. not at the same time, but they're both worth the price! {$10 for both}
4. keep it cheap. the bowl has hundreds of seats for you and your loved ones. you don't need to sit right up close. the farther you get from the stage, the more fun the atmosphere. in the summertime, nosebleed seats are only $1!! Can't beat that.

{leading letters}

{best friend waiting oh-so patiently}

{lemonade!! watermelon lemonade!!}

{before the crowds// families + yummy picnics!}

{ready for the show.}

real country.

{a hot air balloon surprise}

i always thought that i knew what, "country" meant. it was somewhere along south shingle, tucked away beyond highway 50. it was anywhere that was nowhere, someplace that's far beyond the access of any car that doesn't possess four-wheel-drive.

or i guess it's in tennessee.

i've been out visiting my family for the last couple days, and we're getting ready to head out to puckett's now (the reason for the short post..). before i run out the door though, i thought it would be neat to show off a little bit of this amazing state. it truly is beautiful.

{railroad tracks under a blueblue sky}

{natural tree canopy}

{hay bales}

lake hollywood.

i actually had never heard of lake hollywood {it sounds like something from a 'b' movie} until i found a website boasting images of homes in the hollywood hills. since i love driving and hollywood, i thought it would be fun to take a trip to the east side, rather than the west.

lake hollywood is off of cahuenga blvd, and climbs up beyond the 170 freeway to a little secluded place right below the sign. and when i say, right below the sign? i mean it. {there were a couple gasp/stop the car/it's so gorgeous moments}

there were quite a few joggers and cyclists as well, wandering up and down the twisty dirt paths. the reservoir was absolutely breathtaking. the dam looks over the LA valley, and the whole lake area feels like a bit of heaven in the middle of the city. i even heard birds chirping. um, has anyone else heard a bird chirp in LA? i didn't think so ;)

we spent another hour driving through east hollywood neighborhoods. houses are so eclectic and imaginative, a few times i simply had to drop my jaw in awe of human creativity. i honestly don't think i will put up with anyone calling LA ugly ever again. expensive? yes. but ugly? no. even the smog doesn't seem so bad anymore...

i can understand why ashton kutcher lives up here. if i was rich, i would, too!

{this place.}

{hollywood neighborhood}

this place.

i'm not usually the first person to recommend a trip to the beach. i like to curl up with a movie or a good book and eat ice cream...and that doesn't exactly equal a couple hours in the hot california sun. my best friend, though. she's in love with the sand/sun/water. so, we decided to spend a weekend at the beach.

i'm so glad we went.
because the sun? can be such a beautiful thing.

we spent the morning by the water, and found a fun ice creamery in a tiny bit of brentwood. i think a beach day is pretty self-explanatory, but here are a couple pictures to give you an idea of the lovely santa monica saturday we had. there's still a couple of weekends left in august, of course, if you want to do the same...?

{sun spots on the nose}

{our fellow beach bum}

{brentwood}

{soy chai ice cream}

adventures on monday nights.

mondays are supposed to be boring. they're supposed to drag you out of bed, slap a cup of too-cold coffee in your hand and make you stumble into the office. but, of course. they don't have to be like that. when i was in high school, my little brother and i used to drive to school together. sometimes it was good, other times it was a bit angst-y. then i read somewhere that if you go through your life hating mondays, you end up hating 1/7 of your life.

okay, okay. pretty understandable, right?

but who wants to hate that MUCH of their life? It's kind of a lot, if you think about it. so little brother and i started going to starbucks every monday. it was a treat that we could look forward to, and it has since morphed into a tradition that i keep myself.

sometimes monday will be movie night. other days, i'll drag the best friend deep into the city with me, like this week. with our soon-to-expire groupon, we made our first trip to actually watch a movie at grauman's chinese theater. you've all heard about it. it's the one place on hollywood boulevard where you can stick your hands into the germ infested hand prints of the stars. (if you're still unsure, you can check it out here, here, and here.)

it was kind of hot, and lots of crazy. hollywood is always amazing (i would LOVE to spend some time living in those hills...), but on mondays the amount of tourists fall dramatically. we only had to step off the stars on the street once for a camera wielding family, and there was only one parking mishap with a snotty lady from kansas (you can't ignore someone in an la parking garage, for ten minutes. we'll knock on your window).

okay. so it's friday...you can spend some time planning your monday adventure. i've been thinking about mine all week.

(family time in hollywood. *note: no cameras!)

(our flirty chewbacca friend. he insisted on a picture.)

(taking a picture with my fellow blonde)

(best friend)

(the theater. huge and gorgeous.)

(yes. we were the nerds loving the powder room...)

farmer's market addict.

okay, i think there could be a slight problem. i might really like farmer's markets. it doesn't matter whether they are on a hot street in newhall, off the road in the middle of i-5 or in the san francisco sunset district. they're amazing. how can you not like a cute, rustic layout with lots of yummy california fruit and flowers?

i might have a little/big obsession.

a couple of weeks ago, the best friend and i had the chance to visit friends and family in the bay area. and...we might be going there next week as well. just don't tell my car.

tucked away in the sunset district, we found a darling little side street with rickety carts and lots of local farmers with long hair and gravelly voices. it was lovely. we people watched, considered signing a petition {we didn't ;)}, and brought home wildflowers and homemade soap.

i already love san francisco, and then somehow we accidently managed to stumble on the cutest local market in the city. this could prove to be a deadly combination for my heart. it's at times like these that i think on the sweet blessings that God has in store. sometimes i think i have seen it all, and then He surprises me with another little gem. i am so grateful.