Amyblog

EASTERN MARKET

I will squeeze in the last of our Michigan trip back in August! The last thing we did was to pay a visit to the Eastern Market. I love the Grand Central Market in LA. So naturally, I wanted to check out the Eastern Market to see what it was like. The Eastern Market is still evolving, much like Midtown. There are signs of hippiness, interesting wall murals and lovely stalls. But the area still needs clean up. The market surrounding area are still "rough around the edges." Hopefully, more young, millenials find their way to the market and turn things around, make it hip to visit. For now, enjoy some of my favorite pictures from the Eastern Market. I saw these amazing long grapes that I've never seen before! Ahgoo tried one and she told me it tasted just like a regular grape!

Posted on October 24, 2019

RANDOM FREE DAY

What would you do if you suddenly had a free day, no work and no school? That's what we got one random day waaay back at the end of January! Yeah, I looked back at my photos and realized I had forgotten to post these. I can't believe how time flies and we're not in October. Back in January, the kids' school had service day and it happened to fall on one of my off friday. So Mr. BAW took the day off and we had a family day. We took the kids ice skating at a rink near our house and then took a trip to the San Gabriel mountains for some hiking. I think I've mentioned before that the best time for hiking in LA is in the winter time, when it's not too hot. Also, we had just had some rain that month and so the rivers were actually pretty flowing.

Enjoy the pictures, I still can't believe it was nine months ago!

Posted on October 18, 2019

GRANDMA'S WEEK!

Back in July, Mr. BAW and I simulaneouly had to travel for work to the same meeting for a week. What do we do?? Well, thank goodness Grandma came to the rescue! She flew out from Michigan to watch the kids for us for a week. Since Kepler was still a wild pup, we took him to the vet for a stay. The kids were at summer camp during the day so Grandma had to drive them to and from there each day. Every night we called home, we would get the happiest kids telling us about their adventures with Grandma, which included running down to the hiking trails at the end of our street down to the stream to catch tadpoles and teeny frogs! Those memories will surely stay with them forever.

When Mr. BAW and I returned from our trip, we were able to take Grandma out to celebrate her birthday! We took her to Float in Pasadena for some unique root beer floats. But we all agreed that the orange creamsicle float was the best. Then we ended up at Malbec for a nice dinner. Overall, we hoped that Grandma and the kids will always have fond memories of the week Grandma watched the kids!

Posted on October 17, 2019

LAST OF SUMMER TAKE 2

So I realized that I still have lots of summer pictures to share with you so the last post was not the last of summer! These GO BEACH pictures were taken in early summer when we took the kids' bikes and Kepler down to Cal State Long Beach (thus GO BEACH). I love the bright letters, so much fun and so LA.

Posted on October 14, 2019

LAST OF SUMMER

Back in September, we visited a little cousin who came all the way from London. She is only a year younger than Ahgoo so they were like two peas in a pod. Being from London, she, of course, wanted to go to the beach. We packed up some beach bags and headed over to Dana Point, where there is a "Baby Beach" sheltered from strong waves. Mr. BAW, his aunt, and the three kids all went over to the beach. Since dogs are not allowed on the beach, I took Kepler over to the Yacht Club for some R&R. It was a beautiful day and Kepler got to meet a few other dogs and enjoyed pets from people walking by.

Posted on October 12, 2019

MIDTOWN DETROIT

Much of the attention has been paid to the transformation of Downtown Detroit. Rightly so, because the improvements have been so drastic. However, quietly, the area to the north of Downtown has been changing too. What is in Midtown, you ask? I didn't know there was anything of interest either, until I looked at a map. Turns out that the beautiful Detroit Institute of Arts, aka DIA, is there, along with Wayne State University.

This is the first time I visited the DIA and I was very impressed! The art collections were amazing, rivaling the more famous Art Institute of Chicago. Again, I was extremely impressed by the architecture of, not only DIA, but the surrounding Midtown area. There is definitely a revitalization effort quietly going on as we seen scaffolding around many homes in the surrounding neighborhood. In addition, there is a public library that is truly a hidden gem! The library is so beautiful that I couldn't believe that it's not a major library in Downtown.

However, things are definitely not "there" yet in terms of full revitalization. For example, the beautiful public library did not have air conditioning, I guess it was broken. But it was almost unbearably hot inside. There was hardly anyone enjoying the amazing library. I don't understand why the city does not make fixing the library air conditioning a priority. The poor workers were suffering inside all day long. In addition, there were still some sketchy areas surrounding Wayne State University. But things are slowly improving as places like Shinola and Selden Standard draw more and more hip Millenials to the area. They will demand things to be cleaned up, they will demand safety, and they will demand more hip places to hang out. It was nice to see younger people moving into the surrounding neighborhood too. Overall, I would definetly want to go back and maybe check out the Museum of Contemporary Art or dine at The Whitney.

The DIA was amazing. The architecture of the building itself, the famous Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera, the art collection, even the dining area was beautiful. There was a fun table display with a video depicting what type of dishes were typically served to guests at a French dinner. Below are also a few of my favorite paintings including Bank of the Oise at Auvers by Vincent van Gogh, Cafe Scene in Paris by Henri Gervex, and Flowers in a Glass Vase by Rachel Ruysch.

The beautiful public library was an amazing building and even featured Copernicus!

The surrounding neighborhood of Midtown includes a hidden underground coffee shop in a cute alley, beautiful homes, and hip shops and restaurants. We enjoyed delicious food at Selden Standard.