Surprise Me LA

LA surprise me all the time. 

And that's a good thing. Beautiful little pockets of culture, history, architecture. This is what makes LA so beautiful and one of my favorite cities.

A long long time ago, my dad took our family to the Lotus Festival in Echo Park. Years ago. Echo Park shut down for over 2 years, I believe, for a beautiful make-over. And here we are. Emerged once again, is this gorgeous park with a huge fountain and lake. They've put nice benches along the perimeter of the lake, made a nice walking pathway, cleaned up. Yes, there are still homeless. But I guess that's the charm of this park (not really). Who knew that you can get a gorgeous view of the Downtown skyline from here?! 

Another beautiful piece of architecture, sitting smack dab in the middle of Downtown. Who knew!? I mean I knew, but I never thought it was this amazing. I need to get around more. We attended a lecture by Ron Finley (the "Gangsta Gardener") at the LA Public Library on Flower & 5th. The lecture was a tad boring and not what I had imagined, so we skipped out a little early to explore the area. Boy, were we glad to! What an amazing area!! We live near DTLA, visited a ton of times and have never come to this library!! What the heck!

(Gorgeous tower of the Library. Dead ends at Hope St)

(Inside atrium of the library. High ceilings and interesting chandeliers)

(Bunker Hill. These steps are so pretty!! Right next to the US Bank building)

I think the Man and I are going to make it a thing to discover and explore LA a bit more this summer. We love discovering all of its nooks and crannies. Maybe we'll explore Grand St next. Who knew that The Standard was also right behind the Library?!

Learn something new everyday,
The Lady

What's eating the Lady up this week!

The big thing that's been eating me up lately is our newest venture, buying a freakin' house. It's more like what's been bugging the heck out of the Lady lately. Buying a new house. Seems easy enough. Nope, not in California and certainly not in Los Angeles. This market's a fighter, and we have been losing badly. So far, Market +4, the Lady & the Man 0.....

Recently, we came upon a beautiful Victorian home marvelously preserved since 1900. It took our breath away and we knew right away that we wanted this house. Fast forward a few weeks, we won the bid!!! It was a big deal since we've never won any bids and always lost against cash offers or investors. We were ecstatic. The only problem is, we haven't won it completely. It's a probate sale home, which means by law it has to be publicly auction after a bid has been accepted. If no one bids on the house, it's ours.

This seems like nonsense to me. If we won the bid, we won the bid. Apparently it doesn't work like that. And it's been making me crazy and on-edge for about a month as we wait for this auction date. Now with the auction date being tomorrow, I am a nerve-racking, exhausted, antsy mess. I WANT the house! We have searched for a year now, isn't that enough real estate gods?! Give us a break and let us win this house! Pleaseeee.

Irritated but hopeful,

The Lady

Mayan Ruins In Tulum

Part of what makes Tulum so famous is the Mayan Ruins off the coast. Easy to get to, easy to get around, and just absolutely breath-taking. Word of advice: Go first thing in the morning!! Right when they open at 8am!

I cannot stress this enough. It gets SO freaking crowded by 9:30am, oh boy, the Man and I were glad to be outta there! Not to mention, HOT HOT HOT!!! I don't mean just a little sweat, I mean blasting hot & humid winds and unforgiving sunshine. It is smoldering!!

Other than the heat, it is a gorgeous place. It's one of the famous landmarks that Tulum is known for so it gets crowded quickly. There is only 1 big ruin, that is the "castle" back in the Mayan days. You cannot go anywhere near it because they are restoring it currently (bummer), but it is quite beautiful. The ruins are pretty small, so you can probably walk around the whole park in a good hour or so. It kind of reminded me of being in Rome, seeing the Coliseum in all its glory and beauty today. But smaller scale, of course. I love ancient architecture like this.

We opt to do a self-guide. Which was fine, because we just read all the captions and walked around at our own pace. The most stunning thing about the ruins is the coastline. If you're not into architecture and archaeology, go for the views. They are amazing. Words cannot describe the colors of blues you see from the cliff. The ocean is just magnificent.

The beach is just right there, and you can take the stairway down to go for a swim. It was high tide when we went so we didn't go down, but I've heard people do. The ocean just looks amazing, it's one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen.

We were done at about 10am (we got there at 8:30am) and there were herds of people coming in via bus. All the tour groups must get there around that time. Thank goodness we missed that!

(coastline of Tulum from the Ruinas, stairway down to the beach)

(coastline of Tulum from the Ruinas, steps down to the playa)

(The Ruinas)

(The Ruinas)

Architecturally amazed,
The Lady