Schools Out For Summer!!

Deep breath in...........and hold............and let it out. Ahhhhhhhhh...................

Yes. I can now breathe a tiny bit easier.

My first of five quarters of design school is done and now the fun begins!

Mom outside of Olde Good Things

There is no fun like the fun I have with my Mom! Mom came in town to celebrate the end of my first quarter and give me some much need pampering! As always, we were busy little girls trying to squeeze in everything we wanted to do together.

First on the list was to head to downtown LA and show Mom around The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, my school. But first we were distracted by an Architectural Salvage Warehouse called Olde Good Things. Lots of neat antiques to peruse there!!

Here's me and my school!

Unfortunately, they were all closed up for the break and we couldn't get inside.

This is outside the main building. There are severl other buildings that classes are held in, however, all my classes are in the main building. FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising) only has access to certain floors in the other buildings around downtown. I love how it is laid out. I love being downtown in the "big city." It's fun and exciting!!

My school's museum was lucky enough to be able to host the 70th Anniversary Screening of the Wizard of Oz.
They also displayed "Inspirations of Oz" Fine Art.

And a collection of 19 Ruby Slippers designed by some of the world's top designers! The 20th pair was designed by a FIDM student!! How cool is that!!

Me on the Yellow Brick Road!

A stop by the Central Los Angeles Public Library. One of the many stops on our "Urban Walking Tour." This library has such great architectural beauty!

Random downtown building.

Pretty as a Princess.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Designed by the famous architect Frank Gehry. He originally intended for the building to be covered in stone. But he decided to dress the building in stainless steel. Among his reasons, he felt the shiny surface would work well changing and reflecting the bright Southern Ccalifornia sun. Over 30,000 architectural drawings were produced to build the Concert Hall. Now, after looking at my architectural drafting homwork, can you IMAGINE!!!!! 30,000!!!!!

Stainless steel is also good for goofy pictures.

My Beautiful Mom. I love this photo!

Jump for Joy!!

WOW!!!

More WOW!

A view of downtown.

The amazing inside.

The Main Entrance.

A free concert. Enjoy!

(I have no idea what came over me).

Extremely cool and impressive.

Next our Urban Walking Tour lead us to The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Not sure what to say about this except that it's a hugh freakin' Cathedral. My Dad said I needed to check it out, so I did. I was expecting to come across a very old and traditional style Cathedral. Instead I run into this very modern version of a Cathedral. A beautiful piece of architecture none the less.


The georgous inside.

Begging for mercy on my tainted soul.

El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument is near the site of the early Los Angeles pueblo or town where forty-four settlers of Native American, African and European heritage journeyed more than one-thousand miles across the desert from present-day northern Mexico and established a farming community in September 1781. Since that time, Los Angeles has been under the flags of Spain, Mexico and the United States and has grown into one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas. (I googled that).

Back home in Santa Monica and the end of our "Urban Walking Tour." I pass this tree everytime I walk to the bus stop. I finally decided it was time to have my picture taken with it. I think it's beautiful! After Mom took the picture and I asked her if she got a good one, her response was, "yea, you're kinda just an after-thought though." .......Thanks Mom.

Mom has come to California too many times and NOT had a proper seafood meal. To end our wonderful day we headed up to Malibu to Gladstone's Seafood. An awesome restaurant serving up fresh seafood right on the beach.

Cruisin' in style.

Such a lush....

(If you look closely, you can see the waves crashing in the background).

Day 2: Geocache Day!!

That tiny little black speck on the ledge is the cache we found!

This pole was the home to another cache.

This home in Venice, California is featured in many books.

Jesus Time......and another cache!

Do you see Jesus?

The cache was a fake rock!

A proper geo-cacheing adventure can only be successfully exucated while wearing fake tattoos.

And another cache!

There is suppossed to be another cache out here somewhere, but there were way too many dudes fishing to successfully find the cache without being caught.

So instead of finding the cache, we posed for pictures.

I'm exhausted.

Day 3: Malibu Hike.

This is by far my most favorite hike in Malibu...to date. I'm sure there are many more hikes to discover that could possilbe be more fantastic then this one, but it'd be hard to beat. There are streams to cross, rocks to hop, steep hills to climb and a beautiful waterfall to be rewarded with.

The Waterfall.

Gracie.

Here I'm working up the nerve to actually swing on these tree ropes.

Success. Ha Ha!! I'm such a daredevil!

To be continued....