Hej!
On friday afternoon we left LA right in time for rush hour.
It took us about two hours just to get out of Los Angeles, and we had 6 more hours of driving ahead of us...
We were on our way to the Santa Cruz mountains to visit our friends Jillian and Tijn, and we very much looked forward to that! Traffic be damned!

We arrived at their beautiful mountain house at two in the morning. So extremely tired. We said hi to Jillian and Tijn and then we fell asleep. We had big plans for the day after!

Because on saturday morning we headed to Point Lobos State Reserve!
Jillian had texted me some days prior to tell us about what they had planned for our visit. "I think you will really like it. There is some easy hiking and beautiful rocky beaches with wild cool trees" She sure knows what makes me happy!
The walk to the beach was so beautiful. All green and fairytale looking!

Tijn carried the picnic basket.

Oh, how I love a good old Rotvälta (uprooted tree in Swedish)!

And this was where we were headed.

Aaaaah... *happy sigh*

Steep stairs down to the beach.
The light was absolutely perfect for taking photos so prepare yourself for a lot of them. There are forty photos in this post, I just couldn't slim it down anymore (I had 87 photos after the first sorting out...).

The sky was overcast but the light was still super bright.
Look at that white sand! I love how big the grains of sand were too, easy to swipe off and they looked like crystals. Beautiful!

Jillian was happy!

She had found a pretty feather!

David was posing for the camera like there was no tomorrow, and Tijn had a bright smile on his face. We were all just a happy bunch at the beach!

The picnic basket was unveiled. David is eyeing the content yearningly.

So many wonderful things!

After we had eaten Tijn went to check out the rocks (It's almost difficult to spot him here).
I was eager to go beach combing, searching for treasures.

The kelp bubbles in America are crazy large! This one was the size of a tennis ball.

And this one had tiny fingers and arms reaching up my palm.

We were all looking for treasures. Here David had spotted something that he wanted me to see. Haha, look at him pointing!

Jillian found a large piece of some kind of purple kelp that felt like rubber or latex. So weird and wonderful!

Look at this happy gal with her hands filled with treasures of the sea!

Tijn was building something...

Something large.

A dinosaur nest! Of course!

Look at the dinosaur eggs!

Oh, wow! A baby dinosaur!

We took a lot of photos of the sea.

And all around us, because in every direction there were beautiful scenery.

David and a spooky tree.

Filming the waves. And falling on the butt while doing so.

After a couple of hours we went up the stairs again to see more of this beautiful place.
Look at that house on the hill. And the fog! And the blue water. And the rocks. I'm a little bit in love with this photo.

Caves and rocks everywhere! Oh, and tiny people on the other side.

Hiiii, tiny people!

So. Incredibly. Beautiful.

Tijn dared to go close to the edge.

The colours and light were just magificent that day!

Oh, gosh! Nature at its finest!

We started our hike back to the car. Jillian and Tijn are such cuties!

Then we spotted a whole bunch of seals!
Signs said this was their birthing place. It seemed like people were normally allowed down there but it was closed off now to give the seals some privacy. Awesome to have an entire beach for your seal families and friends when giving birth. A birth party!

And into the forest we went again. Love the moss hanging from the trees, it creates such a moody atmosphere!

When we got back to Jillian and Tijn's house we were all very tired, so we slept for a couple of hours.

And then we went to the docks to go eat at a fish restaurant there. I was very fascinted by this twinkly factory thing and forgot to take photos of the pretty boats. Typical me.

Phil's Fish Market and Eatery. Ate really delicious food and had a wonderful evening.
It was such a great day with our wonderful friends!
I hope we can go back soon again (but leave way before friday afternoon LA rush hour...).

I hope you liked this photo filled post and if you find yourself in the area around Point Lobos State Reserve I definitely recommend a visit there.
I'm sure you've noticed from all these forty photos that I loved it very much.

/Lotta

Hej!
We've finally moved out of the hotel! YAY!
I celebrated by exploring our new neighbourhood by foot with the camera around my neck. I thought you might want to have a look.
But first, here's a photo of David just before we left the hotel room yesterday:

One thing I'm incredibly drawn to is this kind of street with large trees on each side, meeting in the middle.
This was the first one I saw on my walk. But not the best. I'll show you the best soon...

It was a very sunny day today but not too warm. I stopped to take some photos of flowery trees.

And alleyways with electric wires crossing the sky.

And then...

Aaaaaaah! So beautiful!
I hunched down in the middle of the street, when no cars were around, to get all the green loveliness into the picture.

More alleyways. Apparently I'm rather fond of them too.
I also very much like the mountains surrounding on all sides here. It makes me so amazed that this view is everyday for people who live here. How they don't just stop and stare, amazed towards the mountains, at least twenty times a day boggles my mind.

More trees. More mountains.
Those trees, guys! Such fluffy green goodness! I have many photos of fluffy green trees in my camera today.

Some trees get a little fence around them.

The streets in this country are so wide. I think it looks weird, like a movie set. And it kind of makes the streets feel less alive. There's too much space between shops and houses; everything is so spread out that it gets a little cold and impersonal. People here drive wherever they go so the town isn't made for walking around leisurely. I think that's kinda sad.

And then, suddenly, there's a very cute corner!

America. Guns Direct. Ugh.
I hate guns more than anything in the world.

Then there were only auto repair shops left of the street, so I crossed the road and walked back in the other direction instead.

Have a look down a Southern California flowerbed.

And here's a weird looking flower thingy.

Some spooky roots!

And a very American looking doughnut shop. I took this photo to show David, the donut freak, that we have this place in our neighbourhood. One of the first things he said to me this afternoon was "Is there a donut shop?!?" -Yes, David. See, I took a photo for you, hahah!

Another kind of tree lined street that caught my eye.

And then. Oh, then. I found this place! Bearded Lady Vintage and Oddities. Such a fun and cool shop! I peeked around in there for quite a while because there were just so many interesting things to look at!
The owners directed me towards a couple of other nice shops on the same street, and I realised I have arrived in vintage store mecca. There were vintage shops everywhere! With amazing clothes and things. I could happily spend all the money in the world on this street, I think.

After an hour or so the sun was taking its toll on me and I needed froyo! Felt like such a fool when I couldn't work out how the machines were working and had to ask for help. I just "Erhm, I'm new to this country, HELP?"
Regular, water melon and raspberry froyo. Yummy!

After energy in the form of froyo and free wifi I walked back home again. Through this beautiful parkway.

Even the shadows are different here. Plants that make feather shaped shadows.

STOP! I'm almost home now.

(Look at the flailing human being to the left. Haha, I can't stop laughing, he just looks so silly!)

Walking past the cutest house I've seen all day.

And the mountains again in this photo that I think looks exactly like I imagined American suburbia would look. Including basket ball hoop.

When David was free for the day we went to a laundromat for the first time ever! I had planned to take fun photos but I got a migraine (from too much sunshine, I think) and the photos didn't turn out good at all.
I had to go home and just lie and breathe for a couple of hours before I could think again.
And now I'm back and sitting here blogging! Yay!

Hope you liked following along when I explored our new neighbourhood. I think I already have started to get a hang on the photography issues I mentioned in my last post. And that feels so great, you won't believe!

Anyways.
Talk to you soon, OK?


/Lotta

Hej!
So I'm finally feeling like blogging again after we arrived here in LA last week. We are still living in a hotel, but hopefully that will change some time next week.
Anyway, yesterday I brought my camera with me all day long because we had fun things planned!
Wanna tag along? OK!

First we went to the Aeirloom Bakery that has turned into an absolute favourite this past week. Wonderful, organic food, cozy atmosphere and really friendly staff.

We both ordered the English Salmon. We've had it a couple of times this week, it's so tasty!!!

The wifi on our hotel room is beyond crappy. It only works if you're sitting on the toilet or leaning against the bathroom door. So when there is free wifi on the café that makes us love it even more! Here's David checking up on his social media.

Heeeej!

After a nice breakfast we were ready for our next stop for the day: LA Zoo! It's super close to where we stay so we were there quite early, before the crowd.

Flamingos!

Cute Koala!

Fancy Zebra!

Extremely cool mountain goats!

The cutest giraffe ever had a long stick to chew on

Happy elefant in the waterfall!

It was very green and beautiful.

I'm having such problems adjusting to the light in LA when I'm taking pictures. It's so difficult because there's so much bright sunshine that creates a lot of shadow so it's impossible to get good photos!
I hope I learn over time because it makes me so sad and frustrated to not be able to take good pictures.

When we had seen all the animals we were in great need of ice cream!

So we drove to a place that looked a little bit like a dentist's office when you looked through the window, but sold really delicious ice cream!

Found a bench across the street. Not very cute surroundings though...

I picked the flavors Peach yoghurt and Horchata coffee. So tasty!

After a few hours of rest in the hotel room we went to a mexican place and bought burritos to go. I had the brilliant idea to drive up Mulholland drive and eat our dinner infront of the view. So that's what we did.

So beautiful!

Our hotel is the white box to the right with red letters on top.

A rapper dude was filming his music video up there. He stood by the edge, raising his arms in a pose to tell everybody he owned the land and everything else below. Such a clichéd theme. I'm on top of the world! I own this city!

This photos is super blurry, I know, but you can see the rapper and photographer in the background.

When it was starting to get dark, and quite cold, we went back to the car to drive down the long and winding road.
And that was our saturday.
I hope to get back more to blogging soon, when we have a more permanent place to stay.
I can't wait!

Until next time:

Hej!

Yesterday David and I couldn't wait anymore! We wanted to go film in the woods, snow and cold weather be damned!
So we put on lots and lots of clothes, packed the car and went to that place I told you about in my last post.
We thought it would be less snow in the woods because of all the trees... HA! Stupid city folk!
There was so much snow! And nobody had walked there before us so it was all untouched and incredibly beautiful.
We had planned for a film set in a mossy green forest but this, this was just even more amazing!

The long walk was tricky but beautiful and I had to stop and take photos along the way.

Look at my feet. Yeah.
We hadn't even reached our destination yet and they already looked like that. I'm not really known for my weather appropriate (appropriate schmappropriate) clothes and even though these particular shoes are my most responsible ones they are not meant to hike in snow like this for hours...

Trees were bowing under the heavy snow.

And on top of the hill there was a little red cottage.
I am so curious how in earth they got the material up there to build that thing! There are no roads and the paths are sometimes very tight. I just don't get it.
It's perfecly situated on top of a hill with a wonderful view over a lake, so I definitely understand wanting the cottage at that exact spot.

An old house structure (or something like that) with snow covered stairs.

Hard to see but the small path goes underneath that fallen tree. We could stand underneath it with the tree barely touching our heads.

It was so extremely cold though and after a few hours it was impossible to keep the longing for warmth out of our minds. We kept going for another hour or so. Coffee and fried egg sandwiches helped a little but after four hours it was just not happening anymore. We could no longer feel our feet and hands, more than an instense aching, and it felt really weird to walk on feet that didn't know when they touched the ground.
So we gave up for the day and went home.
We promised to return as quickly as our shoes had dryed and that will hopefully be tomorrow.
The weather is supposed to be warmer then. Yay for our hands and feet, but possibly not so good for the beautiful scenery.
We'll just have to hope for the best.

When we came home and shredded our cold and wet clothes in favour of warm and dry ones, we heated some soup and cozied up under blankets for the rest of the evening. It is quite interesting how the body feels extremely cold at the same time as the skin feels like a furnace.

And if we go back tomorrow we will experience it all over again.

(I'm thinking of covering my feet with first a pair of socks, then plastic bags, then another pair of socks on top of that to keep the wet snow from reaching my feet. Ingenious, right?)

Tjingeling!
/Lotta