rose bowl flea market and pacific asia museum

Last Sunday, I decided to check out LA's most well-known flea market at the Rose Bowl. I've been meaning to go there for a while and it's come up recently on a blog I follow, so I thought now was as good a time as any to go and see what it was all about. I was wrong. It was too hot. I'm not going again until at least October.

But at least I know what it's all about now! It was pretty fun, and I definitely saw a lot of great things that you could use to decorate a home. I only bought one thing, mostly because I hadn't brought much cash (unintentional, but fortunate). Next time - when it's cooler, I have cash, and Jesse is with me - I would spend a little more time looking at the furniture and stuff for the apartment.

Afterwards, I was really hungry, and so I drove into Pasadena for lunch. I used my Yelp app to find the closest restaurants, but they were all Italian and Indian - both of which generally appeal to me but were not ideal considering how hot it was. So I searched Yelp for "salad" near my current location. And it worked! I was impressed. It led me to a great restaurant that basically only served salads. Yay Yelp!

Lastly, I went to the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena. It's a nice, quite small museum of art and artifacts from South and East Asia. It was fun to wander through. The sections on Japan reminded me of all the art I loved while I lived there. I bought a beautiful book of photographs of Japanese art.

Then I drove home in very hot vehicle without a/c. The reality is that I don't think the temperature was above the mid-80s, but I have become so accustomed to the cooler weather in Santa Monica that it was almost unbearable for me. I had the windows down on the whole drive back, and I could feel the air getting cooler and cooler as I approached my exit. It felt great and so refreshing. It made me extra happy about living in Santa Monica.

Go Wisconsin!

These are blocks that are used for woodblock printing in India. I bought the one in the upper right.

I loved these glasses. If they were orange instead of pink, I would have bought them.

These old, worn pots appeared to be made out of papier-mache of Chinese newspapers. There were other very cool Asian antiques as well.

There were quite a bit of vintage clothes for sale as well.

Shrimp salad with mint lemonade - perfect hot weather meal.

The rest of the pictures are from the courtyard at the Pacific Asia Museum, built in 1924 and a good example of Asian-inspired architecture of the era.

will rogers state park

Last weekend, Jesse and I wanted to get Yuki some much-needed exercise and ourselves a fun time doing something new, preferable something outdoors-y. We decided to check out Will Rogers State Park, just a little ways up the coast from us. Originally, I wanted to do a big hiking loop that would take us up to Will Rogers' Inspiration Point, then along the Santa Monica Mountains' Backbone Trail, and then down to a creekbed/canyon. Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on parts of that loop, so we ended up doing two shorter hikes on either side of it. In between, we had a picnic lunch and watched part of a polo match (Malibu vs. Pacific Palisades). It was a fun place. There were grills, so I could imagine going back someday to grill and watch more polo, and maybe do the loop without Yuki.

This is the view from Inspiration Point. I like Yuki's tongue in this one. He was being a little wimpy.

Much of this first trail was wide and a little dusty, but with some nice vegetation.

Our picnic spot - this gave Yuki a chance to catch his breath.

Polo match.

Yuki was watching the polo match too, although we had stand back a ways so he wouldn't bark and spook the horses, which he did only once.

Team Malibu, which was pretty much killing Team Pacific Palisades.

Next we headed down towards the second trail, along the canyon.

It was pretty dense, and Yuki loved running through the water.

He was not happy about leaving.

stencils: modernized!

Those zinnias just might end up on my kitchen cupboards.

Acacia from Cutting Edge

Zinnias from Cutting Edge