Catching up

 I am on a roll or actually motivated to do my editing. Life events can be overwhelming but I am learning to try to go with it. I was focused on my health which was an added situation and like I said, I am learning to balance things more. This blog needs to be fun for me or something was more fun so I neglected It's The Cheese. Now you'll have more to read and catch up on.

This video was a series of photos and clips from my phone and compiled on the GoPro app. It's a simple and easy tool to do all the hard work. I like it gives me a little recap of that day. Tell me what you think. I have been using different apps/programs to see what I prefer. 

Universal Studios Hollywood

Our summer is sort of loosey goosey in that our plans are not plans at all and mostly impulsive. I saw a local mom friend post her impromptu trip to Universal Studios July 5th and she said the crowds weren't too bad. So off I hustle to get our discount annual passes, finish our errands and drive out the next day. 

Our focus was on Harry Potter world with the kids' understanding that the Forbidden Journey line may be long so we'll do whatever else to pass the time. Hey, I'm sure we can find some sort of entertainment at an amusement park.

We arrived to the park at about 1pm. The crowds were fine until we hit Harry Potter...that's where everyone is! Still, it's not horrible and the wait time to Forbidden Journey is 120 minutes. We get in line and realize we're going to have to wait in the sun for a good portion of it. So we get out of line to try again later in the day. 

Next up on our agenda is to try Butterbeer. I heard from people that it sort of like cream soda with butterscotch. Okay,  so I tell the kids that we will be sharing one. The lines were long for butterbeer which is understandable since it was about 85*. Also the lines were moving slowly so of course, employees pop up with platters of butterbeers for sale in the souvenir mug (read: higher price). We resisted as long as we could (5 minutes in the sun) and I caved to the souvenir mug. Yes, over twice the amount of a regular cup but it was yummy and now I have a mug. :) You can file that tip away for your next visit. Hey, it's your money.

All right, so I lost some $ in the butterbeer department but totally made up for it in the popcorn department. A nice big souvenir bucket of popcorn for $6 but keep your receipt to get free refills of popcorn for that day!! Yes, we must have filled that bucket about 6 times the entire day so yeah, that's another tip for you. 

Another huge success for us was the ride department. I have one kid that wants to ride rollercoasters etc while the other one does not. It makes for interesting back n' forth conversations between all of us to try to convince or at least figure out why Josh refuses. One reason is his fear of heights. That is something very real and scary for him so I won't force him on that. But some (maybe half) of the rides at are 3D or virtual type rides which is a slightly  easier sell. Tyler and I did have to talk a bit for The Simpsons ride which had a 60 minute wait. 1: It (the line) was mostly in the shade with misters. 2: There were plenty of monitors and big billboards to keep him entertained. 3: We all took Dramamine.
Turns out...Joshua enjoyed it. It was in a virtual amusement park so basically virtual rollercoaster without the height aspect. My Dramamine did not kick in on time because that ride is pretty wild. I kept my eyes closed most of the ride. 

We chilled with popcorn and the animal show for a bit then headed over to the Minions ride. That was a 30 minute wait. Joshua did not need any encouragement for this and I really liked this ride. Maybe the Dramamine started working on me but the ride wasn't as crazy as The Simpsons ride. I approve the Minions ride. 

Dinner was early at 5pm at the Hard Rock at Citywalk. That was nice 1: air-conditioning 2: lots of seating in air-conditioning 3: good food with air-conditioning. 

We headed back to the park to see Forbidden Journey wait time was still over 2 hours so we went on the Studio Tour. This time it seemed more entertaining because on some of the location sets there were actors set up. We saw Marilyn Monroe on the NY city set and Norman Bates at the Bates Motel. 

By the time the tour was finished it was 7 pm. Th wait time for Forbidden Journey was 90 minutes. The sun was starting to set and the crowds were noticeably smaller. By the time we actually go to the ride, the wait time was at 75 minutes. Josh and I waited in line with Tyler until we got to the castle entrance where there are lockers for loose items. Joshua decided he didn't want to go on the ride and I didn't either since i heard about motion issues. We waited in the gift shop area while Tyler hopped into the single rider line. From beginning to end, the time was 30 minutes. There is your other helpful tip.

And that did it for us and our day at Universal. I think we'll go back again in September since our passes are blocked out till then. 

Here is a my video of our time at the park. I'm still learning about editing video and going through the tutorial helped me a lot. Still lots to learn so stay tuned for more....

Florida

Here are some photos of our vacation to Orlando in August.



At Epcot, where it was nice and not crowded at all.













Not as many photos as I usually take during a vacation. I decided to go minimal and took my older little Canon point n shoot. Somewhere at the 2nd day, I started noticing that the camera battery wasn't holding a charge. Hector took his digital waterproof camera and for whatever reason, it decided to completely die. So out of 2 cameras, both decided to bite the dust.

Beach Film

Like I said before, I shot a roll of film at the beach today and here are some of the shots. I have a Yashica FR-2 which is a SLR camera and from the photos I got back, I have some learning to do. :)

About half are in focus while the other half is not which I need to figure out. The film loaded up fine but the frame number indicator is stuck so I just have to keep shooting until the end.
When I do have the shot in focus, the image is sharp and the colors are true. I have to put more of the Fuji Superia film on order although I will try some other brands to get a feel for them.

So here are some of my best and worst shots from yesterday...

First shot of roll

Josh romps while Ty & Glenn are to the left of the group in the background

Tyler

Tyler out in the waves

Josh with Tyler and Glenn in the waves

Lots of happy beachgoers

Josh jumping the waves

More beachgoers

Escape to the sea

The water was nice and warm. It was so relaxing listening to the waves crash.

Here is an example of a blurry action shot...

Cartwheel

Overall, I'm happy with the results. I need to focus on the technical aspects of shooting and can only hope to get better...

Heat Wave

Summer is really here for SoCal and we are feeling it. The last couple of summers have been mild and barely warm so this heat is unusual to us. The valleys are a total different story though.

Anyway, my friend Kat and I had tickets to see Strangelove, a Depeche Mode tribute band for several months and of course, it is smack dab in the middle of the heatwave. Luckily the OC Fair is located about 4 miles from the ocean so a nice breeze comes through to cool everything down. We had loads of fun rocking to Strangelove and eating the most awesomest maple bacon donut. It was HUGE, a glazed donut with shaved bacon loaded on top with maple sauce slathered all over it. It was so delicious. :) I hope it will be back next year!!

Ready to rock!

This week is still warm but the cool breeze at night helps a lot. A couple of night though, I opened the doors and windows to let the hot air out and cool air in when a strong, awful smell of skunk comes in that has me running to shut everything back up again. Darn skunks!!!

This afternoon we went to our local beach with Glenn and Laura to get some relief. It was so nice and pretty today. The water was warm and pleasant to swim in. We had to top off our day with some ice cream which hit the spot. Yum!!

I was also busy taking pictures with my Yashica SLR (film) so it is being processed tonight so we shall see if the photos came out and how they look.

They spent a lot of time chatting about their favorite games.

Tyler is in the distance with his boogie board.

Fun times with friends.

Photo Essay

I'm gonna try something a bit different today. I shot a series of photos of this kid on the beach because I liked how he positioned himself among these piles of seaweed.



His parents sat about 5 feet back and were talking with their friends so I don't think they were keeping a sharp eye on the guy but he was definitely close by.



I was watching him Ihis back was to his parents and he would pull a piece of seaweed off & put it in his mouth, then throw it away. I saw him do this several times so I finally alerted his parents that he might be putting seaweed in his mouth.



They were really nice and kind of laughed about it saying he likes to pop the seaweed between his fingers to get that salty sea water spray. They made sure he wasn't eating it and thanked me anyway.



This little boy reminded me of the curly headed toddler son in the movie Parenthood that he did silly things throughout the movie ie. spinning, putting a bucket on his head and butting the wall. :)

Hot Flash

After such a cool and nice Labor Day weekend, a heat wave descended upon us so I whisked the kids away to the beach. I noticed the temp gauge in the car was 83* and just a mere 3-4 miles later, it dropped to 77*. That made a big difference and it was a lovely day at the beach.



Perfect, actually with warm sun and a nice easy breeze to cool us down and the water was cool (at first) but great too. Josh usually can't last more than 30 minutes being wet but we stayed for 3 hours. :)

The kids romped in the waves while Tyler ventured out further into the waves to try his bodyboarding skills. They had a great time burrowing into the sand to make waterways, tunnels and bridges.

 Joshua caught a massive sand crab too.



Tyler found a long 8 foot piece of seaweed attached to a rock to haul around.



It was a great way to end our summer although we have one more day before school starts.

Party time

Tyler turned 12 on Sept 1st and we threw a BBQ birthday party on Saturday. Invited about 7 kids with their families and we all had a great time especially when you add a bounce house.

I didn't take many pictures but here's a couple...

Tyler with his best friend Arthur.

Wishing Tyler a very successful and happy year!! I can't believe that my little one is 12 already! Sniff.

End of summer

We had a blast celebrating Tyler's birthday (more on that later) but on Sunday night, I got a text from Sherri to go check out the rainbow outside. I saw it as soon as I went out the door but was more in awe of the skies and clouds to the west. It was too late to get to the beach but I grabbed my camera and shot what I could.




Gorgeous pink clouds everywhere. These photos are untouched and sooc (straight out of camera). The colors were really like this. :)

The Getty Center

In 5th grade, Tyler went on several field trips to museums ie. The Getty Center, Skirball and Gene Autry museum which seemed to pique his interest in culture and architecture. He came back with a free parking voucher for the Getty and free family admission for the Skirball. Summer has flown by and I had put our visit earlier due to carmegeddon and general timing so this week I was determined to go although I warned the kids if the parking was full we had to try again.

Entrance

Beautiful curves

Well, Josh slept in a bit yesterday so when he woke I hurriedly had him dress, packed him a pop tart and loaded them into the car. We left a little before 10am (opening time) and had to deal with the usual 405 congestion (carpool lanes help a lot). Surprisingly, we arrived at The Getty at 10:30am and our parking voucher was accepted. Yay! I really had no clue to how large the parking structure is but it can hold a lot more than I expected. Instead of going up we went down, down, down to P4, 4 levels down. There are even more levels further down we discovered in the elevator (P7 is the lowest).

The kids were genuinely excited which is nice to see and Josh exclaimed that the tram ride was awesome! :) We spent about 2 hours total touring the gardens and exhibits. The kids picked up the kids art detective and architecture  brochures and we found all the clues that went along with it. Overall, we had a great time. The weather was perfect with a nice coastal breeze to enjoy. The Getty Center is gorgeous in every way with natural stone/ travertine/ marble and maybe when the kids are back in school, I'll come back.

Naturally, I took pictures. Lately, I've been processing them with some B & W and Lomo settings to make them pop a tad more. Let me know if you like them or they seem a tad too much. :)

Garden

Mercury and shadow.

David Hockney themed mirror self portrait.

West LA skyline.

Tram ride.

Have a Great Weekend!

Pics from the pool...