Hello....it's me.

I was wondering if after all these months you'd like to read...
To go over everything

I was told that everyone there had a blast!
These Brilliance on a Budget classes certainly are giving people around Monroe County a way to enjoy the evening, and take something home they can treasure forever!

Next, I would just like to say that I would love to report in on October and November's meeting, but I unfornately could not attend, and my lovely mother didn't bring me any pictures to post, so I'm afraid it's going to remain a "you had to be there" kind of thing.

Finally, to add to this blog and make it worthy of a return post (while I hound my mother and get the skinny on everything that needs to be posted since I want to take some time to update not just the blog, but the website in general...and I don't want to surf through all those emails when the source is literally 12 feet away from me), I'm going to highjack the blog and post a bunch of really pretty pictures I took while I was in California in the beginning of October.
I know that artists out there are always looking for inspiration, and LA is one of the most artistic places I've ever been to.
The streets of downtown are filled with art.
The mountains are breathtaking.
And the vibe of tinsel town is one that made my little arts and humanities brain light up with excitement.

I'd never been farther out than Texas before, so going to the west coast was a dream for me.
I've still got a lot I'd like to see (The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Seattle, Vegas, etc.), but I was blown away by what I did see while there.

Above and below are part of the TREK it takes to get to the Griffith Observatory, where we spent the entire day at.

It's iconic for a lot of reasons, but I thought it was iconic because

Well, I looked to my left and I saw the Hollywood sign.

There's really only one other way to really see the iconic Hollywood sign, and that's to hike up to it (I would have died, but I could have done it. My best friend, however, talked me out of it, given we still had to go to Disney later that week. And Disney regularly has us at about 30,000 steps per day. That's about 13 miles of walking).

There are also multiple spots in the city where this is viewable, but nothing comes close to what you can see from the Griffith Observatory. Plus, the observatory itself is iconic, and featured in numerous movies throughout the years.

As much as I loved the observatory, I was more caught up in the view of the city you got from the back:

Unlike Detroit, or Chicago, or NYC, LA is MASSIVE.
And there's really no public transportation.

This entire picture doesn't even capture all of LA or its burrows.

But it's still a pretty skyline!

(Also, for the record, if I had to pick between LA and NYC, I'd take NYC every time. Just because public transportation.)

While there, we also did go to Disneyland:

(It's not as nice as DisneyWorld, and I don't recommend going unless you're a die-hard fan.)

And then ended our trip at Santa Monica Pier--aka the end of Route 66.

The Pacific Ocean is really cold, btw.

And hard to enjoy--there are peddlers every where.

Luckily, we found a lovely restaurant on the board walk, and I got a margarita to celebrate.

And thus ends my schpeal about California.

I'll see you next time...which will hopefully be in two weeks, and not two months...

Lots of love as always,

Sami