This Is the Life

This will be a short post.

I have all of this week off from work, so I've been lounging around mostly, catching up on some books, emails, movies, and tv shows. I feel like such a bum, but I know if I go out, I'll spend more money (and I've already spent enough for this month).

Anyways, on Monday, I decided to bike up to Santa Monica to see Frank Gehry's house. I felt like passing out by the time I got there, even though it's only about 4.5 miles away.
Gehry's house was also famously featured on an episode of The Simpsons, where he designs a concert hall for the town which turns into a prison. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any clips of the episode because they were all removed.
I think I've talked enough about Gehry in these posts, so I'll just show some pictures.

 

After the house, I took a different, easier route home. I rode down towards the beach and took the bike path back to Venice. I stopped by the skate park to watch the sunset on the beach before heading home.

Hello, Seattle

I had the four best days in Seattle. It was nice to go up north and experience winter!! It has been raining cats and dogs this past week in LA. It's funny because Seattle was beautiful. Out of the four days, only one was a bit rainy. So, on to my adventures (I apologize in advance for the length, but hopefully the pictures will make up for that)!

I departed LAX on Thursday morning and arrived in Seattle around noon. I took their one subway line (called the Sound Transit... for Puget Sound) into downtown which took about an hour. Side note: whenever I travel to a new city, I always buy a Frommer's Day by Day Guide. They're my absolute favorite for exploring by myself. Thanks to Frommer's and NYTimes.com, I found a little hotel called the Moore Hotel, right in downtown, for $74/night (would've been $59 if I shared a bathroom, but my parents were paranoid and made me upgrade). So after I threw my stuff into my room, I ventured out into the city. The skies were a bit cloudy, but not a raindrop in sight. I was starving at this point, so I found the closest thing that wasn't fast food... and it turned out to be a Macy's! Who knew Macy's served food??
Next I headed for the waterfront to find the Seattle Aquarium on Pier 59. Before my trip, I bought a City Pass (absolutely love City Passes; great deal for great attractions) which included admission to the aquarium along with other destinations (which I will talk about eventually). The aquarium was a bit disappointing, even though it just went through renovations (I wonder what it was like before). It may even be worse than Boston's... It was a bit confusing to navigate through and there weren't that many exhibits to see.
After the aquarium, I walked up to First Ave (Seattle's great; it's gridded like Manhattan, historical like Boston, and hilly like San Francisco) to go to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). It wasn't the best art museum I've been to, but there were a few good pieces. They actually had an exhibit on Picasso, but I didn't feel like paying an extra $9 to see it; nothing against Picasso, but he's just not someone I would pay more for. The SAM didn't have enough contemporary art for my liking, but they had a good mix of everything from Native American, contemporary, abstract, photography, etc. Something for everyone.

I finished my daytime activities much sooner than I expected (I always make itineraries when I travel--I have a strange knack for organizing/planning trips) so I headed back to the hotel, took a quick shower, and went next door to a bar called the Nite Lite Lounge for dinner. Made it just in time for happy hour, too, so dinner was cheap and so were the drinks. It's definitely a dive bar, with locals who have been going there for 20 years with the same 50-ish year old woman bartender.
After dinner, I went out towards the Pike Place Market to the Market Theater for my night show of A(n Improvised) Christmas Carol, put on by Unexpected Productions. The theater is located in Post Alley, and the exterior is covered in gum, which locals refer to as the gum wall! It's a bit disgusting but fascinating to see. Anyways, the show was hilarious. The first 15 minutes is spent laying out the storyline. It's a bit like Mad Libs where the audience fills in the blanks. So, in this production, Scrooge was a pimp, Tiny Tim suffered from restless leg syndrome, and instead of "Bah, humbug!" he shouts, "Bah, hoo-hoo!" I laughed more than I have in a very long time. Totally worth the $12 I paid. I called it a night after the show and went back to the hotel. Unfortunately, my room didn't have access to the free wi-fi, so I had to go down into the lobby to lay out my strategy for the next day.

Friday, I woke up early around 9am and walked north towards Space Needle. The forecast called for sunny, clear skies, so I didn't want to waste a single minute of it. Seattle downtown is completely walkable, but they also have a bunch of buses that you can ride for free within a certain area. The day was gorgeous though, so I didn't mind the walk. I completely forgot about breakfast so I went into a Starbucks (which are at every corner in Seattle... more than Manhattan!) and got a bite to eat. When I got to Space Needle, there was barely anyone there; it was great! Thanks to City Pass, I got two admissions to Space Needle: one during the day and one during the night (or just within a 24 hour period). I can't even tell you how beautiful the day was. Crystal blue skies without a cloud in sight.

After freezing my fingers off for about an hour, I was originally going to go to the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum (EMP/SFM) designed by Frank Gehry (I'm starting to appreciate him a bit more but I still don't really enjoy his designs), but because the day was so gorgeous, I didn't want to waste it by being indoors, so I decided to photograph the exterior and go to the EMP/SFM the next day (which was predicted to be rainy).

Instead, I made my way to the Olympic Sculpture Park on the waterfront, which is free and run by SAM. They currently have 20 different pieces on display. I was surprised to see some big names like Richard Serra and Louise Bourgeois! But my favorite piece was Love & Loss by Rob McMakin, which just happened to be the last sculpture on the walking tour. Saving the best for last? Possibly... It was a beautiful walk on a beautiful day, with Elliot Bay on one side and art on the other.

I decided to continue walking instead of hopping on a bus, so I walked along the waterfront until I got to Pier 55 for the Argosy Harbor Cruise (another part of City Pass). It could not have been a more perfect day for the cruise. Our guide was a fantastic guy named Nick; he was clever, knowledgeable, and funny. The cruise lasted an hour or so, and I got some pretty great views of Seattle. At one point, we passed by a buoy that had some California sea lions sunbathing! I guess they followed me from San Francisco!

By the end of the tour (around 2:30) I was starving. I'm usually pretty bad at eating meals when I'm on vacation unless I schedule them into my itinerary... so I stopped by one of the nearby tourist restaurants and had some clam chowder (or chowdah, as my Bostonians would say) while a seagull watched me through the window.

After stuffing myself full of food, I prepared to hike up the hills to the Seattle Public Library designed by Rem Koolhaas!! I had done a precedent study on his Maison a Bordeaux during freshmen year and had always admired his work. Most people will recognize the library from the diagram that gets shoved into our faces every year we begin studio. From the outside, it doesn't look like much--just a random form with lots of steel and kind of dark. But once you pass into the threshold and enter the library... it opens up with so much space and light. I didn't know where to begin! The library was huge; there are 11 stories (which you can see in the diagram I found). I just walked around absorbing it all in. I really liked the use of color within the building as well as words and graphics. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to walk around the book spiral, but I did make it up to the top. I will admit that the atrium (at least from the top view) was a little bland, but other than that, I loved it.

My next architectural destination was the Chapel of St. Ignatius by Steven Holl! I actually did a precedent study for this chapel over the summer in Rob's studio (video seen above). It's funny though because I had initially chosen a different building to study, but since there wasn't any information I could find, I settled for the Holl's chapel. When I first saw images of the chapel, I was not impressed. The form looked awkward, the openings didn't make sense to me... but then when I saw images of the interior, all of the exterior stuff didn't matter anymore. By the end of my precedent study, I fell in love with the chapel because it really is all about the experience from within. So I walked from the library alllllll the way to Seattle University's campus (keep in mind that I had been walking the entire day... legs were exhausted at this point) and kept my eye out for the bell tower. I made it just before sunset and got to go into the chapel to see some of the natural light enter through the openings. In the chapel, Holl uses the phenomenon of opposite colors. In most cases, the light enters the window, hits a plane of color, and bounces off and creates a glowing effect. It creates a fantastic atmosphere for a worship service. I was so happy to experience it for myself.

Around 5pm, I was done exploring for the night and went out. Coincidentally, my boss from Behnisch (LA) was also in Seattle (she grew up there) so she invited me to go have some drinks with her and her old coworkers. I took the bus ($2.25 when you're not in the ride-free zone!) back into downtown and met up with everybody at a bar/restaurant called the Virginia Inn, about a block from my hotel. By 9:30, we headed out to another bar called Bush Garden which is in the International District... this isn't just any ol' bar, but in fact, a karaoke bar. Let's just say that it was a fun night, and I don't know how I managed to stumble my way back to my hotel room.

Saturday morning was rough. I woke up around 5:50am and found myself on my bed, laying on my side, television on, and Frito chips next to my head. Apparently that was my dinner that never made it into my stomach. I went back to bed for a few more hours and then officially headed out around 9:30. The weather was a bit gloomier that day; the skies were a little darker and the streets were wet, so rain was on its way. I walked over a couple blocks to the Pike Place Market which is this huge farmers'/crafts market with hundreds of little shops and restaurants. I bought the first thing I saw because my stomach was yelling at me, so that ended up being an ambrosia apple. Delicious, sweet apple. I strolled around the market, looking at all the overpriced, organic, local goods. Eventually I found a restaurant called Lowell's and went in to eat some real food. I ordered my usual favorite: corned beef hash. Unfortunately, this may have been the worst corned beef hash I have ever had. The hash wasn't even mixed in with the beef, the beef contained onions (big no-no with me), it didn't have any flavor... it was all just wrong. I barely ate any of it.

After my disappointing breakfast, I decided to take the monorail (my third form of public transportation in Seattle) from downtown into Seattle Center (where Space Needle, EMP/SFM, and Pacific Science Center are located). It was short ride for $2. The monorail actually passes through Gehry's EMP/SFM to get to the station (I actually thought the station was inside the EMP/SFM; that would've been cool).
EMP/SFM was a pretty cool museum. A lot of it was focused on Jimi Hendrix, who I never really listened to but definitely appreciate now that I've heard some of his songs, but there were also areas where you could play instruments. I spent some time in a sound-proof room, banging on drums until my ears couldn't take it anymore. The science fiction part of the museum was tiny but interesting. All of it was based off the question of "what if...?" which is always one of my favorite things to think about.

Afterward, I walked next door to the Pacific Science Center. The center is composed of five buildings with an outdoor core. It was kind of confusing to figure out where I was though. Anyway, there were a ton of things to do and see inside, but my favorite was the butterfly house (like the butterfly garden at the MoS in Boston).
I finished walking around the center and ate some dinner inside of the Seattle Center. Then I went back to Space Needle and luckily the sky had cleared up by that point. After taking some nighttime photos and freezing my fingers, I walked towards my destination for the night. Before coming out to Seattle, I bought a ticket to a burlesque show called Christmas Stockings which was a fundraiser to raise money and send care packages to the troops. I was about an hour too early but figured I would just hang out at a coffee shop before the show. As I walked down the street, two guys waved at me and struck up a conversation. Both of the guys were named Ryan. They invited me out for a drink, so I thought "carpe diem" and we went to a nearby bar called Shorty's. It's actually an awesome bar, aside from the fact that it has a bunch of clowns around; there were a ton of pinball machines and arcade games. We ended up playing Guitar Hero and other games for about an hour, drinking our beers. Eventually I had to leave, but one of the Ryans (I'll called him Ryan #1) asked if he could join me, so I said "why not." I invited Ryan #2 as well, but when we got there, there was only one seat left, so Ryan #2 decided to leave. The show was great though; it was my first time seeing a burlesque. The host was an awesome drag queen--really funny and perverse. I was highly entertained the entire time. After the show, I said my goodbyes to Ryan #1 and headed back to the hotel to relax.


Sunday morning, I woke up and checked out of the hotel and left my bag there for later. I attempted to find a cafe that the desk clerk suggested, but it didn't exist, so I remembered that my boss and her boyfriend had recommended a place on 1st Ave, so I walked and walked until I found a bakery/cafe called Macrina. I got a seat at the "bar" right in front of the chef. It was great to watch her multitask and cook up all these amazing creations. I ordered a cranberry pear mimosa and the salmon scramble. Delicious! I also got a free mocha because I was asked to move down one seat to make room for a couple. I highly recommend this place; great food, great people, great service.
My last City Pass attraction was the Woodland Park Zoo. It's a very large zoo with a lot of animals, but because it was so cold out, not many animals were active. I felt bad for a lot of them too because they looked so sad to be behind cages and glasses. Hopefully they're happier in the summer?

By 4pm, I made it back to the historic district of Seattle to attend the 4pm Underground Tour, recommended by Mallory in SLP. I had no idea that Seattle was built over. Back in 1889, about 32 blocks of Seattle had burnt down, and they saw it as an opportunity to fix all that was wrong with the city. So as they rebuilt the city, they decided to raise the street level by 15 feet to avoid sewage problems, leaving the old street facades underground. So today, the street level we see is actually the second floor. For 15 years, Seattle utilized both the underground and street level, so there were several skylights in the sidewalk, but nowadays, only a few skylights remain and the undergrounds are closed off to the public. The tour was fascinating and very educational (and I'm usually not a fan of history!).
When the tour ended, I made my way back to Pike Place to find a store/cafe called the Chocolate Box and ordered an Americano, made with real chocolate! Finally, it was time to face reality and leave Seattle. I picked up my bag, got on the subway, and got on my flight back to LA.

That's it for now. Merry Christmas, everybody! Make it a good one.

Reunited

This past week, my old roommates, Julia and Dylan, visited! Since sophomore year, these two (in addition to my suite) have become like my second family. And let me tell you, it was such a joy to see family.

Unfortunately, I had to work during the week, but I sent them on their own LA adventures during the day and hung out with them at night. Luckily we had all of Saturday (and luckily Dylan rented a Zipcar for two days--although they got to experience LA public transportation as well) to visit other sites.

On Wednesday night, I took them to a local Mexican restaurant called La Cabana which has a great atmosphere and delicious Mexican food (and $30 pitchers of margarita!) and then we went to Roosterfish, the only gay bar in Venice, where they had $3 margaritas that night. Thursday night (I was stuck at work until 8. Booooo) we went over to Santa Monica, and thankfully my roommate James drove us, or else it would've taken forever to get there by bus. We walked along the Third Street Promenade, and then we ate at a place called Buddha's Belly, which was a cross between P.F. Chang's and Wagamama. By the time we finished dinner, the pier was closed. I blame work. So we called it a night and headed back. Friday night, my office actually had a holiday party at my boss's house, so I brought Julia and Dylan as my guests and had a fantastic dinner. We left early to go experience the nightlife in LA (my first time actually), so Dylan drove us to The Abbey in WeHo. Good vibe and nice mix of people, but drinks were so expensive ($10 for a fuzzy navel!!). At least the drink was strong.

Saturday was a great day. We woke up early and headed to breakfast at Cafe 50's, my current favorite dive for a cheap breakfast. After that, I was determined to have them experience Santa Monica Pier, so we drove up there for an hour and played at the arcade (actually, only I played games...), rode on the roller coaster, and played a carnival game (and I won a monkey!).

Our next stop was the Schindler House by Richard Schindler. We were fortunate enough to have a docent there who gave us a tour of the house and explained the history of it. I think we would have gotten lost inside because the house is divided for two families, and both sides look almost identical from inside. I loved the house though. I think the head height was maybe 6 or 7 feet, so the three of us, who are around 5'2" and 5'3", felt like giants! The house was definitely influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, who Schindler worked for for a brief time. It had a great outside space defined by its varying elevations, and the interior and exterior flowed nicely thanks to the sliding doors that opened up the rooms.

Initially our next destination was supposed to be the Stahl House, but unfortunately, they weren't offering any daytime tours that day, so instead, we went to the Griffith Observatory, which is located on Mount Hollywood. From the top, you get fantastic views of the entire city. Our timing was perfect; we arrived around 3:30 and stayed until the sun set at 4:45. The weather that day was beautiful--74 and sunny with a few clouds to decorate the sky. The exhibits inside were interesting as well, but we were just captivated by the view.

After the sun went down, we headed to the Getty Center. I was happy that it was clear out this time because my last visit was rainy and cloudy. We didn't really go into the buildings, but I was amazed by the view of the city! We really lucked out with the weather this weekend.

Sadly, it was time for them to leave. I drove them to the airport, returned the Zipcar, took the bus home, and passed out for the night.

Today was a lazy Sunday. It was a perfect beach day (80 degrees and sunny) but I had to work on grad school apps (which are due SO soon! Where did my time go?!). But don't worry; I left some time for me to enjoy myself. When I sent Julia and Dylan to visit the Venice Canals earlier this week, they found out that there would be a boat parade on Sunday, so that's what I did in the afternoon/evening. It was my first time attending a parade, and it was definitely interesting. Very kitschy and eclectic... some of the floats didn't make any sense (like an army tank?) but some were awesome (a whole live band playing on the canal!). Good way to end the weekend.

Next up... Seattle!

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

This past weekend, I took a three day bus tour to Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, Hearst Castle, and Solvang. Honestly, the tour was not worth the money. But let me elaborate first.

Saturday, I spent about nine hours on a bus to get to Yosemite and spent maybe an hour and a half seeing only two spots. Then I spent another four hours on the bus to get to my hotel, which wasn't even in downtown San Fran. Granted, Yosemite was beautiful, but it didn't wow me. I feel like I've seen more amazing sights in New Hampshire. Although I did enjoy seeing snow; it was almost like being back on the east coast.

On Sunday, the tour took us to downtown San Francisco. Because this is a mainly Chinese tour (never again will I do Asian or bus tours), I pretty much ate Chinese food all weekend. So we started off the morning by going to dim sum in Chinatown (GAHHH!!). I actually met some people on this tour so that was a plus (the minus was that they were all Chinese--I think I'm a bit racist towards my own race). After breakfast, we headed over to Lombard Street, which is the crazy steep road with a bunch of turns. It was a hike to get up there! Seriously, I don't think handicapped or old people can live in San Francisco (which sounds pretty great to me) because it's such a hilly city! But the great thing is that no matter where you are, there's always a fantastic view.
Next we stopped by the Palace of Fine Arts briefly just to take photos (lame) and then headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. Yes, at that point, I fell in love with San Francisco. It was quite a sight to see. Unfortunately, the weather that day was not cooperative, so everything was cloudy or rainy. After that, the tour offered the option of going on a harbor cruise but I declined because my old roommates were also in SF this weekend, so I decided to meet up with them instead! It was so so great to see friends. We had lunch at a restaurant called Wipeout on Pier 39 and walked around for a bit. Unfortunately I had to meet up with my tour group again, so we parted ways briefly.

Our next stop was the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. I was very happy about this stop because it was a work of architecture. The interior was beautiful with its use of concrete and geometry. No idea who the architects were though.
Next we went to visit the Painted Ladies (most known for their appearance in the opening credits of Full House). I didn't know what the houses were called, and the tour guide kept calling them the 606 Houses, so it wasn't until I got there that I realized where I was. I also think that parts of Just Like Heaven were filmed there. And guess who I ran into! Dylan and Julia, haha. Small world.

 After that, the tour headed up to Twin Peaks, but because the weather was so bad, you couldn't see a thing from up there. So then the tour continued to city hall and the library... I don't know why anyone would want to visit those places on a tour. But at least the library had an interesting interior.
To end the day, we ended up where we started: Chinatown. Dinner was pretty good though; I was excited to order dragon dumplings (the best are in Manhattan at Joe Shanghai). On the way back to the hotel, we stopped on the side of the road to see the view of SF.
We headed back to the hotel pretty early (about 7:30) so I was sad that I couldn't experience San Francisco nightlife... or any life for that matter. The tour was too much about sights and not enough about experiences. That is why I've decided to return to San Francisco either at the end of this month or the middle of next month.


Monday morning, we left Fremont (where the hotel was) and headed for Hearst Castle. I was expecting an actual castle, but it was just an estate. It was interesting I guess, but I didn't know who this Hearst guy was so I didn't care too much about his property. I got some nice pictures though.

Lastly, our tour stopped by a town called Solvang which was designed to resemble the city of Copenhagen. It was a cute little town--completely touristy though.

Overall an alright trip, but I should've saved my money and went to SF solo to begin with. Ah well, at least I got to see Yosemite.

Tomorrow (or today actually...) Julia and Dylan come to visit until Saturday! And next week, I'm off to Seattle!