California!

Last week I traveled out to California for the first time for a gallery reception and saw some of the sights. Here's my photo log of the adventure.

First up is my cat Mochi's protest that I'm leaving. He thinks that "carry on" size bags mean "perfect cat size" just for him.

The plane trip out there started good. Saw a penguin while waiting for our next flight from Las Vegas to Burbank. Then it kinda went down from there. None of the lights in Burbank airport were working and after 4 hours of waiting they finally canceled our flight so we hopped on a late flight to LAX airport.

But we were up and ready the next morning, because my sister and I were going to Disneyland! The grounds were all done up in Christmas Cheer and there were no crowds (maybe due to the timing or overcast weather)!

Speaking of weather, this was our view for some of the rides when it decided to rain a little harder. An umbrella fort was built over the ride and a rainy day comradely was formed.

I love the Haunted Mansion and this time of year it's all decorated with "Nightmare Before Christmas" which is super awesome! Jack Skellington led the way, and all the music and displays were a lovely Halloween and Xmas mix.

Storybook Land is another ride that I really liked. There are mineaturized villages from your favorite Disneyfied tales like Picnoccio, Cinderella and such. I really liked it becuase of the bonsai trees and succullent plants used for the landscaping.

It doesn't look like it's very small but I could probably hug this whole house. It's that small...and huggable.

This was described by the tour person as a characters patchwork quilt made of miniaturized flowers. But to me this was awesome succulent land and I wanted to scoop it up and take it home.

The outside of "It's a Small World After All". It too was redone with holiday music which I thought was a little weird since a lot of the countries represented inside don't celebrate Christmas. But I did love the metallic gold accents on the outside of the structure. Shiny shiny!

I'm a sucker for a tasty watermelon, so I got a kick of the giant one in a Bugs Life ride. Sooooo much tasty watermelon...if only it wasn't made of foam.

I met Gandalf in Downtown Disney's Lego store. All he said was "You Shall Not Pass" then must of changed his mind because I ended up shopping many a legos.

Maybe Gandalf was worried about the fierce dragon hanging outside the store. But the knight had it covered and we escaped the Lego store unscathed.

And thus ends our first day in California. Despite the rainy weather my sister and I had a grand time.

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Day two of our sightseeing we decided to visit some of the area beaches.

This was the Manhattan beach and the water was super choppy. There was also a sign not to go in the water because of a germ-something-or-other thing that might make you sick. So I didn't poke the water like I'd intended.

I can never get enough of the cute palm trees. I particularly love the really shaggy ones with all the old leaves still clung on (couldn't get a good photo of one though).

Another tree that I was smitten with. Love all the greenery in California.

Next we checked out the pier at Santa Monica. It was pretty foggy and misty but people were having a good time.

I'm a fan of birds of all kind and loved these parrots and macaws. I feel like I could have had a good conversation with the white feathered fellow there.

The rest of the evening was spent at my show at Gallery 1988 Venice. Had a yummy supper with great folks. If you want to see more photos of the reception and show check out my previous blog post here.

And so ends day 2 of our California adventure.

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Day 3 we went off to Universal Studios. 

Right off the bat I got to meet one of my favorite characters ever Scooby Doo!!! The kids on the right are pretty happy for me. It's not every day you get to meet one of your childhood heros!

Later that day the whole gang came out. Funny side story...there's a pretty good replica of The Mystery Machine driving around Lincoln, Nebraska here. Every once and a while I see it go by and think "that's sweeeeet". 

Didn't get many other photos of day at Universal. I liked the back tour a lot. Especially when I found out that Murder She Wrote was all done there on site. If there had been a Murder She Wrote gift shop I would have walked away with everything in the store. Just saying that they missed out a big money making opportunity by not having any Murder She Wrote memorabilia. I mean really....it aired for 12 seasons... looooove it.

The rest of the day kinda ended when I went on The Mummy ride which I probably should not have when I tend to get a bit motion sick. But I managed to tremble away alive.

It was a good one California. Hope to visit again and check out more of the art happenings, and hug more palm trees, and splash around in the ocean one of these days!