Fun times in LA

Journeyed out to Los Angeles a few weeks ago with my sister to be at the reception at Hero Complex Gallery, and have lots of fun while we were there. Here is my iphone documentation of the trip!

First up is the Adventure Show at Hero Complex Gallery! I had a blast and it was wonderful to show with Meghan Stratman.

Signing up some prints! I love the quality of these, they were printed up in house at HCG and they are the same size as the original paintings.

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After visiting the gallery to sign prints, we were recommended to stay in the area until rush hour in LA was a little better. We headed on over to The Grove, Farmers Market area.

Saw this adorable terrarium shop right away and was so smitten. I LOVE TERRARIUMS! They are inspiration for so many paintings, and I wanted to take them all home with me. However I wasn't sure how I would get it home in one piece so I didn't get any. I will just love them from afar.

Had dinner at The Fat Cow, which like the name suggests was not a diet joint. But after a day of flying, driving, and getting stuff done was the perfect meal to end the day.

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Next up, DisneyLand. Why? Because we never got to go as kids and it's a special treat to finally be able to go as adults and have fun. 

Jungle Cruise is my favorite cheesy ride. Love all the puns and the silliness.

A terrible photo of my all time favorite ride, Pirates of the Caribbean. I love pirate lore and this attraction hits all my favorite notes. I could go round and round on this ride all day.

On Pirate Island, I found all the treasure! Arrrg!

This is the opening to Storybook Land, which it's cuteness is unequal. The miniature houses complete with bonsai trees and succulents are perfect, JUST PERFECT. If they were ever hiring someone to maybe stay there and take care of the plants all the time, just have them call me.

To get an idea of size this house is maybe a foot tall. They are so well done that it's hard to believe they are so small and not real houses.

Badgers house from Wind in the Willows, in small scale.

Toad Hall also from Wind in the Willows. So cute and perfect.

A patchwork quilt of succulents. They said that some of these were even planted by Walt Disney himself back in the day :)

Love you Storybook land, till next time...

This Cars themed area was really well done, the rock sculptures and landscaping was pretty amazing. I'm not a huge fan of the movie series, but they really made the world come to life.

The Jedi Training Academy was the cutest thing I saw, kids were super excited to be there and fight Darth Vader. Soooo cute. 

This Mary Poppins night parade float was really amazing. I loved the bicycling guy in the front, his legs moved and everything. 

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There were a lot of arcade, pinball, and fun games that somehow I have never notice before. I love Donkey Kong Junior and so excited to see this arcade machine there.

Gotta love Indiana Jones pinball.

The Penny Arcade area was pretty sweet too. Here I am trying my hand at making Pinocchio dance.

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The plants in California I could spend all day looking at. Most flowers were not in bloom because it's winter, but the ones that were were so beautiful.

Adorable palm trees getting a trim. I love palm trees *hug*

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We spent a whole day at the San Diego Zoo, and I was in love. The plants, the animals, the care the zoo takes with everything, I was very impressed. So my photo log of that part of the journey gets its own blog post tomorrow. Stay tuned!

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!