adventures

La Jolla, San Diego, CA

March 3, 2014 by Angela

When was the last time I didn’t blog for an entire week? I’ve planned on posting these photos from a weekend getaway in San Diego last month for a week now, but I took three hundred pictures, so I needed to find the energy to go through all of them. I had never been to La Jolla Cove before, but I’d heard all the hype about it since before I moved to LA, so it was first on the list. We only stayed in San Diego for a day, so pretty much every adventure was sped up and squeezed into a Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. An hour at the beach is never enough, but we made the most of it!

The water at La Jolla is truly unlike so many of the beaches of southern California that we’ve explored over the past year. There are several different ecosystems coinhabiting one small marine reserve, which I think has a lot (everything?) to do with it. From a moody teal to bright turquoise, the tones of the surface shifted with every wave. Even on an overcast day, this place doesn’t lose its paradise-like appeal:

Normally after each of my found: adventures, my camera on overdrive, I go home weed & through the mess of snaps from the day and find a few images I really love. Last night’s editing sesh was NOT like this… each photo reflected the waves or the rocks differently, and there wasn’t much of a need for editing… the Pacific was just like this on that day. I’m really happy I had the chance to spend the perfect weekend visiting a friend, exploring The Jewel, wandering around downtown San Diego with Kevin, and exploring another beach (photos to come) on Sunday. A week after this, our big LA storm hit (what’s a rainy weekend in Seattle is a storm in LA, but the beaches were intense–I will give them that), and I stayed inside with Charity setting up a DIY photo studio and shooting vintage, spent an unfortunate amount of time on the train–which was okay because I met a lot of really nice people–and relaxed at home while the kitties watched the water pool on the street below through our sliding glass door. Monday’s here, and it’s sunny again.

Crystal Cove California

November 4, 2013 by Angela

Photos from a recent day trip to Crystal Cove….

Read about my adventure and why I love this place so much here on the Chestnut Mocha blog today as part of a wonderful series of bloggers detailing their favorite places to be.

Santa Monica when the sun’s not out

October 24, 2013 by Angela

Back when my family visited in September, we went on with our long-standing plan of visiting Santa Monica despite less-than-perfect weather. Temperatures were the lowest they’d been in months (only to rise once they went back home to Washington), and I told my sister she might want to change out of her shorts for this beach visit…

These are all taken from the Santa Monica pier, where we spent most of our time that day.

While Santa Monica beach is always crowded on weekends, this cloudy Friday afternoon was a lot more peaceful.

One of my favorite things to watch along the LA coast are the pelicans that fly along here–either in flocks or alone, diving to catch fish or sit on the surface. They are huge and it amazes me every time.

We’ve spent a lot of sunny Saturdays at the beach since we’ve moved here in June, but this wasn’t your typical visit…it ended up being a really nice change of pace (though not what everyone expected!).

Malibu, California

September 7, 2013 by Angela

Today I’m starting a series called “found” where I share my adventures around Los Angeles – each place I talk about will be new to me and a reflection of my perspective as someone from not only the northwest, but who hasn’t had much opportunity for travel and adventures…until now.

One thing I’ve learned about living in L.A. is that a lot of people don’t go to the beach often. People here are career-focused and seem to spend a lot of time in their offices or cars. Of course, there are plenty of people who love the beach and no doubt the Pacific is one of the major draws of living in southern California – the beaches are always packed at any hour – but there are also people who stay inland almost as much as I did when I didn’t live near the beach at all. I’d always heard about Malibu and that going to the beach there is perfect for anyone who wants to actually enjoy the ocean as opposed to the more stereotypical socal beach attractions (which I do love + am still exploring)… but we really wanted to give Malibu a try.

Pulling off the coast highway to a brief opening in a long line of parked cars, we headed for the beach and spent the afternoon on a somewhat random patch of sand. The beach was full with people and it was a warm day even uncommon for the region (so I’ve heard) during Labor Day weekend. We had a nice, peaceful afternoon out in the sun….and I truly got a sense of how different laying on the beach at the ocean here is different from the northwest coast – and especially Puget Sound…

Seal Beach, CA

August 8, 2013 by Angela

Last weekend we went to the beach town of Seal Beach. Seal Beach isn’t really considered a hot spot here in L.A., and I actually just read about it online. Being always eager to see animals, I immediately figured we should go to Seal Beach to see….seals. Well, they don’t have them. For that we’ll have to go south to San Diego. After some Wikipedia research, I found out that the town was named Seal Beach basically to attract people. They got me.

We went anyway and I had a perfect afternoon. There is a little downtown area with shops and restaurants, and the cutest cafe (photo of the framed prints), that we got coffee at, though the food looked delicious. The beach was lovely, though there were bits of garbage in some parts of the water, which is awful. Not only is it amazing that this many people swim next to floating plastic bottles and bags, but that people actually contribute to it… I’m not sure if I noticed more because I actually read someone’s yelp review about the garbage in the ocean there, but it definitely stuck out to me more than other beaches I’ve been to so far. This sort of thing makes me realize just how good I had it in my hometown. Most people are environmentally conscious there, and I don’t know many people who’d leave their garbage on the beach.

It makes me cringe. So you can imagine, the town itself must have been pretty amazing for me to still have had a great time, even when walking down a boardwalk that provided views of floating waste. The neighborhoods were so nice. My favorite part of our day trip was wandering down the quiet streets. There are cute homes (reminding me of my college town), white picket fences, and lots of little gardens. The house shown above is for rent :). Overall we had a great time in Seal Beach and will be back. I hope (and summer) that the majority of visitors care for the ocean more, too.

The month through Instagram

July 10, 2013 by Angela

It’s been awhile since I last shared instagram photos – but a lot has happened! I didn’t take as many photos as I’d like during my move & while getting settled, so these little instagrams will have to do…

One of the first things I did when we moved in was cover the bottom of the drawers in my own wallpaper – book pages! There was this ugly, plain paper there that made everything look dirty.
The next thing I did was set up my bookshelf! Yep, it’s color-coded. I felt such relief after taking all my books out of boxes.
I quickly realized that you need totally different clothes for life in LA than you do in Washington state. After a few days at work, I realized I don’t have enough color in my wardrobe – just blue jeans and black pants.
There is a lemonade shop here (I think it’s a chain?), which is so cool! Who isn’t craving lemonade while walking around in the 85 degree sunshine?
Swapped out my toxic nail polish for better brands. More on this later!
The girls at work decorated the walls with amazing gold polka dots. We love it.
We adopted two kittens!
They’re so adorable but so energetic – never sleeping for more than an hour at a time.
We spent Fourth of July at the beach & can’t wait to spend our weekends swimming in the amazing Pacific ocean!

What is on your instagram lately? Leave a link for me to follow 🙂