Made and Found: L A Natural History Museum

When Catherine was just here visiting we made our way down to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, where we explored North American Mammals, African Mammals, Minerals, Dinosaurs, and much more...

Home and Away: Christmas time in California

Although it doesn't snow or get all winter wonderland in California, people still get down with holiday cheer...

Home & Away: Monterey Bay Aquarium

Last week, Nicholas and I went on a week long getaway to sunny California. After visiting sister Monika and Ben for a few days, we packed up our rented Fiat and drove north towards Monterey, CA. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has been on my to-do list for quite some time, and let me tell you, it didn't disappoint. Go ahead and gawk at some of the jellyfish and sea horses we saw. They were breathtaking!

Home & Away: Malibu

After a very disappointing trip to the Ronald Reagan Library (don't go...seriously). Nicholas and I headed towards Malibu for some beach time. Things were going just fine until a seagull attacked our table during lunch. It was not pleasant, but the beach sure was!

Home and Away: Bronson Caves

One definite perk of living just over the hills from Hollywood is that there are really neat landmarks everywhere you look! One of my favorites is Griffith Park. When you visit the park there are so many different areas to explore--it's home to the Hollywood sign, the inspiration for Disneyland, the Griffith Observatory, the old LA Zoo, and the Bronson Caves, just to name a few. So, in honor of the month that channels all thing spooky I think it's a great time to visit the caves... 

Insta-sista

Joy of joys! It's my beloved Cascades! Aren't they stellar and dreamy? Of course I'm still in California vacation love mode, so you're getting subjected to yet another round. Are you as excited as I am? Probably not. Sorry. Just look away...

Home and away: California

While California is home for Monika, it's certainly away from home for me. I saw lots of amazing things during my minibreak there last weekend--including dolphins! Take a peek...

Home & Away: Back to the Future, the house.

On occasion my Ben loves to surprise me by sweeping me off to fun places on the scooter. Well, on this occasion we headed to Pasadena: our final destination was the Gamble House (built in 1908 by Charles and Henry Greene, for David and Mary Gamble, of the Proctor and Gamble Co.). Most famous for being an ingenious architectural delight, this national historic landmark was featured in the Back to the Future movies as the home of Dr. Emmett Brown...

Juno. Gold. Omaha. Utah. Sword.

When Dawn was visiting, we discovered that we had oh-so-many things in common. One unexpected delight was
 that we both have an extreme love of miniatures. So, when Dawn suggested we buy a large bag of toy soldiers
 I was not only supportive, I was giddy.

Just so happens we decided to head to the beach to play war. Thus leading to a post which bears the code names of
the beaches of Normandy as a title. Also, it reminds me of We Have Always Lived in the Castle: Melody. Gloucester. Pegasus. If you haven't read that book yet, you should. It's not about WWII--I may have created that misdirection. Anyway, you can learn more about it on Christine's post highlighted above (which by the way really cracks her up).

Found Nest.

You may remember these pictures from Christine's Instaweek: California Edition 1, I have borrowed them to set the scene for my brief story about how I found a birds nest. It all started at a little park in Burbank...

Overlooking Forest Lawn Cemetery, final resting place of Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, and Walt Disney,

to name a few.

The park also borders the LA River, majestic, no? Anyway the very brief story goes like this; Ben and I took the scooter to this park to eat our Healthy Bites (amazing Mediterranean food), and enjoy the weather. I got to enjoy more than that because on the way to the picnic table I found a abandoned bird's nest!

It was on the ground and there was no sign of its owner. I would never take a nest out of a tree, but if the nest is empty and laying on the ground, then yes, it will become mine. I love it because you can see all sorts of different materials that the bird used to construct it. Little amazing birds.

This little dear now lives on my mantel under a glass canister (you know so the bird lice can't get out), on a pretty plate. Maybe I should set some of my ceramic birds next to it...hmm, I just might.

Instaweek: California Edition III

Yeah, this actually falls under the insta-a-couple-of-weeks-ago-gram. I was waiting for one of the sisters to post something about Disneyland, but no one did!!! So now we're going with CHRISTINE'S DISNEYLAND. Mwa-ha-ha-ha. (That's supposed to be a villainous laugh.)

Here are some wicked fake crags at the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
We rode a couple times, including once after dark. Monika is convinced
all the rides are faster after dark. Where's the logic in that?
 Any Disney insiders who can support or refute her claim? 

MONSTRO!!!! You can ride a little boat through his mouth. I think that's
part of the Storybook Land ride or something. Monika kept talking about it,
but she never delivered. Rudeness, sister, rudeness. 

Sadly, the Matterhorn was closed. But Monika has heard tell that the Disney
engineers or Disney-neers, as I've just decided to call them, were doing a
Brave makeover. 

Catherine smashed this quarter. Hold up. A quarter, you say? Yes, she is that
ritzy. And then we talked about how her hand looks like a butt in this picture.
True story. 

The ferris wheel in California Adventure. We didn't actually climb aboard
because the park was closing, but Monika, Ben, and I did take a wild ride
on that rollercoaster: California Screamin'. Hello? It goes upside down.

Lanterns suspended over the Teacups. The last ride of the evening was,
fittingly, Alice in Wonderland. Pretty black-light. Pretty magical. 

I feel like this caption should be: Y'all come back now! Too much?

In spite of the fact that I went into Disneyland without the necessary excitement (Catherine, especially, seemed bummed that I was not more psyched.), I had  a terrific time. I know, I know. Who would go to Disneyland and come away with a ton of complaints? OK, maybe me. But I didn't! So, you see, that counts as a Disney win...or maybe a sisters win.

Instaweek: California Edition II

The beach at Crystal Cove. It's bizarre visiting a beach where people are
actually laying on blankets in swimming suits. Does that ever happen on
Washington beaches? Um, no. Never. 

The main reason we chose to visit Crystal Cove? The tide pools!!!! There were
anemones, barnacles, hermit crabs, mussels, starfish, and all manner of oozes
and slimes. I found a giant loose barnacle, which I thought was uninhabited,
and snatched it up. Turns out, there was a live barnacle inside. It poked its
beak at me, and I squealed and threw it back in the surf. That's how I roll.

The sand and mudstone cliffs on Crystal Cove. I messed around with chunking
off a few pieces of rock and splitting them layer by layer, but then a lizard
startled me, and I thought I was going to get stung by a beach bee.
So, investigation abandoned. 

The very bee!

Catherine read Jaws on the beach. She told me not to take a picture of her face--
it was that kind of a day--but you can see a tiny bit in the lower right corner.
Ha-ha! Your face in your face, Catherine!

I found this intriguing collage among some beach debris. The white bit is
actually a kelp bulb which has been hollowed out and bleached. 

A bit of colorful seaweed. This was everywhere: white and pink and green.

Look at all these lovely layers. Monika and I examined them a bit while
Catherine read Jaws and kept the ants away from her rellenitos. 

instagram christinesuzanne

or

followgram me

Instaweek: California Edition I

Monika's hot air balloons were hanging over the sink.

Here's a little sampling of our California adventures...

California, here we come!

via Counting Graces

Soon to be sistering it up in Burbank and its environs!! 

Bright young women, sick of swimming, ready to stand!!!!!

Yup, you guessed it! The sisters are heading to Disneyland. Now, Monika goes all the time, and I've gone twice in the last 2 years, but Christine hasn't been there since high school Girl Scouts (yeah, she was one of those.) The 3 sisters haven't all been together at Disneyland for like 22 years!  Check out some old school Disneyland with the Nicolai's!

Favorite picture...EVER. We re-created that picture once. It was awesome.

Those OshKosh's are amazing!

Look how happy Monika is that I get to meet Donald! Oh wait, she's actually being a bitch. Typical 7 year-old Monika.

Sisterland!

Monika and Catherine in the Badlands circa 1993

Monika and I spent this last weekend making memories. Every time something unfortunate happened, Monika would say, "whatever, we're making memories!" It wasn't in a sweet way, it was sort of a shut up we're having fun kind of way. Our first set of memories were made when we decided we would walk 7 miles to the mall. Memories!

Here are some of my memories from this last weekend.
Scroll down to make my memories your memories!

Olive (or "Crispy" as Monika has started calling her) was a big part of this weekend.

These are Monika's leaf garlands. She made them with Christine.

There are so many damn leaves around her house. 

I'm jealous and it's definitely a part of a memory I made.

We made lots of memories at Disneyland.

Including this one that involved a Disneyland opossum.

The opossum kind of freaked us out. That picture isn't zoomed in. It was just hanging out next to the Nemo submarine ride. I guess if I were an opossum, I would live in Disneyland too. Do you ever think about how if you were a bird where you would live? I used to do this all the time. I would pick someplace cool like the White House, Buckingham Palace, or Woody Allen's penthouse balcony.

Thanks, sister, for all the memories!

Malibu Barbie

I'm visiting Monika in Burbank. It was supposed to be rainy and slightly chilly today, but guess what? It wasn't. We decided to head to the beaches of Malibu and search for treasures, and boy did we find some.

This is just a preview of the kind of treasures we found!

I told Christine that we saw a shark...and I wasn't totally fibbing.

urchin business

Monika promised me a trip to Malibu expressly to harvest recently deceased sea treasures. 

Yes, I am talking about sea urchins. 

We each filled a large ziplock bag with these beauts.

Large and small, they were everywhere.

And because we were really only concerned with urchins,

we didn't spend too much time looking at other stuff...um, like the ocean.

Or this stellar sandstone formation.

Ok, we spent a little time, but we were way more concerned with the urchin intake.
You know, into the ziplock bag, into our purses. Yes, a purse full of urchins. Two purses, actually.
And all on the sly. Ben was none too pleased when we unveiled our urchin bounty and then proceeded to set them out in the front yard to "dry"--a process which mostly involves being swarmed by the giantest flies you'll ever in your long life see. Also, the smell is something I will never forget. Let me tell you, we Nicolai girls have smelled a lot of dead things in our time, but sea urchins may just take the cake as the deadest smelling things ever. Yowzers. Seriously, yowzers. 

These are my urchins at Mom's house in Tacoma. They are "drying" on the back porch.
They made the plane trip home double-ziplocked inside my purse.
Bruno ran away when I let him smell one. Smart cat.