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.

Hej!
On Friday David and I packed our bags and went to Morongo Valley for a weekend of writing. Sometimes a change of location is just what you need to get your brain working.
The only things we had planned for (except writing writing writing) was to stop and take photos if the desert looked beautiful and interesting.
So this is mostly a post with photos from those little breaks.
But first: Look at me in my new smashing vintage dress!

From the late 60s if I should guess. And EXTREMELY colorful. I have not enhanced the colors at all in this photo. It is vibrant as all hell.

Very much ready for a day of writing in the desert.

After lunch in Palm Springs we found a dirt road that looked interesting.
Commence the photo bonanza!

I'm quite fond of this one.
I had it clear in my mind, but when you're working with fickle things as wind it's difficult to get things the way you want them. I'm very happy mother nature cooperated with me.

Even the road and traffic looks cool in the desert!

Today on our way back to LA we again wanted to stop somewhere fun for photos. The fog lay thick on the mountain on the other side of the highway and we thought we'd never find a tunnel or bridge to get over there. The rain picked up, the clouds rolled in and the wind was everywhere around us. But there! A bridge!
We crossed railway tracks and then we were in the middle of a storm. And it was amazing!

Come on, Wind!

Give me the best you've got!

On my list of things I wanted to see and photograph: Strange desert flora.

Scarf or cape? Who cares when it looks this dramatic!?

Cactus in the foreground, mountain and fog in the back. Also on my list of things I've been wanting to photograph.

When the wind does your hair artfully.

On the list of favorite things to do: Adventures with this guy.

David on his way to capture the view. I think it might have been this photo he was about to take.

Then all of a sudden the storm just went away. It stayed a little while longer over the mountains but...

...if you turned around it looked like this.
And we were ready to get back on the road to LA.

A weekend is far too little time for everything I want to see in the desert! So, we might have to come back soon.

Talk to you soon!

/Lotta

Hej!
On saturday it was my birthday and we celebrated by going to Catalina Island.
I didn't bring my Nikon but I took a lot of photos with my iPhone that I wanted to show you, because this was one lovely weekend!
We had planned to go to a breakfast place close to the ferry terminal on Long Island, but LA traffic decided otherwise. We came as far as one kilometer before we realized every freeway entrance was closed for some reason, and there were A LOT of cars circling around not knowing what the hell was going on. After 30 minutes of not going anywhere we decided to have our breakfast at a place close to where we live instead. I was craving coffee and just wanted fooood.

We ended up at The Oak Gourmet that I love. I was happy and looked forward to the day!

And then, traffic just started to move again. We had begun to feel a little nervous that we might miss the ferry, but in true Lotta style we got there in good time to get on the ferry that left one hour before the one we had planned to take. That's how I roll.

This photo makes me think of my favorite Swedish animated movie Resan till Melonia.

When we got to Catalina Island I was super stoked as you can see, partly because there was a pelican sitting behind me and I've never been that close to a pelican before.

It was time for lunch so we walked to the restaurant Blue Water Grill and got a table outside right by the water. This was our view.

I got a Cucumber Mojito.

And a Lobster Roll. Ahhh, heaven!

We checked into our hotel after that. The view from the street looked very much like we were in Nice, France and not one hour from Los Angeles.

And then we went to Olaf's and got ice-cream. Look at this Instagram-hipster-worthy photo! I took two scoops, one Espresso Chip and one Black Cherry. SO TASTY!

David took Cookie Dough, and Bubblegum. Yes, that poisonous blue is bubblegum ice-cream.
And as usual I go for the "grown up flavors". David not so much.
We had planned to go for dinner later in the evening, but we got so full on ice-cream that we decided that got to be our dinner instead. Ice-cream for dinner, yay!

And then the sun started to set for the evening.

We found a spot in the harbor where we sat for a while. It was getting a bit chilly but we didn't want to leave just yet.

I was so happy with the day. I think I'll remember it forever.
When it got too cold we walked back to our room where I had gotten a bottle of champagne from the hotel staff. The rest of the evening we enjoyed having a tv for the first time in 7 months by flipping between the channels, drinking champagne and planning our adventures for the next day.

And then it was Sunday!
There's almost no cars on Catalina. People drive Golf Carts instead. The houses actually have parking spots in the size of golf carts, it's the cutest!
We rented one for a couple of hours and drove the scenic route around the city of Avalon.
It was so beautiful, and also quite silly with all the tiny golf carts putting around on the steep and winding roads.

Stopping to take in the view.

Avalon is the cutest place!

And here's me and the view at one of the other stops we made. The hat was new for the day because the sun was stronger there than in LA and I needed something to protect my face. Also: I love hats. You could never have too many hats.

Same view, minus Lotta.

Dream Home!!!

And then we found deer! And I got to pet one of the babies!

Before it was time to go to the ferry we walked on the beach because I wanted to look for treasures. I found white, smooth stones, shells and beach glass. They are now in the small compartment in my bag. A little bit of Catalina in LA.

And then we said Goodbye to Catalina Island for this time.
It was such a lovely place and we definitely want to come back again some time.
When we got home it felt like we had been away for at least five days. It's strange how that can be, but when we turned onto our street it felt like it's been ages since we left.
It's the magic of a great mini weekend.

/Lotta

Hej!
A while back I was using my Google-fu to try to find some interesting and weird places to explore in the Los Angeles area.
One of the places I happened upon was the Murphy Ranch Nazi Camp, described as a World War II-era enigma hidden in a forest outside of Santa Monica.
The pictures and text I could find about the place made me itch to go there as soon as possible. Yesterday I convinced David we needed a sunday adventure at the Murhy Ranch.

On the site Atlas Obscura they describe it like this Now property of Los Angeles City parks, Murphy Ranch was originally developed to be a self-sustaining compound in the 1930s. It was originally purchased in 1933 by Jessie Murphy -- a person never seen nor documented elsewhere. Despite the phantom owner, the property was developed by Winona and Norman Stephens and a German national by the name of Herr Schmidt. The design implemented was an installation of several buildings, fuel tanks, and multiple massive cisterns. The entire complex, according the plans of Herr Schmidt, was to be self-sustaining even if it suffered years of isolation from the outside society. Schmidt's motivations, however, remain the focus of the lore.

Apparently Herr Schmidt wanted to create a Nazi holdout in America, but in 1941 the ranch is said to have been raided by United States Federal Agents that had kept an eye on Herr Schmidt and his work. The place has been abandoned ever since, with the exception of a few years in the 60's and 70's when artists took over the ranch.

The backstory piqued my interest, but what really made me want to go there was the fact that the only way to reach the ranch was by descending a 500 steps concrete staircase straight down the mountainside.
The pictures I found showed a hidden and secret place, and I was so excited to see it for myself!
We arrived at the start of the hike around 5.30 in the afternoon. It's been so hot in Los Angeles lately so we had to wait until it was starting to cool off a bit, but not too late because we didn't want to get stuck out in the wilderness in the dark.

The light was just perfect and I was already happy that we had came there, even if we weren't to find the stairs.
We met a few people going back down the trail who told us to keep going and the stairs would appear quite clearly maybe a mile ahead.

And there it was. In front of the most beautiful mountain view.

After walking down the stairs for a while David asked "Are we going to be doing this forever, Lotta?" The stairs just kept on going.

It felt like we were explorers in a forgotten world!

I even decided it was worth it to go up and down the stairs a little bit extra for some self timer photos. I didn't know what I was in for later, apparently...

Like a fairytale! Or an adventure movie!

And then we reached the end of the stairs and found the goal of our hike!

I like that among all the usual graffitied penises and swear words someone had written Fuck Hitler (can't be seen in the photo though, if you were trying to find it). To keep the vandalism topical, I guess.
We didn't have time to look around any more than this house, because the light was rapidly getting weaker and we needed to head back to the car before dark.
I plan to return soon though, and bring my real camera! The weather will just have to cool off a bit before though, because I want time to explore this amazing location!

After just a few steps we realized just how exhausting the way up would be. I was breathing so heavy and tried to find a good breathing rhythm to keep me going. Sweat was pouring and we kept chanting about the ice-cream we had decided to buy when we finished the hike.

We had to stop and breathe a couple of times.

LOOK AT ALL THOSE STAIRS BEHIND ME! So sweaty and shaky. Our legs started to feel like spaghetti after a while.

When we finally reached the top the sky looked this wonderful! Like a painting!

Speaking of paintings, isn't this mountain side so beautiful?!
I love the texture and colours.

And another one (I have at least ten more photos like these in my phone).

And over there is Santa Monica in evening light.

Such an awesome adventure! I absolutely love to find places like this and I have already started to search for the next location to explore.
Also, I'm sure that the muscle soreness I'm feeling today is going to remind me of this excursion for at least a couple of days.

That was all for today, I hope you liked to tag along on our hike.
Talk to you soon!

/Lotta