Growing up, I had never heard that much about Los Feliz. It wasn't until five years ago when I came across this article in LA Magazine that showcased the area and some of the hipster places to check out, that I was determined to pay more attention to it. Usually I'll try to grab something to eat in this area before going to Griffith Observatory or Griffith Park, which it neighbors,

But it's a good go-to stop on the way to Griffith Park and Observatory to get some food and explore some shops. 

READ MORE FOR A SHOPPING + EATING RECOMMENDATION...

Having explored a lot of places in Santa Monica, I had only recently heard about Bergamot Station when I decided to check it out with Whit and Chris. 

I didn't know exactly what to expect. For some reason I thought it was part of a train featuring an art gallery/store (probably because Wikipedia says the site was previously a train station from 1875 to 1953). But turns out it was way different than that.

READ MORE ABOUT BERGAMOT STATION AND SEE PHOTOS...

The Original Farmers Market and The Grove are inseparable to me. I don't know why you would go to one without exploring the other since they seem to be almost apart of each other. 

READ MORE ABOUT THE GROVE AND THE ORIGINAL FARMERS MARKET...

PHOTOGRAPHY. So I love photography. In the way that you can tell a story with images. And the ability to capture moments in different times and places. I realized after I took my photography class that every photograph is really a perspective of the person that took that photograph. I think we forget that sometimes. 

Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City does an amazing job of showcasing select photographers and showing how photography is important in different ways. How each of these photographers contributes and their personal perspective and method of photography.

READ MORE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION...

So I've been wanting to go to a drive-in movie essentially since I've gotten a car. And not for the not-watching-the-movie-Grease-lightning-factor — I really want to just pull up to a large screen and watch a movie under the stars. Does that sound cheesy? 

Either way, there's not that many drive-in movie options in Los Angeles. This article mentions some (and maybe when I'm back in Los Angeles this summer I can check it out for myself), but for the most part I've found that they're at the top of parking garages or something urban. Which could be cool, although not exactly my 50's vision. 

Anyhow, a drive-in was not in the cards at this time, so we opted for the next coolest thing — blankets and grass and food and lawn chairs in a Los Angeles park to watch "The Karate Kid" under the non-existent starry sky. 

The event was put together by Eat|See|Hear and located at a park in Beverly Hills with the kind of streets that have five different signs telling you when not to park — that was a little confusing. 

Overall, the event was really fun. They had food trucks, some fun interactive things such as getting a caricature drawn (although Whit and I waited in line for that for about 30 minutes and then were told they didn't have time for one or two more), and the vibe was really relaxed and friendly.  

They also had the director, John G. Avildsen, there to talk about the creation of the film, which was a really neat addition. #onlyinLA

I forgot how great of a film "The Karate Kid" is, and seeing it in that environment and having the director speak added more depth and interest to the film. 

I essentially learned that Mr. Miyagi knows best. Remember to wax on, wax off. 

READ MORE TO SEE ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AND A LITTLE BACKGROUND ABOUT WHIT & I

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. 

READ ON TO SEE PHOTOS & FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SPHERES...

Unlike the beach areas where I grew up — Manhattan, Hermosa, and Redondo Beach — the best beaches, like Thousand Steps Beach or Shaws Cove, in Laguna Beach are hidden and not seen until you actually park your car and go discover them. 

One of the last things I did before I left Los Angeles was go to Thousand Steps Beach with Brittney and Krystal to find the "secret pools" I had kept hearing about. And also to see this beach.

READ ON TO FIND OUT HOW TO FIND THE POOLS...

It was 4:45am and it we had about 15 minutes to get ready to go. 

Brittney and I had stayed up until 1am talking and laughing. She had flown into Los Angeles just the night before, and instead of going back to my house, I surprised her with a Motel 6 in an area she had never been to. Because what are friends for except to surprise them with sketchy motels in the dark?

It wasn't the motel that was the final destination though. As we drove through the dark morning, she still didn't realize that we were in Temecula, known for it's many vineyards as well as hot air balloon rides.

Even when I parked in the pitch black, all we could see was a house in the distance with it's lights on.

I wish I could have recorded the moment she walked into that house. Still bewildered, it wasn't until she saw one of the t-shirts they were selling with a hot air balloon on it that she realized what was happening.

And then she smiled super big and looked at me like, "Are we actually going on a hot air balloon ride right now?" 

That moment was worth everything. And I was happy to say yes, yes we were.

CLICK THROUGH TO SEE MORE PHOTOS & DETAILS...

When I came to visit Nashville almost three years ago — I had just finished college and was on my "spring break" in March — it snowed. In March. It wasn't a heavy snow by any means. It was just fluff that melted as soon as it hit the ground. But it was snow. 

And coming from Los Angeles where it was sunny, and spring was coming, I just thought that if some place still had snow, then it must snow even more in the winter time. I concluded that Nashville must have heavy snow in their winters. 

Then I moved here.

I told everyone that I wanted four seasons. That included real deal, shoveling snow seasons. I was so excited to finally have a white snowy winter. And everyone, I mean everyone that had lived here, told me that "in Nashville, it doesn't really snow. It just gets icy." 

What do you mean it doesn't snow?? I saw snow three years ago in March. 

"Well sometimes it's a light snow that melts as it hits the ground, but it's never really heavy snow. It doesn't stick."

Every time I had this conversation, I felt slightly bummed out. But in the back of my mind, I honestly just didn't believe them. Which is why I probably had the same conversation so many times.

My hope was further solidified though when Lizzie from the farm said that the persimmon seed revealed an intense snow will fall winter by showing a spoon shape (persimmon seeds can predict weather, didn't you know?). 

And then December came. Winter came. And it was sunny. Sometimes cold. But mostly mild and sunny.

My hopes started becoming less.

Coming back from Los Angeles and Utah, I still felt like there was a chance. And then hallelujah. It happened.

I was there with my roommate Annemarie when she got the phone call that school would be cancelled the next day. SNOW WAS COMING. 

READ MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DID AND SEE PHOTOS...

Do you remember when disposable cameras were a thing? Film cameras used to be the only thing. Digital cameras, when they came out, were such a big deal... And now I've got a nice camera on my phone, and take 100 shots of one thing because I can. 

There's something really beautiful about film cameras though. That moment when you take a photo and you have no idea what it looks like. Or how it might develop. 

When I was in high school, I took a photography class where we only used film cameras. That was a cool experience just to know how to manipulate film and see the process of development. 

But digital is so convenient.

Because it's convenient, sometimes it feels not as special. More planned too. More perfected... but in a sad way.

I had this idea that when I went on my Route 66 road trip that I would only use disposable cameras and get the big surprise at the end of the trip of how the pictures turned out. 

Unfortunately, that's actually pretty expensive nowadays. So I kind of dropped that aspect of the trip. April knew about this little dream though, and bought me a disposable camera and gave it to me before my trip. 

I took it with me, only taking a few pictures here and there. I still had some left when I got to the farm. And then some left when April came to visit Nashville. And still had some even when I went home for the holidays. I used the very last pictures on the first day of the new year.

I finally got them developed here at a Walmart in Nashville that didn't give me the picture CD with it. So, while I will not trust Walmart with my disposable camera photos ever again, I was grateful to get these back. From a critical perspective, the coloring is imperfect, some of the shots are out of focus, or gritty, overexposed or underexposed. 

But what I love is they absolutely capture the moments. Just that snap second moment. I didn't have a chance to know if it'd be good or not. And, in the end, it doesn't really matter. Because memories aren't exactly judged that way. It just is.

READ MORE TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS...

I visited Utah at the beginning of January, and I'm going back again to visit Matt and friends next week! #holla 

One of my favorite things we experienced when I was there were the Midway Ice Castles. 

About a year ago, I learned that Utah had these "ice castles" during the winter. Utah sounded like a good place to go on a four day trip, so Krystal and I went. We had a blast making a quick trip to Brighton, eating waffles in Provo, and visiting some of my favorite places in Salt Lake City, but there was virtually little, if any snow (which is why we drove up to Brighton to make some semblance of a snowman). It wasn't cold enough. Even at the end of January.

So we did a lot of fun things, but we did not get to see the ice castles.

Fast forward to this year when I went to Utah again. This time there was snow. LOTS OF IT. And I loved it, as expected. And I loved it even more that because it was snowy and cold, the castles would be open in time!

READ MORE ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE AND SEE PHOTOS...

Back in the good old days... 

haha JUST KIDDING. They're still young and fresh in my mind. Before my friend Kana (birthday shout-out to her! Happy Birthday!!) moved to Japan, we went on a four day road trip up the coast of California and back.

This state is "SO BIG" as Kana would say time and again (and she's right!) that we decided it was a good time to really explore it.

To plan the trip, we primarily used a website/app called "Roadtrippers," and it was extremely helpful and made it so much easier to find great, quirky, and fun places to go to! 

Read more to see the entire trip! 

Hi! Hello! Hola! (According to DuoLingo, I am currently 12% fluent in Spanish so I'm trying to use it as much as possible.) Happy New Year! Oh wait, what? January is almost passed? How?! Well, in my timing that's ok. It only took me three weeks into the year to complete my new year's resolutions. I'd say I'm just right on track to complete all my January goals by starting the last week of January.

Well, it's been a crazy couple months. I guess it's been that long since I last wrote. But in good ways. I have so much content to share, but lots of things I'm focusing on right now. So in due time. 

I'm currently back in Tennessee. Watching some ladybugs crawling on my window screen. (I thought ladybugs were lucky (my Nana told me so anyways) until they became creepy by showing up in mass amounts in the fall. Since winter came, I find less in my room, but they appear to not go into complete hibernation and I'll still find them crawling on my wall.)

Oh, and I'm sick again. I've been sick once each month since I moved to Tennessee. I could go to a doctor or something, but I'm guessing they would tell me that I need to eat less of the bad sugar (chocolate) and eat more fruit and take more Vitamin C. All of which I know, and have now started instituting. Because sick days are not fun when you're not being paid for them, and I've got new year's resolutions to accomplish!

As for life sharing moments: first off, over Christmas and New Year's, I was in Los Angeles. It went by so so quickly. Every day was filled with people, animals, and making things happen. Like finishing all my Christmas shopping and wrapping on Christmas Eve. (Notice a pattern here? New Year's resolution numero uno: prepare in high advance.) That was a little stressful. 

And turning 25. I am now a quarter of a century old. That's all I would like to say about officially confronting I am now in my mid-twenties. I have to say, It's been good to me so far though.

Click through to view a little photo diary of my two weeks back at home...

One thing I've been wanting to do more often in Tennessee is go hiking. There are hiking meetup groups, and specifically night hikes that I plan to do, but then it sort of gets lost throughout the day on my list of priorities. 

While April was here, my friend Matt suggested a little half-day trip to Cummins Falls State Park. He easily convinced me it was an ideal location to hike in from his beautiful photos of the waterfalls themselves and him behind the waterfall. Not only going to a waterfall but being able to go behind one? SOLD. 

READ MORE TO SEE PHOTOS, HIKE DETAILS, & DOUGHNUTS!...

Two weeks ago last night, April flew in to Nashville. I was BEYOND thrilled. The reality didn't even really hit me until I had blown up the air mattress and got ready to go pick her up. 

We went straight to Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (because I swear that's the best ice cream ever in my life so far (gelato is it's own category)) and then hit up The 5 Spot for their Monday night throwback dancing — making the oldie's good again.

Since she had just come from visiting her sister in Montana, I figured it was better to ease her into the Nashville city life. Instead of going straight into the tourist Nashville, we focused on a few key Nashville aspects before spending most of the day in Franklin.

The itinerary included:

• Breakfast at The Pancake Pantry
• Pictures with art walls nearby (like the one above)
• Carnton Plantation
• Lotz House
• Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge which also included a drive through some of Natchez Trace Parkway
• Dinner at The Loveless Cafe
• Music at The Bluebird Cafe

CLICK THROUGH TO SEE PICTURES & DETAILS

By the time we went through the art exhibits in Chinatown, we were really really hungry. Eugene left us and we hopped in our cars again to make one final downtown trek: Pershing Square. And more specifically, Perch & Mrs. Fish.

CLICK THROUGH TO SEE THE WHOLE POST...INCLUDING PIZZA

Piñatas + Polka Dots + Silly String might be my new favorite combination now.

READ MORE TO SEE IT ALL COME TOGETHER...