A Love Affair: Joshua Tree National Park

Remember my drama-packed love affair with Joshua Tree National Park?

Yeah that one. And almost every weekend after that when I thought I might make it happen. 

Well, earlier this week I took a look at the week's forecast. I saw it was supposed to be in the mid-70s.... in the middle of the desert... in May. Pretty much a sign from the heavens above that it was do-or-die. After the heatwave we had I thought I had missed my chance and that all the wildflowers would be gone anyways.

I guess the previous suffering was worth it, because Ross and I were in for a treat! 

Like we do, we packed a lunch and plenty of water and headed out... on the all too familiar road down to Joshua Tree this time just for a day trip. Here is quick recap of the day.

Our first stop was the "World Famous Crochet Museum." Funny, I had never heard of it until I dove into Yelp one day.

But being the world famous crocheter that I am, I figured it was worth a look. The museum is a tiny little closet shed. You walk in and... holy crochet Batman (there probably was one)! 

We are talking thousands of crocheted things. Kachina dolls, mushrooms, gnomes, tacos, oreos, flowers, frames, mermaids and poodles. Oh the poodles! A whole wall of them. 

It was awesome, my new goal in life. We poked around the area, where there were other art umm.... projects? 

Including a wall of hubcaps and a trailer full of busts. And never to be forgotten -but impossible to explain- "art" involving at least a hundred brightly colored and different sized dildos. 

We headed into the park, pretty cocky (oops) that we already had an annual pass. Ross picked out the "Dead Horse Mine" hike for us. 

The park was pretty busy but I guess our hiking trail was long enough and deep enough in the park where it wasn't packed. It was a beautiful day.

Surprisingly not as many Joshua Trees in this part of the park, but still beautiful.



Cactus in bloom!



And there were still tons of wildflowers (wildflower junkie).



I don't know how recent the fire was, but you could see the landscape trying to recover. It was kind of crazy to see that definite parts had burned. One side- lots of vegetation, the other- recovering.





When we got to the mine we stopped for a cold pizza lunch. Only the best lunch ever.



Then walked around the mine. I could only think of Zorro.


It was kind of breezy up there so we had to bust out the sweatshirt and jacket.
Ross gave me crazy eyes when he saw me staring at the rocks. Sorry I am a weirdo that things rocks are cool.



Speaking of rocks... After our hike we drove through the park a little bit



and found a big ol' pile o' rocks.



I mean really big.



I also found a little billy goat who loves to scale rock piles.



This slow-mo video isn't nearly as hilarious as I think it is.

But it looked like so much fun I thought I would try some climbing too.



We got a little scripped and scrapped up, but it was pretty challenging and really fun.
Next we made a little walk to a lookout point. It's crazy. You can see all of the Coachella Valley. The Salton Sea, Signal Mountain (close to the Mexico border), Palm Springs, Mount San Jacinto, and San Gorgonio. 

We decided it was time to head home, mostly because we were pretty worn out from all the hiking and climbing. But we couldn't resist one more pile of rocks on the way out.

Ross caught me in my zen place. The air was so cool and fresh, it was nice to just lay down and zone out.

And no trip to the desert would be complete without someone standing next to a joshua tree. So there you have it!

Week Wrap up #5: Vernal Adventures & More

This week I spent in the lovely, tiny city of Vernal, UT. My best friend Kelli always tends to live in the most desolate and out of the way places in Utah. But nothing could stop me from seeing her. Lucky for me she drove all the way out here just to pick me up. That's friendship. Driving 6+ hours in one day. 

Before we left for vernal we picked up some clothes for her husband and found some rather interesting finds whilst in the store.

Later we ate at a sketchy little cafe with notsogreat food because, I don't know, Kelli and I tend to get ourselves into sketchy situations. But before long we headed out to Vernal to begin our week.

There are not a lot of things to do in Vernal but it didn't matter because I had a blast hanging out with Kelli and laughing so hard my abs hurt. It is always great to have friends where you can just pick back up with no matter how long it has been. 

One of the funny moments o the week was our grave disappointment with this "Mini melts" machine at Walmart. For some delusional reason we thought it would be a little more exciting than just some suction hose grabbing a container out of a cooler.

Thursday - and please don't ask me why it took so long, we finally made it to this little food place called Lip Smackin' D's. Their newest menu item is funnel cake fries! Yes, they were amazing. They have smoothies and snow cones and cotton candy and pretty much any kind of food that graces the Candyland board of my dreams. A main attraction are the mini donuts. We ordered a few different kinds. Pictured below are key lime pie donuts, and samoas donuts.

Kelli has the most adorable dogs. I hate to play favorites, but Loki is pretty cute. He looks like a little feral wolf dog and has little leopard spots too. When he gets tired his ears get droopy. I love that he choose me to be his cuddle buddy!

No time is complete with Kelli without some tea time! Oh delicious sleepy bed time tea time. Mmm.

It was an absolutely fantastic time in Vernal. I thought coming back on a Friday night would just about wrap up my week, but I was oh so wrong. Carnies, ballgames, my sister coming back from Africa!, and it wouldn't be complete without....

My sister is a big soccer fan. She legitimately follows soccer throughout the year so the World Cup is a big deal for her. We made some pizza and watch the fame projected on her wall.

Have I mentioned lately that I love being close to family and friends? 

Plesant Grove Carnie Days

Call me the whitest kid on the block, but I love me some carnies. Growing up, going to the fair was a pretty big deal. We could never afford to actually go or get ride tickets, but my sisters and I would occasionally preform at the annual event and therefore get in for free (there ya go, I was workin' the system from an early age). The depth and breadth of the fair always baffled me. The bright lights and smell of kettle corn, the "World's Smallest Horse" that my mom would never give me $2 to see, the stuffed Tweety Bird bigger than me. It was all so untouchable and awe-inspiring.

There is something spooky and unsafe about those pack-n-go carnivals. Maybe its the element of danger that I am drawn to, maybe just that childhood yearning to die on a moving heap of steel ride the Ferris Wheel. Either way, after dinner I had rich cheesecake sugar pumping through my veins so Ross and I went to check out the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days carnival. After my years of associating with Utahans I heard to many good things about festival, I needed to sort out fact from fiction.



I've found that as an adult, new things inspire awe. Instead of gazing up at the magical carnival lights aglow in the fresh summer evening air, I stared at the dozen+ rides crammed into this tiny city park. That is awe-inspiring folks. I'm still kind scratching my head at it all.

The whole park was crammed full, and I am beginning to wonder if I will ever get used to so many people in one place at one time. Thanks Grenada.

One of the famed things I HAD to do at Strawberry Days was to try out the strawberries and cream. Okay, that's do-able.

Or, so I thought.

On the way out I saw the line for the infamous strawberries and cream.



Excuse me?! You cannot even see the end of the line before the switchback. And I swear as quickly as those strawberries and cream truck employees were crankin' 'em out, the line was not even moving. We would have been in line for probably at least 40 minutes.

So please, Utahans, anyone, can you tell me what is so magical about the fabled strawberries and cream that would compel me to wait in line that long? Is it for the experience? Tradition? A secret ingredient of crack cocaine?

Skirball Cultural Center

I love being at home with my parents. Not only are they the coolest people ever, but they take me on fun field trips. Today I found yet another reason to love L.A.

I have always wanted to go to the Skirball Cultural Center and today I did.



The Skirball is a Jewish cultural museum. In L.A. we got so many museums, we can have one dedicated to conveying Jewish traditions and history. The museum's mission, "is to explore the connections between four thousand years of Jewish heritage and the vitality of American democratic ideals. It seeks to welcome and inspire people of every ethnic and cultural identity in American life." They have had visiting exhibitions to spotlight different famous & accomplished Jews; including Harry Houdini, Maurice Sendak, and Bob Dylan. 

Currently they have one highlighting the work of Ezra Jack Keats. He is known for his artwork in and authorship of various children's books. I remember my mom reading many of these books to us when I was little, like The Snowy Day and Whistle for Willie. 

The Exhibit was really fascinating. I loved the way Keats used collage to created bright and beautiful pieces of art. It was fantastic to see the original artwork from his books in all their textural glory. I snapped a few pictures of the commentaries before I got called out for taking pictures (sorry!). Shh! Don't tell anyone.



I highlighted the bit I like at the end. Just a few months ago I had a conversation with my friend about how frustrated she was (and this is in 2014) about the difficulty to find books about African American children, or even biracial children.

Above it talks about how important it is that children of color in books are not simply white children colored brown. My sister is the Assistant Managing Editor for a worldwide children's magazine and she finds that illustrators still tend to do this, interesting. 

The exhibit was really fascinating, and it had a wonderful hands-on element for children! I noticed that they intentionally placed some of the art pieces lower so kids could see them at eye level. They also have fun questions to ask kids about the artwork, and interactive props. At the end they have a room with fun furniture that matches the themes of Keats's books, and a wall of books to read. There is also a magnetic wall with "paper dolls" of shapes and sizes and colors. Everything from the clothes to the hair to the windows and stoplights were magnetic. We all had fun moving them around and switching things up. 

Next we moved on the permanent "Noah's Ark" exhibit. It was awesome! The docents at the museum are the friendliest people ever. When I was chatting with one of them, he was telling me that the animals in the exhibit are made out of recycled materials and reflect the animal's temperament or local habitat. For example, the kiwis in the bottom left are very territorial so they are made out of a boxing glove. Clever!

The exhibit is so cool for kids. You can climb and crawl and push and pull and crank and play in all the corners of the ark. Here we have my dad making lightning, me and Dad with puppets, and Mom and Dad playing with magnets in order to feed the animals (strawberries of course).

I think the museum recently added this family of chimps, they are made out of inner tubes, socks, and gloves.

In this part of the exhibit you can move the giraffe's head back and forth, and put little foam animals on a conveyor belt to go up in the ark. I opted to let the turtles stay.

All three of us really had a blast playing around, I can't imagine how much greater it would be if I could actually fit into half of the exhibit. Haha.

The last exhibit we went to was, "Visions and Values: Jewish Life from Antiquity to America." It was really interesting and beautifully done. The exhibit features, "changing displays of works from the Skirball’s permanent collection of Judaica—the third largest in the world—this historically illuminating exhibition chronicles the struggles and achievements of the Jewish people over a span of 4,000 years."

There was this huge Statute of Liberty hand.



It was a surprising and amazing visit. I sometimes get a little bored at museums but not here. I can't wait to go back with my favorite lil' Asher. I think he will love it.

On our way home we stopped at Cupid's. You know you are going to eat good food if you have to tie up your hair before eating.

Oh America, you do it to me every time.

Surprise! Happy Birthday Momma

A couple months ago I decided I wanted to surprise my mom for her birthday! I missed my dad's birthday a couple weeks ago, and Mother's Day, so really is was about time.

The flight from SLC to Long Beach is just a hop, skip, and jump. My dad picked me up at the airport and lucky for me, my grandparents were at the house too. My mom was happy to see me, and I think was satisfied that she finally figured out "why your father was acting so weird the past couple of days." Moms, nothing gets past them.

We all went out to a movie at this super primo movie theater.



The seats are in pairs so I got one all to myself. It was pretty much the best way to watch a movie ever Too bad the movie was super weird.

Afterwards we went to this deli across the street. So. Much. Food. Good thing we all like leftovers.



Next we went to this new-ish cake place that mom had scoped out before.



Hooray for trying new places.

Here is the birthday girl with her cupcakes.

I love birthdays and the opportunity it gives us to feel so grateful that we have amazing people in our life. I am grateful for my mom and what a wonderful human being she is. She is smart, funny, and very creative. I love that she always likes to try new things. As I grow up I love to see how I am becoming like her, and how I hope to be more like her. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA!