Here and Now: Excursion

Showing posts with label Excursion. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Harry Potter World - Universal Studios LA

Last long weekend of summer is just around the corner and even though kids are already back in school, it is hard not to take advantage of the long Labor Day weekend and make one more road trip before Fall weather sets in.

I think I’m still in Minnesota mind set where winter road trips were a major challenge and even though in California, travel is pretty much year round, summer season and summer vacation hold special place in our lives. At the beginning of the summer, we took a road trip to LA to see the new Harry Potter exhibit at Universal. I thought I’d share it here and inspire you to take a trip.

If you are a Harry Potter fan or have read the books or watched all the movies then you would love this place. If you are on the fence about visiting the park, I’d say give it a try, it is totally worth it.

Here’s a short video of the whole experience to give you a glimpse.

At the entrance of the Harry Potter world is the Hogwarts’s Express locomotive, beautifully staged with loads of luggage, steam/smoke from the chimney and even a conductor/engineer/driver.

Bouquets to Art - de Young, San Francisco

A couple weeks ago I took a solo trip to the de Young Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco. I had been to de Young before but this trip was solely for visiting the Bouquets to Art. I was missing Minnesota and the MN Institute of Art usually hosts a similar exhibition in last week of April, the Art in Bloom. So, while I was setting out to experience something new in a new place, the trip was instigated by a very warm place in nostalgia.

I came back with almost a thousand pictures between my DSLR and mobile pictures and it was an enormous quantity to share them all without them loosing their intensity. So, I picked a few that really spoke to me and also served as a good inspiration for trying to create a vignette in our home around the art work that we love. Hope these set of pictures inspire you to create with a new perspective...

Photographic Wednesday : Meandering Red Cedar River

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Fresh Art Tour

Now that the Spring Fresh Art tour is just around the corner and most likely I will visit and explore some new artists and more studios, it is only fair that I share the pictures from the Fall Fresh Art tour 2011. It was a long list of studios that I had wished to visit but ended up spending the entire day at the Maiden Rock City along Lake Pepin on WI Hwy. 35.

View of Lake Pepin from one of the Galleries

We visited one Antique shop, Basil's and two Art Galleries - Swan Song Gallery and Secret Heart Gallery. Here are some pictures and a few words too....

BASIL'S:

Swan Song Gallery:

Block displayed that was used for block Printing

Fair Trade Fabric for sale at Swan Song Gallery

A private collection of Idols

Secret Heart Gallery:

Artist spending time with my girls

Beautifully decorated home and Gallery of the Artist

After spending many hours looking at art and getting my fill of inspiration, we turned our attention to our grumbling tummies and thankfully there was a bakery across the street from the Galleries that looked inviting. We found out the 'Smiling Pelican Bake Shop' sells hand made goodies that are extremely popular and things tend to sell out fast. We sampled a few last remaining pieces of pies and have returned to the shop several time since that visit...

Mmmm... these are the best jammers ever...

Hope it wouldn't take me this long to share pictures from the Spring Fresh Art Tour... I am looking forward to it

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Weekend at Lake Superior

Last weekend, my husband did what he does best, made an impromptu plan; a plan to spend the weekend at Lake Superior. I had no idea about the resort he booked, the room or what sort of amenities it had. But if it’s the day before the travel when the reservations were made that means I had given up long ago.

We left late Friday afternoon and I was so exhausted by the time we got there and were through with our dinners that the glimpse of the simmering moon on the lake through the picturesque window was all I could afford before the sleep embraced me and lulled me to dream land.

The following morning was better, I took pictures of the sunrise and after breakfast we spend a lot of time on the rocky shores and it was a calming experience. I took pictures and assembled a terrarium.

Often, when I am surrounded by such beauty and serenity of nature, my mind and body rushes in mad excitement to embrace each element and hold it all together within me. I blindly take pictures, I collect random tidbits, I stare and meditate over the scenery; all that so that I can take it with me wherever I go, hold it close to be and make it a part of my life.

And almost like a sequential thought and a reoccurring dream, the next stream of thoughts that follow is the realization that it is already me, I am one with the nature, I carry it within me. I don’t need memorabilia or tangible proof of all that that’s already with and within me. I find the self held together in a porous cup and can feel the nature breathing through each pore of by being and that moment of peace is so grounding. I am as big or as small as I choose to be, I can focus on the body that’s holding me or the friends and family that make up my social identity or just the nature as a whole and be a part of the world seen or unseen…

Ah! It was a good to get away and breathe for a little bit…

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Berrilicious Summer...

It aint summer till its strawberry picking season...
Luckily we managed to get out to the orchard a few times this summer to indulge in this delicious luxury...