when will you realize

hmmm sometimes I need to remember this:


I just happened to find Billy Joel song set to Breakfast at Tiffany's. Love the song, love the movie.
It was rough day. This is helping turn it around. Also helping, drinks and dinner at BJs with the boy and one of his awesome friends later tonight.

free passes

While the opportunity to see priceless works of art in person will always be a cherishable experience, not all of us have the time or money to travel to some of these museums.

Enter Google Art Project.

The Google Street View of the museum world. Not only can you enjoy virtual tours of some of the best and most famous musuems in the world, but the photography is such high-resolution quality that you can actually zoom in close enough to see individual brush strokes.

{super zoomed in section of Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son"}

What will they think of next?!
(via audrey hepburn complex)

I'm Still Standing

So remember that jetsetter site I told you about? Where they have specially discounted vacations for members? (let me know if you want in, I'll hook you up!). I was scrolling through their weekly email of various locations where I would like to be in lieu of working 12 hour days. Paris, Hawaii, Elton John's Oscar Party...WAIT WHAT? for reals? I don't have to be invited?? Score!

{via jetsetter}

Um I'm kind of an Elton John fan. I LOVE him (but as Fiance says, "he doesn't love you back" lol). Seeing Elton perfom live is kind of on my life list. I was super sad when he ended his show in vegas before I could make it out there. So I've been holding out on Fiance becoming famous and getting invited to the oscars and then Elton inviting us to his party, because we'd be awesome like that.

But now thanks to Jetsetter, apparently you can just buy your way into that stuff. Problem #1, the oscars are the day after the wedding, so we'll be on a plane to new york. (minor detail right?). Problem #2, right now you can only preview dates, you can't see prices yet. So it probably still costs like a million dollars. So I guess that means no Elton, THIS time around. maybe next year? ;)

Ok excited rant over. this counts as a travel post right? oh well it's my blog and I do what I want!

romanticized all out of proportion

I once again have travel on my horizons. This intro is a bit how I expect to feel about my next adventure.



honeymoon here I come.

p.s. after discovering "Rhapsody in Blue" in my history of Jazz Music class, I absolutely adore it.

green and gray

oh edinburgh I miss you so

Photos by Brian Ferry {here and here}

dreamers

hmmm...I wouldn't mind the view out this window:

{found at the beautiful soup via here}

neon sun

It just so happens that I ended up driving through Beverly Hills and West Hollywood via Santa Monica Blvd twice this week. The first time was at night and I noticed some very large and kind of random neon signs, in the center divider. Hey, it's L.A. right? Nothing here is normal. The second time, was during the day, and it was a bit traffic-y, so I got a closer look at one of these signs and made a mental note of the website at the bottom: neonmona.org.

Remember when I posted about the Neon Boneyard outside Vegas? (Which I still need to make a trip to see!) Well turns out Los Angeles, has their very own Museum of Neon Art.

These neon signs I spotted are intentionally placed, as part of a neon exhibit, along the historic Route 66 (another dream road trip of mine, LA to chicago along the old Route 66, but I digress).

Visit here for a slideshow of all the pieces involved, or just take a little drive through LA! (which I plan to do soon!)

adventures in los angeles

Saturday was filled with vintage deliciousness exploring LA.
First we met up with some friends at La Abeja in Highland Park. This is legitimate, authentic mexican food. The Huevos Rancheros were divine. Eggs over easy in a chile sauce with beans and rice. (I did not eat another meal for the rest of the day). Also recommend the Sangria soda (non-alcoholic). Which segues nicely into our next stop: Galco's Soda Pop Stop. When you first walk in there's just crates and crates of soda and beverages stacked high. Behind that is a magical place with 4 (i think?) long aisles of every flavored soda you can imagine. (there's even a root beer keg!) Then there's alcoholic beverages behind that. And a deli behind that. Oh and to your left, a vintage candy counter. All the good candies, in retro wrappers. And then a refrigerated wall of selected sodas. Fiance went for his standard favorites: Boylan Black Cherry and Sioux City Sarsparilla. I went for Chocolate soda (so good! no shaking required), Mexican coca-cola in a glass bottle (made with real sugar not corn syrup) and DRY Rhubarb soda. DRY is amazing, its a super subtle flavor, very refreshing. They used to sell them at school, I recommend the vanilla and even the lavender is brilliant (not flowery/perfumey at all). The Rhubarb was tart, it was an interesting flavor, though not my favorite.

We finished off our day with a showing of "The Town" at the gorgeous, retro Vista Theater.  Cheap tickets and excellent popcorn, old school welcome/concessions credits and a fabulous interior. I'll definitely be back.

umbria...um yes!

If you're a member of Gilt Groupe, then you'll also get email notifications from Jetsetter. It works the same way, exclusive limited time deals on luxury, only this is vacations instead of fashion. It's probably cruel and unusual punishment to subject myself to these emails with offers for stays at glamorous locations around the world. Especially when the deals are only good if you hop on that plane within the next month or so. But they feature some great ideas and locations for future reference. This one caught my eye today:

Sounds divine. Eating and Italy. What else is there?

hot hot hot

A couple weeks ago my cousin and I headed here for some much needed R&R

It was HOT. But it's a dry heat, which is so much more bearable than humidity.

There was a lot of this happening. Cranberry Blackberry (vodka) snow cones out by the pool. (In the shade for my poor pale skin.)

The only time you'll see the pool empty is in the morning. Pretty much all of downtown Palm Springs is a dead zone until 5 pm ish. Everyone must sleep during the day. Because then the pool/bar is insanely crowded at night until 2 am or later (the walls were a bit thin...). There's lots of fantastic local restaurants and shops along the downtown strip.

Just a little south on Palm Canyon Drive is Cathedral City. For chain stores, hit "The River" shopping center and hop from air conditioned Borders to air conditioned Starbucks to air conditioned Ben & Jerry's like we did. And definitely dinner at Yard House. (If you go to Yard House you have to order the draft beer float. "Young's Chocolate Stout with Vanilla Ice Cream. YUM!). Or PF Changs or Cheesecake Factory (be prepared for a wait, it gets busy). Or hit the movies at the Mary Pickford theatre or IMAX for more air conditioning when it's still 80 degrees at 9 pm.

Ace's King's Highway restaurant is fantastic. It's an old converted Denny's with a drool-worthy menu.
We stopped in for breakfast and I got:

Sydney got:

and we split:

yummmmmm. highly recommended.