Best Coffee in Los Angeles!

Recently opened at Farmers' Market on 3rd and Fairfax, I declare Single Origin LA coffee to be the best damn coffee in Los Angeles! 

OK, I haven't tried all the coffee LA has to offer, but IMHO this is the best coffee I've had in a really long time. They don't do XXX large size because their coffee is so good you don't need to drink a quart of it to be satisfied. 

Single Origin shares a stall with Short Cake LA bakery so you can enjoy a cup of coffee that doesn't taste burnt, with a pastry that doesn't taste like cardboard. Win win I tell you. 

Cheers!
J.

Oh, and I love the cheery blue color of the cups.

They look cool but what are these things anyway?

The Getty and Pacific Standard Time

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday I was thrilled to get a call from Annelisa Stephan, senior web writer/editor at the J. Paul Getty Trust and editor of The Iris. She wanted to talk to me about my experience of bringing my young children to The Getty's, De Wain Valentine’s sculpture Gray Column, as she researched ways for children to enjoy the Pacific Standard Time exhibits.

Here is the link to her post, Pacific Standard Time Is for Kids!, with two quotes from me, one in the beginning and the closing line. It was great to speak to Annelisa and be a part of her piece. I hope that it inspires other families to bring their children to The Getty and interact with these important exhibits. 

Cheers!

J.

Occupy LA

The Occupy movement has been an important historical event regardless of your political leanings. One that I did not want to only observe on TV. But with most of the news being centered on either New York or Oakland, I wasn't sure what to expect when we decided to head downtown to get a first hand look at Occupy LA. 

What we found was a camp that encircled City Hall. It reminded us a little bit of a Ren Faire camp, but with less costumes. There was an information tent, which also doubled as a acceptance site for donations. There was a tent selling "99%" protest art, a yoga class was in progress, and a young lady (I think she was probably 7 or 8) approached my son to let him know there was a children's play tent as well. There was even a mobile health care unit on site. 

The encampment was clean and seemed relatively safe and peaceful. The cops were almost bored. There were more people like us, taking pictures for their blogs or twitter feeds than there were news crews. 

I'm not sure what will happen tonight when the Occupiers are evicted from City Hall. I'm glad that I was able to take my children down to experience this movement, in all its peaceful glory, even if the most interesting thing they found was a cool tree to play in.


Update Nov 28th @ 5:00PM PST:


The camp still stands! Check out the OccupyLA webcam here

All photos by Damon Cason Reiser

#AMLP

My husband participated in A Million Little Pictures at the Brooklyn Art House Co-Op.

We were fortunate that the traveling exhibit came to LA today.

UPDATE: I've added more pictures.

The cool think about the "99" above? Whoever took it did so well before the "99%" movement. It sure caught my eye.

Palm Springs

Palm Springs

This was our first trip to Palm Springs. My kids have an excuse, they're young and can't drive yet. My husband and I on the other hand do not. My husband was born in LA and yet has never been to PS and I've lived in LA since 1986 and I've never been to PS. So as a part of my stay-cation, we took off for Palm Springs for two days, with my In-Laws in on the trip to make this my "multi-generational-travel stay-cation" trip.

I'm a planner by nature and sometimes drive my family nuts by over planning. In an effort to curb my "over-planner" ways, I've been waiting to book things (rooms/tickets etc) at the last minute, which is why we found ourselves checking into the questionable Caliente Tropics Resort (?!) instead of the nice townhouse I had my eye on. But to our great relief the place was surprisingly decent. The rooms were clean and we booked the Tahitian Lanai Queen/Queen. The pool was awesome. It was perfect for kids. It had a huge 3-4' section in addition to the usual 6-8' deep end. It also had a hot-tub that wasn't too hot. The tiki torches worked and it had free wi-fi!!!

The downside was that the cabanas were closed for lawn re-seeding. And there was no on-site restaurant. But for the price, we were still pretty happy we weren't giving our children an education in grungy hotels just yet.

With no on-site food available, dinner ended up being the famous Sherman's Deli, that was just ok in my book. Breakfast was at the all important IHOP and that was much more fulfilling. We shopped at The Alley which had plenty of pre-season deals to be had. But the main attraction and reason for our trip was The Tram.

I loved The Tram and the kids loved it too. Ok, my son loved it, my daughter was a bit more blasé about the ride up.


The tram takes you from just above the desert floor up Chino Canyon to the mountain station, at some 8500 ft elevation. Once you are at the station, you will find viewing platforms to take in the view of Palm Springs and those iconic wind mills. There is a cafe, a sit down restaurant, a bar and of course another gift shop. 


On the back side of the station are hiking trails. The first part of the trail is cemented in for those with less practical foot wear (me). And there are benches if you want to take a breather (me again). Once the cement ends, it's a short dirt walk to the ranger station and (thankfully) bathrooms to use before hauling yourself back up to the tram station for your ride back down. 


Tips: 

1. Take a jacket, it was in the 40's F up there so a bit chilly for us Angelenos. 

2. If you get motion sickness, take your preferred aid before you get on the tram. The tram rotates to give all riders a good view and during the accent it will rock at each of the 5 towers it will cross to get to the top. I didn't know this and was green for several minutes after we landed.  

The beds were good, but the pool was the real attraction of this hotel

The closed off cabanas

Staring wistfully at the large, closed off green lawn they can't run on

One of the tram cars on the way down

Where we're heading

Where we've come from

How small Palm Springs looks at 1/2 through the accent

Coming in for a landing. Check out the elevation. 

Someone's a little cold

"Hey Papa, look at that!"

My daughter was channeling her teenage years and showed us her unimpressed face

Nana, Papa and Karl taking in the juxtaposition of art and nature at the bottom of the tram ride. 

The Spider Pavilion at the Natural History Museum Los Angeles

This was our first visit to The Spider Pavilion at the NHM and I really wasn't sure what to expect. One thing I knew for sure though, there would be real, live spiders there. I mention this because early on it became apparent that other visitors were not actually expecting well, spiders to be at The Spider Pavilion. At least not ones crawling around freely. Let me reassure you, the poisonous spiders are in enclosed environments, but the other less venomous ones are free to roam the pavilion that also houses the Butterfly Pavilion earlier in the year.

My husband mentioned the suspect timing of having The Spider Pavilion immediately following The Butterfly Pavilion to the staff. But we were assured that the spiders were not used to er ah, "clean things up". No, the spiders are actually hand fed worms as they would starve otherwise.

I was rather proud that my children didn't squeal in fright at the site of spiders wrapping up their prey caught in their web. That was until other visitors showed up and (adult and children alike) began making a scene. My 3 year old daughter called time on the whole thing and her and I went outside to check out the enclosed spiders. Still she wasn't much happy. My son seemed to handle the whole thing with his typical aplomb. If you are planning on bringing your own children, do yourself a favor, if you don't make a big deal out of it, chances are they will follow your lead.

Cheers!

J.

Our greeter as we walked in the door. 

Hey, where'd he come from? He doesn't look like a worm. 

Checking out the enclosed spiders

Close up

Movie set at just the right height

No, Simone is not happy with Mommy's little education field trip

Lunch is served!

Yummy!

De Wain Valentine's Gray Column at The Getty Center

In our continuing effort to supplement our children's education, we took them to see the 12 foot tall Gray Column at The Getty Center. This is a part of the Pacific Standard Time exhibit currently going on all over Southern California museums till May 2012. 


I was surprised to find how reflective the surface was, as the photos below show. 

I was interested in finding out what my children's reaction to the piece might be. My 3 year old daughter was more interested in the high-tech info station than the monolith. My five year old son's only verbal reaction was "It's beautiful." And then he proceeded to play with his reflection.

I love bringing my kids to The Getty at different times of the year. This time the gardens were closed so we ended up exploring more of the surroundings than we usually do. There's plenty of things to see, touch, listen to and experience for young children. I especially recommend it for home-schooled or unschooled children. 

Reflections of the opposite wall. Descriptions of how this piece was made.

I see you.

This large vase was in the next gallery over. The nun helps give some perspective so its size.

Detail of vase

Even the cafe floor at The Getty is interesting.

Playing on the large lawns is encouraged.

My son is staring at a small lizard he found crawling on the travertine stone wall. Another note for those with dinosaur fixated children, there's plenty of fossils to be found in stone walls as well. 

The children's play room gives kids a chance to touch after hearing "Don't touch!" throughout the day.

"What does it feel like?" 

Detail of creek leading to the main waterfall in the garden.