Spontaneous weekend adventures are my favorite! And how lucky am I to be living in the city with unlimited options? The other day we randomly decided to go to a museum which is something we never really do but why not? We went to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and while we didn’t actually go to see any exhibitions except for one we accidentally sneaked in, we still had a fun day out.

The LACMA lights always look cool.  It’s funny how they became famous thanks to the multiple music videos and movies. For me they are special because the first time I came to the US during my Work & Travel Summer I lived nearby and since then every time I visit I get sweet nostalgia of that fun and life-changing summer.

lacma-blog-7927

Read More Day at the Museum: LACMA

All Things LA

Russian/Русский

The other day I was looking through the photos on my computer and realized that I haven’t posted anything about our recent trip to Getty Center. We didn’t have any plans that weekend and coincidentally Uber was 50% off so we decided to take advantage of that and do something fun. We settled on going to the Getty Center and it was a great choice! The admission is free, we didn’t need parking because we took an Uber so here’s to another virtually free and fun thing to do in LA.

Getty-Center-2843

Getty-Center-2853

Getty-Center-2841

Getty-Center-2854

Getty-Center-2856

Read More Free Things To Do in LA: Getty Center

All Things LA

Russian/Русский

Every Spring California explodes with clouds of flowers. Fences, houses, sidewalks are taken over by the beautiful bougainvilleas, hydrangeas and other flowers. Right now it is a jacaranda time on our street and it’s gorgeous! I only found out the name of this tree from some person on the street passing by. We couldn’t miss such a great backdrop and did a quick shoot coincidentally on a Mother’s Day.

Alaric was too busy eating the flowers and didn’t want to cooperate at all, he also just learned a new trick of throwing his hands up and pretty much sliding out of the arms so it was pretty difficult to hold him. So today we mostly have some candid shots taken between the moments of baby juggling.

mothers-day-3079

mothers-day-3206

mothers-day-3082

mothers-day-3112

mothers-day-3121

Read More Jacaranda

Mine

Russian/Русский

The thing I like the most about LA is variety. Of cultures, people, foods, places… Lake Shrine is so far from its typical LA, it is truly a hidden gem of this city. Located in Pacific Palisades, surrounded by hilly roads it’s not that easy to find at first, but when you finally discover it, you can’t help but wonder how did I not notice it right away?

Lake-Shrine-1752

Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine includes Meditation Gardens and Lake, a working Temple providing lecture, prayer and meditation services, a Court of Religions honoring the five principal religions of the world, the Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Memorial where a portion of Gandhi’s ashes is enshrined, a museum with exhibits on Paramahansa Yogananda’s work, and a gift shop with arts and crafts from India and more. There are also all kinds of events and activities available, such as silent retreats, group meditation, Sunday school for kids and adults. The temple itself is on a hilltop overlooking the lake. I would highly recommend getting more information straight from the source, if you are interested. This post will mostly be a visual journey through the Meditation Gardens and the Lake.

Lake-Shrine-1024

Lake-Shrine-1607

Lake-Shrine-1613

Lake-Shrine-1758
Visitor Guide comes in handy, for multiple reasons;)
Lake-Shrine-1628
An authen­tic reproduction of a 16th-century Dutch windmill.

Lake-Shrine-1635

Lake-Shrine-1639

Lake-Shrine-1680

Lake-Shrine-1648

Lake-Shrine-1651
Golden Lotus Archway. In India the lotus flower is a symbol of divine unfoldment–the awakening of the soul to its infinite potential.

Read More Lake Shrine

All Things LA

Winter ocean has a special place in my heart (as long as it’s not bringing freezing cold air haha). It is so beautiful, powerful, even more so in gloomy weather. I loved being there and watching grey waves crash, it was so soothing and calming, moments like this are everything especially if they are shared with great people. We had friends visiting from Vegas and it was really fun to meet up and show them around the day LA is so different from its usual self.

Winter-ocean-1453

Winter-ocean-1445

Winter-ocean-1446

Winter-ocean-1460

Winter-ocean-1408

Read More Winter Ocean

All Things LA Mine

Russian/Русский

This year I decided to start a new category on my blog called All Things LA where I will be sharing stories and photos about different places in LA as well as some insights from the position of someone who actually lives here, everything is of course my humble opinion and personal experience, I hope you enjoy reading it.  The first post is about Downtown Los Angeles.

Unlike in many other cities across the world Downtown in LA is really not a city center, not that LA has one anyway.  To find myself in DTLA, acronym most people use when talking about Downtown LA, I need to make a special trip which I did this past weekend. In almost 4 years that I’ve lived in LA, I probably visited Downtown less than 10 times but every time I do it feels like adventure. There are days when I am really loving the big city vibe which the rest of LA doesn’t really have walking by old historic buildings and skyscrapers, chilling at the roof top bars or enjoying some local museums. There are also days like this one, gloomy and gray, beautiful, artistic but also kind of depressing.

thumb_IMG_2780_1024

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

Pershing Square Subway Station Exit

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

Read More Downtown LA

All Things LA

Russian/Русский

I know, I know, holiday season is already over but I was just looking through the photos on my laptop and realized I haven’t posted any pics from our holiday trip to the Grove.

Grove-9197

Grove-9161

Grove-9172

Grove-9200

Grove-9182

Read More The Grove

All Things LA Mine

I love good healthy food. If I could have a giant fresh salad or a homemade soup or hearty bowl of veggies and grains for lunch every day I’d be the happiest person on Earth. Unfortunately, there are just no good lunch places in walking distance from my office and, for car-less me, lunch time is always a struggle. The other day, I came across this local company called Crateful, which provides chef-prepared gourmet meals with locally sourced and organic ingredients delivered to your door. Whatever comes with an intro like this already has my attention. And it only gets better!

Crateful is a healthy food subscription plan that offers meals designed by Michelin Star Chef Cristina Bowerman and supervised by licensed nutritionist Alyse Levine. The set up is pretty simple yet there are plenty of choices. First, you select your meal plan from 4 available options: Chef, Vegetarian, Pescatarian and Fitness. Then you choose the meal pairings such as breakfast and lunch, breakfast and dinner, lunch and dinner, dinner only or all day and how many times per week you would like to receive your meals (5 days or 7 days). Meals are prepared daily and delivered 6 days per week in the evening so you always wake up to fresh, delicious food. Depending on the length of your subscription, you may get a discount if you subscribe to the multiple weeks at a time.

Read More Crateful Meal Delivery: A Culinary Adventure at Home

All Things LA