Listening

I'm addicted to these songs lately....

Click on the links and then look for the song name.

"Ride" by Cary Brothers

"Chocolate"by Snow Patrol oh and "Chasing Cars" too

Both songs are on The Last Kiss soundtrack which is an extra yummy CD.

Oh and just about anything by Joshua Radin.

And to close....me at Grauman's Chinese theater. Yes, I was that excited. Mostly cause I was standing between Cary Grant, Julie Andrews and Clark Gable's footprints. Old Hollywood magic is alive and well at Graumans and I LOVE it!




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I miss...

THIS.

Our last night in LA. We went for a walk on the beach. Venice Beach. It was stunningly beautiful. I have a ton of pictures, but this was one of my favorites.

It's really hard to try and pick the pictures to upload because I have so many favorites. When people ask me what my favorite part was I don't know what to answer. I loved all of it. Starting with my visit with the W's, to Vancouver, the cruise and ending in LA. Movie locations, TV sets, studios, beaches, cities, towns, forests. How can a girl choose. And I got to spend quality time with my family. It was an awesome trip.

I've also realized how much I love to travel. While it was good to sleep in my own bed and eat in my kitchen, I would have given them up to stay another week or 5. Kinda strange since I am such a home body. I'm ready for another trip. Thankfully, I have one coming up soon. A visit to see my sis and her prego tummy.

So what do I say to wrap it all up? I guess it will take more than one post to re-play everything. My one big highlight from the end of the trip. I got to walk on to the sets of Gilmore Girls (Loreli's parent's house including the dinner table and living room. Right through the "front door" plus the streets of Star's Hollow) ER (walked through the emergency bay doors past the County General sign....surreal) and Friends (Central Perk, baby! I sat on "the" couch!). This was one TV addict that was lovin' life at that moment. If you love TV, do a studio tour. They are ridiculously expensive and worth every penny. I have a couple pictures but not a ton since they keep everything tightly under wraps (aka NO PHOTOS here).

My only regret. I didn't get to see one famous person. It wasn't for lack of trying. Oh, well. That just means I've got to go back.
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I know you are....

upset with my lack of pictures, but I’ve tried several times tonight with no success. You’ll just have to wait until I get back. There are some good ones to share, so just wait a little bit longer, okay?!
I’m LOVING LA. We have driven all over the place finding this location and that studio (Scrubs, the Office, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Buffy, Angel). It’s TV heaven for me! My family is so patient to drive and find each one. The weather is perfect. 80 degrees, no clouds and warm lovely sunshine. Do I really have to leave? I could live with this weather forever and ever. Must come back.
California is really charming. We had breakfast today in Santa Monica, not to far from our hotel. Lovely. The beaches are so long and wide. It’s much more relaxed here than the east coast. I still haven’t seen a movie star though.
Tomorrow we are headed to do the Warner Brothers Studio tour. Oh,yeah! Hoping to see someone one famous or at least another fun set. It’s our last day here. Can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks already! It’s going to be hard to go back to a routine that doesn’t include searching for movie sets as a main priority. Such is life.,...


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200th post and I'm in....

San Francisco. The sun is shining and the sky is clear. I'm sitting on the back of the cruise boat looking at Alcatraz typing on the laptop. Crazy! I have tons of pictures to upload, but we have a super slow connection through the cell phone right now.
The trip has been amazing. Astoria and Cannon Beach were beautiful once again. I love it there and this trip sealed the deal. The beach is heavenly. I really love it here in San Fran too. We took the sightseeing trolley tour around the city, across the Golden Gate Bridge and through China town. Then took and old fashioned trolley ride and hung off the side hanging on to the poles. We jumped off at Lumbar Street and walked down the crooked street.
Vancouver was really neat. We saw several different places where things were being filmed, saw the Smallville studios, Battlestar Galactica studios and just enjoyed the city. Victoria was cute too. Bad rainy weather though. Tomorrow is Catalina island and then on to San Diego. Yes!!! We end in Los Angeles in a couple days. Will post again when I can.

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Seattle was....

amazing as usual. It was wonderful to see the W's. It was hard to leave after just a few days, but so good to at least see them. Thanks Rach for a wonderful time! I'll post pictures when I get them uploaded.
I'm in Vancouver, BC right now. We toured the city and outskirts today. Found the film studios in the area. Saw lots of Smallville sights. I'm a total tourist and lovin' it. Will post pictures soon......

Once again

Headed out....

Will post from the road if possible.
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Matanuska glacier, AK

The last of the Alaska pictures. Had to finish posting these before I leave for my next trip!

Matanuska glacier was a beautiful glacier. It was the only place in Alaska that I saw a bit, and I do mean a small bit, of sunshine. You can actually drive up to this glacier and walk across the rock debris it leaves behind to stand on the blue ice. Really amazing!

The rocky mess it leaves behind as it recedes.

Don't we look like a happy bunch!
Just love the color blue in the ice. Yes, this is ice and rocks are frozen in it.
As it melted (and continues to), the rocks formed this perfect line.
See the sun on the mountains! I was practically jumping up and down with delight in seeing the sun. I don't know how they do it in the winter there! It's dark almost all the time!

Thanks for the amazing visit Stephanie, Jack and Luke. I had the best time!! Thanks for sharing your wilderness with me.

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Hatcher's Pass, AK

More Alaska pictures....
Hatcher's Pass is an old gold mining community. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen! And this was on a cloudy day. I took over 100 pictures. The buildings had the amazing red trim around all of the windows. Everything was still very much like it was when the mine closed in the 50's. They have tons of pictures of the people who lived there in the visitor's center. The old wooden structures were left as they fell. There were mining cabins way up in the mountain, little winding paths in the hills. It was such a fascinating place.

One of the easy hikes we did up through the hills. Found a spot for a picnic.

The hills were all rock/boulders covered in this beautiful green plant.

A picturesque pull off on the way up there.

The view from our lunch spot.

The reflections in the windows were magical.

These were left in one of the buildings. Just like this. No one touches them. There is no rope or sign telling you to keep off either. Every spot was a postcard picture begging to be taken.
This little creek ran down from the mountain and was a major part of the mining for the whole community. Wouldn't you love to live in that little spot?
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Hatcher's Pass , AK

After I came home, S mailed me pictures of this spot on a clear day. There was a whole mountain range behind these with snow capped peaks. They were hidden in the clouds the day I was there.
Peeking in the windows. Many of the building are still as they were left in the 50's which adds so much charm.
The visitor center's view of the little community.
LOVE the red trim!
These are little cabins where you can stay. They are only open for a short time each year because of the sever weather there. What a view!

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Fun things that brightened my day

A package from a friend full of Veronica Mars season 2. mmmmm......

Flipping (by chance) to the last few moments of the Angel crossover episode when Buffy comes to visit and he becomes human for a day.

Sunshine.

Taking a picture with my new cell phone.

Wearing my camo capris.

An email from a friend.

Reading my favorite blogs.

Knowing that I leave for California in less than a week!

Being inspired by other people's art.

Battlestar webisodes. Whoever came up with this idea is a genius!

behind the scenes

Lately, I've been looking around on the 'net to see if I can find filming locations for some of my favorite TV shows when we go to California on my next trip. I typed in (dear old Google) a show name and then "filmed" and I found tons of sights and even the studios they use. It's amazing the stuff you can find online. While I researching Veronica Mars (Oct. 3rd season premiere can't come fast enough) I found out that the creator of the show loves bloggers who write about his show. As appreciation, he picked a couple of them and invited them to come and spend the day on the set. This was my favorite re-cap of the day. I LOVE behind the scenes stuff. People goofing around behind the scenes. Wardrobe trailers. Props on set. Magic behind the story. It's all so fascinating to me. So, Rob Thomas, if you ever want more bloggers to come and visit your set, I'm ready at any time. And meeting "Logan" wouldn't be too bad either!

More Alaska

These are pictures from the glacier that we went to see. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive along the water. Really bad weather though. We couldn't see the glacier from the visitors center (normally, it's in perfect view). The park rangers suggested that we take the boat tour to it, which we did. It was fun little jaunt across the water to see the amazing glacier appear through the fog. The pictures are a little blurry cause my camera was in a plastic bag to protect it from the rain. So fun though! The boat got right up next to it and the air was freezing from all the ice. It was a little ferry-type boat with an open top deck. Who would have ever thought I would get to do such things?!

good tunes

This CD has been on repeat for a couple weeks now. It's almost as good as Garden State's soundtrack. #5 by Cary Brothers is my favorite today.



This is the score to the movie, not the album done by various artists. A couple of the tracks are magical just like the story.
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Favorite card so far

This is my favorite card that I have made so far. I had to make the envelope to go with it cause it was too big for a regular one.

I loved it so much that I didn't want to give it away! Love the square look. Have to use this format again.

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California Dreamin'...

on this hurricaney day....

Best part about this dream?

It's coming true next month.

The next trip is planned. Family trip to Vancouver, Astoria (think Goonies) and multiple CA sites including LA. I'm still pinching myself that it's actually going to happen.