Natural Dapper

 As I mentioned in my last post, I was heading to a concert the night of the Ren Faire. Daniela and I were headed to Sigur Ros in the Walt Disney Concert Hall! We got there in good time after I quick-changed and poured some food down my throat. We even made most of the warm-up with a female Icelandic choir in one of the front rooms. We took our seats and very quickly we were in the midst of one of the most beautiful musical experiences I've had. 

The sound was incredible inside the concert hall and the addition of the live orchestra was absolutely brilliant. I had chills everywhere and shed some overwhelmed tears.

I slept very soundly that night but had to get up early because we were headed for the ~ Superbloom ~. For those unfamiliar: Enormous post-draught bloom in California that can be seen from space. I got up early to eat and pack some meals and snacks. Since it was Easter Sunday, I even had a themed video to watch.

We drove past Six Flags and I was even more intent on never going there. It looked mental. And we started to see scattered blooms, reminding us on where we were headed. We ate at a diner along the way.

On we drove, through this really weird oil plant that had dirt roads and reminded me of the Valley of Ashes from The Great Gatsby - it had a similar deserted, miserable feeling. So that was ... great. Thank you, Google maps.

We then got to a beautiful hilly spot and just had to get out to take it in. At this point I was beginning to get itchy, teary eyes and a runny nose. It confused me at first until I remembered that I have allergies, haha.

That last photo was probably my favourite landscape of the day. The flowers look like highlights while also looking like an Eyvind Earle painting. Gorgeous.

The dirt road travels continued. And got worse. We drove around Carrizo Plain for a long time before striking gold - or in this case, yellow. We drove down blind roads and a "road" that turned into straight up marshland and another car told us to simply turn around as it was impossible. The floor of the valley had clearly been in full bloom but only some flowers remained. We were starting to feel dejected and our nerves were on edge because Daniela's car was very low and not fit for these rough surroundings... But then we found it as we drove to the mountains.

We joined the crowd in experiencing the yellow and taking photos. Most of the time we hiked and took in the view though.

 It was overcast but that was actually just amazing - it would have been so hot and the flowers' vibrancy was already killing my eyes. It was like a sea of little lights, SO BRIGHT. It did start to get chilly as the sun set so we headed back. We timed it pretty well with hitting a lit freeway when it went full-on black.

 

Pretty good to spend Easter on a yellow adventure!

 My body was wrecked when I got home from the hiking and sitting down for hours, so I jumped in the spa while watching Hairspray. Pretty darn wonderful.

It was then back to work on stuff for class and other cute ideas. And on Wednesday I went to the WIA Mixer with Stephanie! It was good this time too - I even met a Dane and his Danish-speaking wife!

Thursday Heather came over after work and we ordered domino's and chatted in the spa for hours.

Friday I took the bus down to the Grand Central Market and met up with Mira for my Friday night plan no. 1. We ate there and I FINALLY got to see Angel's Flight up close. They were doing a film shoot though so we didn't get to walk real close. We also took a peak inside the Bradbury Building (BladeRunner, 500 Days of Summer).

 

Mira drove me to Gnomon where they had a figure drawing event I had been looking forward to for a month. 3 models dressed as Hindu gods! So good. It was a great event, they even played Indian music. I had spoken to a few about it but Hayden ended up being the only one who could make it and he tagged along for the fire pit party at Apartment D afterwards. It was a great few hours and I even managed to squeeze in a s'more.

Saturday I got up early to get on the train to San Diego! It was back to not being very packed, but there was still weekend rush. Zhenzhen came to pick me up and then I went to San Diego Zoo for hours of sketching and looking at the animals.

 

The fact that the zoo is big enough to warrant the sky line is ... a little crazy. I jumped on that first thing because it got me to the jaguar den in time for a keeper's talk. It was very informational!

The two jaguars actually started "roaring" and that set off the lion too! So that was exciting.  I also saw two keepers feed the darling elephant across the path.

 You could tell that the zoo provided the animals with enough room and they even looked almost architectural at times haha! Seeing the koalas was a little surreal after hearing cute stories all my life. And I got really lucky because one of them really went on a trek - I heard a mother behind me saw that she'd never seen a koala move so much in her life.

I always forget how brown zebras are. And I saw pandas! Which I was very excited about until I got home and Emil told me we are getting them in Copenhagen Zoo too, haha.

The light turned golden and the zoo was going to close soon. So I speed-walked down to the tigers and even got a water-selfie with the hippo!

Zhenzhen took me to a Korean place and I do believe that's a first for me. And I saw these truly horrifying socks.

We left the traditional restaurant and I took a tired Zhenzhen for a walk around the Gaslamp. It is such a buzzing neighbourhood! 

In the morning we drove down to Balboa Park for the Earth Day faire. There were tons of people there even though I actually didn't feel like there was a lot to do there.

I did enjoy the Botanical Garden though - such a classical structure.

And they had the tiniest pineapple in there! We walked down to the lower part and saw some live music and forgot time. So we rushed to the train station but I still missed my train...

 I made it to Anaheim station though after getting changed on the train. It was time to get Dapper! Michelle picked me up and we went to Downtown Disney to peak into the expo.

We looked at the booths and waited on Eeve and Colin and talked to Leo and some other people. They had swing there too!

So naturally I danced. I attempted to teach Michelle some things. It was a crammed dance floor though and it got hot SO FAST.

Some cute disneybounds and then some cute shots of all of us.

 We decided very spur-of-the-moment to head into Disneyland. We only spent a few hours there, getting dinner at the Rose Taverne and getting on Haunted Mansion and the Merry-go-round. I forgot how dark the park gets at night, especially in Adventureland and New Orleans Square.

And then we headed out without even seeing the parade haha! The fireworks were cancelled (AGAIN, such rotten luck). I found Riley and his girlfriend and I got a ride back in their Lyft! Which was awesome.