LA and Disneyland Pictures

Sara with a Lichtenstein sculpture

A sculpture at the front of the Getty

Mara in her sculpture (that she built)

Sara in a painting

Muffins!

Metal Tree

Labrynth!

One of the Watts towers

Really tall Watts Tower

Wall of 7-Up Bottles

Wall with stuff

Mara and Simon Rodia

The Kodak Theatre

Jimmy Kimmel Live

Hollywood sign through telescope

Dr. Seuss

Frank Sinatra

Lawrence Welk

Jim Henson

Randy Newman (AKA the guy who sings the Monk songs)

Sandra Bullock

Walt Disney

Mickey Mouse

Donald Duck

Mara, Walt and Mickey

Sara in an Autopia Car

Mara in an Autopia Car

Sara in her future home

Mara(s) in her future home

Mara about to blow something up in Toontown

Mara "playing" the piano in Mickey's house

Mara, Sara and Pooh Bear

Mara, Sara and Tigger

Eeyore

Eeyore avoiding the poparazzi

California Girls

Sorry for the delay in posts. For the past three days we have been in a hotel that does not offer free Wi-Fi and charges you to use the business center. Crazy or what? Now we are in Califronia (not sure where) and are in a Starbucks using the Wi-Fi from the store next door. Anyway, we arrived in LA on Saturday, but we didn't do anything. On the way there we stopped at Sprinkles, a cupcake shop we were going to visit in LA, but they had one in Scottsdale, so we decided to get cupcakes there instead. My mom had a Dark chocolate cupcake and I had a key-lime cupcake. We both thought they were a bit much for our taste. On Saturday, we spent the day touring LA. We got up bright and early (Except it was around noon MN time) and drove to the Getty, a museum that has paintings, sculptures, a glorious view of the city and a garden lush with flowers and trees. We spent a couple hours there then drove to Watts, a neighborhood in the outskirts of the city. A man named Simon Rodia immigrated for Italy as a teenager, and in the forties and fifties built towers in his backyard called the Watts towers. They were made from cement and stuff. Stuff being things like shells, broken plates, 7-Up bottles shards of glass, ect. Later, they built a fence around it and made it available for touring. After our tour there, we drove around LA going back and forth, not sure where we wanted to go (much to our fatigue.) We eventually ended up in Hollywood. We walked for a while on the walk of fame, seeing a few (literally a few) stars that we recognized. You would not believe how long the walk of fame is. We passed by where they film Jimmy Kimmel Live and we walked around the Kodak Theater building. (We didn't actually get to see the theater.) We had no idea that when all the stars walk the red carpet to the theater, they have to pass by all these stores. Apparently, the building doubles as a shopping mall. No kidding. When you first get into the building, there are pillars lining the stairwell with years and the winning motion picture of that year lining down the pillar. If you face one way you see all the awards from the 20th century and the other way you see the 21st. The future years are already on the pillars all the way up to 2066. They really have it all planned out. (Who says the academy is even going to be around for that long?) If you walk for a while through the building, you get to a place with the best view of the Hollywood sign. You could even look through a telescope to get a better view. We had dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen and had some of their famous flavored lemonade. (Or at least famous to a few people out there... hint hint) Afterwords we tried to get to the beach, but we couldn't find a parking spot. Discouraged, and extremely tired, we went back to the hotel. We tried to find a Starbucks to post, but obviously, we didn't find one. The next morning we were in higher spirits for we knew what lay ahead for the day.... Disneyland. We didn't go on that many rides, but all of them were so fun, it didn't matter. Some were...
Pirates of the Caribbean, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (so cute), the Enchanted Tiki Room, Tarzan's Tree House, Mickey's House, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Autopia, Innoventions and Space Mountain. I recommend all of them. The first thing we did was buy me a Mickey hat. (That said "Mara" on it of course.) I had no idea there were so many choices! I didn't know that you could personalize your own hat! But we had to go with the classic one, because... well, you just have to! We didn't get to meet that many characters except for Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. All of our souvenirs were all Pooh. I got a shirt, a pair of earrings, a pin and a key-chain. We ended the day with a fire-works spectacular which was simply "magic". I had no idea how enchanted the place really was. Each attraction has the power to make you believe. It can make you believe it's midnight, when it's really noon. It can make you believe you're in the middle of a thunderstorm. It can make you believe you're in outer-space. Speaking of which, I have to admit one of the best area was Tomorrowland. (For those of you who don't know, Disneyland is divided into eight sections: Main Street U.S.A, New Orleans Square, Frontierland, Critter Country, Adventureland, Mickey's Toontown, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.) Tomorrowland was basically like you tumbled into the future. We waited in the longest line ever to get to Space Mountain. Then, when we got inside, there was a malfunction, and we had to wait longer. But when we actually got on the ride, it was all worth it. Zooming through space passing stars at the speed of light. That's what it felt like. We also got to go into a building called Interventions, where you were pretty much in a house from the future. And that's what it was! Soccer you could play with a digital carpet, a kitchen that does what you want when you ask it to, a room that tells a story for you. They could even predict what you would look like in the future! (But it was inaccurate, unless in the future everyone can see their muscles, veins and blood cells through their skins. Creepy!) The most authentic area was Toontown. It was like you were in a cartoon! Everything was big, goofy, and flamboyant. Not much to do, but everything to see. The cutest area was Critter Country. Long lines to meet characters from Winnie the Pooh, and everything was supposed to look like you were in the woods with "critters" and things. (A lot of it looked like the Hundred Acre Wood, in fact.) And last but not least, the area with the best rides was no doubt, Adventureland. Each one was like we were on a different safari mission. (Specifically, Indiana Jones. Pretty frightening as well.) But at the end of the day, we had to go home. We left around 10:30, but it felt like MN time which was 12:30, so we were exhausted. We did pass by the IHOP, but like I said, it was after midnight, so we couldn't stop by. We never went to Disney's California Adventure, not that I had the urge to. Today we drive to Vegas, and tonight we see Ka, the Cirque de Soleil performance.

Desert Life

One of Frank Lloyd Wright's pools

One of the walls of Taleisin West

Cacti

Mara cowering in fear under the fire breathing dragon

A sculpture with the moon shining through

Mara and her pigs

Yellow snake

A bird that was so kind to pose for us.

Gemstones!

Sara as a bat...?

This morning, we went to the Sonora-Desert Museum, which is more like a zoo. It was 112 degrees while we were there, so we really got a taste of desert life. Animals, being rather smart, stay hidden and sleep in that kind of heat, but we did get to see a bear, mountain lion, prairie dog and lots of snakes. On the way to Scottsdale, we stopped at Eva's for an authentic Mexican lunch, or so the sign said. It was quite tasty and our server was Eva. We are staying at the Doubletree resort in Scottsdale. It's very nice with two pools, many fountains, tennis courts, and a putting green. More stuff to do than we have time for. This evening we went to Taleisin West. The winter home of Frank Lloyd Wright for the last 20 years of his life. (In the summer he stayed at Taleisin in Wisconsin.) It is easy to see why he liked it here. The current students are in Wisconsin. We had a very interesting tour with a guide that told us not just about the building, but Wright himself. Mara has made it her life goal to see all of Wrights buildings that are still standing. This building was not only in nature, nature was in it, so we saw a lot of things scurrying around. There was a pack rat that ran into a man's camera as he was trying to take a picture of it. Mara was the one who noticed it at first. We also saw a lizard, rabbit and a kangaroo mouse. Most entertaining. Tomorrow - L.A......;)

City of Rocks, and that is all.

Today, I woke up to the iPod quacking at me. My mom was already up (as usual) and I was not ready to get out of bed. After an un-filling breakfast, we drove near the places we had planned on visiting yesterday before they closed. We went to a small art museum with some cool paintings, and a science museum with... fractals. What are fractals? I'm not sure. They are cool computer generated pattern art. Just look at the picture and you might understand. Apparently it has a lot to do with math. Yuck. Then we spent the rest of the day driving and hanging out at the City of Rocks State Park. It's a large oval area of huge and small rocks everywhere. You can stand under some and look up, and you can climb to the top of the hills and look down at the "city". The rocks look like buildings, hence the name. Not only were the rocks cool, so was everything else. There were beautiful cacti, speedy jack-rabbits, neon-orange-moths, and camouflaged lizards. (Notice my adjective skills, which were taught by Mr. Ford while I was gone!) We couldn't get any pictures of adult jack-rabbits, since they were so fast. We didn't do much after that besides eating, driving, and solving murders before Monk reveals who did it. Incase you were wondering, hotel TVs never have good shows on. We've been continually watching AFV and the occasional Wipeout, both of which I find entertaining, but my mom doesn't. Incase you were wondering. Right now we are in Tucson, (pronounced without the C) and tomorrow we drive to Scottsdale.

Hola New Mexico

Welcome to New MexicoBeware of Snakes!

Today we left Texas behind and headed on to New Mexico. We are staying in Las Cruces tonight. Just south of town is the historic village of Mesilla. We stopped there before heading to our hotel. The town is nice and filled with old adobe buildings, but the shops were full of touristy stuff (other words could also fit). We plan to see a bit more of Las Cruces in the morning and then drive on to Tuscon.

Billy the Kid was arrested here, but he got away...

not sure what happened here