Hej!
Sometimes time just goes and I realize I've been doing things and my blog hasn't felt it. I'm not even talking about you guys reading this because I know you won't care. But I don't want to hurt my blog's feelings, you know? Okay, maybe you don't know, but anywhoooo.
I was looking through my photos and thought 67 pics are probably like... 37... pics too many? So I tried to find a theme and when I couldn't do that I decided to make up a completely dumb theme and just roll with it.
So here it is: three things or places or stuff that happened maybe a month ago. I know, I know: I'm SO up to date here. But humor me, okay?

You remember when David and I were in San Francisco, right? The long drive there featured a bunch of truck stops in the middle of nowhere, and on one of them I decided to look around a little and maybe snap some photos.

I struck gold with this car cemetery in the desert!

AND it was also the home of a whole bunch of feral kittens!

I mean. That is Truck Stop Gold right there.

I also convinced David that we needed to take some jumping photos, so you could say I was happy already- not even close to San Francisco!
I actually really like driving places with David. Well, I don't drive because I don't have a driver's license (I KNOW!) but so often when we're going somewhere by car and we're in the middle of nowhere and there's music and just roads and we are in frickin' USA and life is so wonderful and I'm just STRUCK by this magical feeling of happiness and I don't even KNOW because it's not like it was any different the morning before but it's like the open road gives me perspective or something and yeah, this was one long ass sentence so I'll put a period on this now.

And our hotel in SF was old and decorated in a wonderfully freaky way. I mean, this photo is proof enough, right?

We had a wonderful couple of days in SF and it felt awesome to be able to stroll around in a city where it's more people than just me and the homeless out walking. (Seriously LA! The sidewalks are meant to walk on! Try it for once!)

Pretty view and loveydovey us.

Around easter my sister, her kids and their friend Rebecka came to visit us. I was so excited! Here I'm sitting and waiting and listening for sounds of a jet lagged bunch of Swedish people tumbling up the stairs.

It was so great to have them all here! I took them to all the great spots.

My niece Hilda- Already a star in Hollywood.

We went to LA Zoo of course!

And I took a selfie with a giraffe.

And we went to Santa Monica pier where it was windy as all hell.

Alfred running on the beach!

I took my sister, Sara, to UCB for a musical improv show that I love- and she of course loved it too!

When they had went back to Sweden again I felt a little like this. So tired. And the apartment was so quiet. And strange. And happy that it went so well- now we know they can come back many times!

The last thing/place/whatever is a Sunday hike to where they shot the tv series M*A*S*H. It was quite the long walk there and when we reached the spot it turned out to be the least exciting part of the entire hike.
But that doesn't mean it was boring because OMG this was a beautiful place!
I found an abundance of spooky trees, for one thing!

I climbed a few of them. And balanced high up and hoped that I wouldn't fall before the self timer had gone off so I at least would get a nice photo before I'd break all the bones in my body.
I didn't fall though. Surprising everybody (well, David), but mostly myself.

The mountains and green fuzzy hills give me so many creative ideas, you have NO idea.

Just like road trips with this guy makes me indescribably happy, seeing wondrous nature like this together makes me smile from ear to ear. It just smacks me in the head: the beautiful surroundings, the adventure, the love. And that's how you know it's kissing selfie time!

That was all from me today.
And, can we just pretend the theme was solid and perfect and you bought it completely? Okay? Thanks.

/Lotta

Hej!
On Monday David and I went to San Francisco for a few days. David's brother Joakim was there for a gaming convention to show his new game, and since he was in the same country AND state as us we of course wanted to go and see him. We were eager to spend some time in San Francisco too, since we haven't been there more than a few hours before.
We had an amazing stay- San Francisco is a beautiful city- and on Wednesday, before we drove back to LA, I documented the hours we had left in SF with my Nikon.
Let's see what we were up to, okay?

The hotel breakfast was kind of a bummer so the last day in the city I had looked up a café that supposedly served great bagels and coffee - so we drove there.
The difference between LA and SF became very clear here. THIS is a city. LA is weird and spread out, but SF has to squeeze everything into a small area. That makes for some real hustle and bustle totally unlike LA. I like both, but it was quite refreshing to spend an early morning in this vibrant city.

I'll never stop thinking Nob Hill is funny. Never. Giggle every time I see this photo.

And here we were! Beanstalk Cafe, squeezed between buildings in the middle of building renovations. I love it!

David looked cute, and a little worried. I asked him a camera related question and this was his face before answering.

This, my dear friends and readers, is a Cragel. Croissant and Bagel coming together in a beautiful way.
When I saw people raving about it on yelp I knew I had to try. This is their morning cragel. Scrambled eggs, cheese and bacon. Yup! It was AMAZING!

OMnomnomNOM!

David also chose a cragel. Of course.

The cafe was tiny. We were so lucky to catch the only table in there. Lots of regulars came in to get there coffee and bagel fix. All of them were perfectly individual characters. The "mayor" (that's what he looked like at least) talking in his best booming speech voice as to make sure no one misses his presence. The old man sitting quietly on the bar stool sipping coffee and reading his paper like he most certainly does every day.
It was lovely to watch it all while having our breakfast. It was the perfect start of the day.

Okay. No more pictures.

Look at that cool cold brew machine! It dripped- slowly, oh so slowly- filling the decanter in the bottom.

And then we had to get going. We wanted to see one more thing before we left San Francisco.
But first one more look at the city!

We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge.

And went to Muir Woods! Even though we were early both the parking areas were filled to the brim and we had to park along the road. Faaaaar down the road.
So we had to take a walk to get to the walk, haha!

SO worth it.
Muir Woods is a beautiful redwood forest with thousand year old trees looming high above our heads.

(Can you see the two tiny old ladies in the middle?)

Tourists of all ages. Isn't this the cutest?

This one is quite cute too. Trying to get an entire tree into one photo- It's impossible!

All you could do in Muir Woods was look up, following the tree trunks all the way up, up, up.

It makes you feel really small.

Aah. So lovely up there.

One of my all time favorite things: sunshine coming through the branches in spots, creating the loveliest combination of light and dark.

Here's another one.

And here. (If you look closely you can see a spider web in between the branches)

And this! See what I mean?

Spider webs everywhere!

The sunshine was especially tricky here. The contrast are beautiful, but can make it super hard to get the photo you want.

Hi!
The girl in the entrance kiosk told me I looked smashing in my outfit. That made me happy, because I felt kinda tired and very far from smashing.

I have a lot of photos like this. Dark trees and bright green foliage. Can't get enough of it!

Always a big fan of creepy roots.

Looks like some kind of pre historic monster.

It's fun to take photos of other tourists being touristy.

Muir Woods was such a wonderful place. I actually cried a little because I was so overwhelmed by it all. Nature is fucking awesome!

And when we got out of the woods we stopped to take in this fairly astounding view.

It felt like a good way to end our San Francisco trip.

We drove back to LA with new energy and when we drove into Hollywood and saw all the movie posters it actually felt like coming home. Isn't that strange?
And walking through the door to our apartment, it smelled like home.
Not like New Apartment.
Home.