A Busy July means a fun July

July has been a very busy month for me (but in a good way) getting to travel, hang with friends, try new things, and just enjoy life. In the beginning of July I took a trip with my family to New Orleans and then we road tripped our way over to Austin, Texas. We made a few cool pit stops along the way in Cajun Country / Costal Louisiana and San Antonio, Texas. A week later I went with my friends on a cabin trip to Southern Utah, visiting Bryce and Zion National Parks -along with a few other super cool sites.  After that I've been back in town enjoying life and going on some local adventures

Get out a Travel ( to Austin, TX that is)  

I'm going to be posting all this week with my favorites from this trips and just fun odds and ends.

Trip Recap: Oahu Hawaii

A little background, I had never been to Hawaii before so I was super excited for my trip since I'm so used to doing a bajillion things and constantly being on the move when traveling but this trip was about exploring the natural beauty and taking the time to soak in the Hawaiian sun. On this trip I went with my sailing team and we made a vacation out of a competition we had on the weekend. All in all it was a strange, beautiful, fun, and memorable trip with literal ups and downs. Here are my top 5 things that I did while in Oahu. 

1. Sleeping on the Beach at Lanikai 

The beach was beautiful; the water was warm; and life is good at Lanaki  

Plus a guys was building a sea turtle in the sand while I was at Lanaki so can't get much cooler than that.  

 2. Drive to the NorthShore 

Brooke and I at the North Shore. Waves were huge that day and we were lucky enough to see John John Florence and Kelly Skater. Yew! 

 3. Eat: Poke, Acai, Plate Lunch, Shave Ice, Malasada, and more! 

Giant Shave Ice at Keneke's Plate Lunch and BBQ. I got Lilikoi, Guava, and Mango plus ice cream :)   

No trip is complete with out trying out all the foods that Hawaii is famous for. I love walking down the road to Da Hawiian Poke Co. to get Poke for Dinner and then walk across the street to Leonard's Bakery for fresh made Malasadas. And the Acai bowl from Diamond Head Health Bar or the popularly Instagramed Haleiwa Bowls are delicious.   

4. Floating with Friends 

I was lucky enough to go with a bunch of my friends to Hawaii. Bight the bullet and spend the $5 for a floaty. You won't regret it. 

Floating at Waikiki with the girls and Diamond Head in the background.  

 5. Explore the Natural Beauty 

Hawaii has so much natural beauty. Snorkeling, hiking, waterfalls, beaches there is no excuse to not explore the beauty of Hawaii. 

Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay. 

Swimming with Sea Turtles. Just be sure not to touch these sacred creatures.  

Becareful at the falls. I unfortunately broke my back here  

Group at the top of Diamond Head.  

Visiting the Broad

Yesterday my friend Trevor and I decided to head over to Downtown LA to take some pictures and see if we could get into the every popular Broad museum. After an hour and half of waiting in the standby line (Pro-tip. Come at least 30 minutes, if not an hour before they open if you weren’t able to make a reservation), we got to go in and see what everyone is making such a large deal about. 

As a disclaimer I am not the largest fan of contemporary art; however, with that said I still appreciate art, it’s hard not to when your dad is a professional artist , so I came into the Broad with an open mind. Going in there were many pieces that I was excited to see since they had been popping up on my friends Instagram accounts. 

Once you make it to the top of the escalator you are greeted by Jeff Koons’ Ballon Tulips. I am not really sure how I feel about Jeff Koons. I know that as a person I do not like him and I question a lot of his work, he seems narcissistic and embodies everything about commercialism to me. I actually ran into another friend who was also visiting the Broad and he brought the question of Koons being an artistic genius or impostor. We both agreed that the balloon stuff is super cool but some of his other pieces seem gimmicky. Case in point the basketball floating in a fish tank, I do not like that piece but they have it at the Broad if you are a fan of it. Personally I did not like seeing his work as the greeting piece, but that has more to do with my personal hatred of Koons.  However Trevor and I did come up with a selfie replacement, which I like to term the “ballon-ie” since you take a picture of yourself in the shiny balloons.

There were many pieces that I loved at the broad such as the larger than life dining set, aptly names Under the Table by Robert Therrien. His giant dishes also greet you right when you enter the Broad.  There were works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cindy Sherman, Keith Haring, Barbara Kruger gracing the walls and floor of the Broad as well. I loved seeing Roy Lichtenstein’s work because his name has been popping up in my dreams even though before visiting I hadn’t seen much of his work or even known much about him.  My favorite piece in the Broad was Kara Walker’s African’t, which were these larger than life paper cutouts that graced the walls. It seems to portray a happy scene but upon closer examination one sees the hardships of life and slavery, I don’t really know how to describe it, all I can say is that there is shock value even though the work isn’t that shocking if that makes any sense. It is a very moving piece that all should see. Her smaller paper cutouts titled Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynchingis also on display and they are beautiful as well. With her amazing art she is able to tell a story. 

Overall the Broad was super cool. Trevor and I unfortunately didn’t get to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room but more reason to visit back. The Broad is a cool museum, We both agreed that it wasn’t as large as we had imagined it to be, but the Broad still boasts a sizable and tasteful collection of modern and contemporary art. If you are looking for something fun and free to do in LA I highly recommend seeing the Broad. Plus they have the world’s coolest elevator so what more reason do you need. For more info about the Broad visit their website www.thebroad.org

Road Trip Essentials

    Personally, I like to think of myself as a pretty good traveler, I have been on my fair share of flights, road trips, camping, etc. The only really thing I have left to do is go backpacking, something that I cannot wait to do. Anyway getting back to the main point of this post: Road Trip Essentials. 
    For me essentials means the things you need to have to survive. I’ve come up with a fairly short list but I think that these are things that are necessary on any road trip whether it be one hour or one week of driving.  They are in particular order, except for number one, but I think it’s pretty self-explanatory why it is number one. 

1.    Food and Drink 
  I really like having some healthy snacks, ie fruit, cut veggies, etc. some crunchy things, such as pretzels or my current obsession is half pop popcorn (warning: it is highly addictive). And most importantly drinks; I like to have a couple boxes of apple juice to help with low blood sugar levels and plenty of water because it is so easy to get dehydrated. 
2.    A change of clothes
  accidents can happen, so can spontaneous stops at the beach. It is so important to be prepared. Extra clothes can also be used as layers if it gets colder, or can be used in place of a pillow. 
3.    Entertainment
  This varies from person to person some people like to read in the cars, others listen to the radio, some like to watch movies. Everyone is different but car rides, even with beautiful scenery can get boring. My favorite thing to do for entertainment is to take pictures or watch movies in the car. 
4.    Patience
  I think this is often forgotten at the door when we embark on a road trip but is super important to take. Patience is needed not only for the traffic, but when someone in the car has to go the restroom for the 5th time in one hour, or when the restaurant you wanted to eat at is closed. Patience makes the trip a lot more fun and bearable. 

I know that there are a lot more things that one might consider to be a road trip essential but these are mine. Let me know what you think is necessary to bring on a road trip in the comment section below. 

Cheers,
Julia