Over the coming days, I'll be highlighting some of my favorite places in Los Angeles that I had the opportunity to visit before I left LA last summer with Whitney, and her boyfriend Chris. We had fully packed days, and itineraries. So that'll be shared as well.

For starters though...Remember that one time I posted about April and I painting spheres? And how you could too? Well, if not, you can see it (maybe for a reminder) here. My fanny pack has a little pink paint on it even to this day as a reminder.

In summary though, we essentially had a day where we volunteered to paint these giant blown-up spheres through Portraits of Hope — an organization "aimed at enriching the lives of children and adults — many who may be coping with adversity or serious illness — through their participation in creative, educational, high-profile, one-of-a-kind projects." And by one-of-a-kind, they're referring to colorful city art installations all over the country.

Well, kind of unfortunately, the opportunity to paint them has passed, and also the opportunity to see the installation has passed. BUT I do want to remember how cool it was when I finally saw the spheres in all their glory, floating at MacArthur Park. And that there were at least three of them that April and I carefully painted.

Funny enough, I had actually never heard of MacArthur Park before doing this project, let alone been to it. I was really excited when Whitney and Chris were here, both creatives in their own spheres (pun definitely intended), and I found out the installation was now available to view. Since it was so close to me leaving Los Angeles in August, I felt really fortunate that I even got to see it before I left.

And what a colorful site it was! All these spheres that looked like giant beads on the water. I made Whit and Chris walk around the entire park with me to see it from all sides. Even better was that they were still in the process of installing it so I saw how they would blow up the giant beach ball and put weights on it and then kayak it out to it's appropriate spot.

All in all, there were 2,000–3,000 spheres on the lake, painted by more than 10,000 children and adults. The installation lasted one month longer than anticipated, and the spheres have now been donated to various social service institutions throughout the United States.

It seriously was such an amazing and inspiring project from start to finish. Check out their Facebook Page for more information and updates.

Here's some photos of how the installation looked: