Wipe out!

We’re on our way to San Diego. Huge metal pole in the middle of the freeway. The car in front of me clips it and knocks it right in my path. I can’t avoid hitting it. It flys up behind me…I’m looking in the rear view mirror expecting to see it fly into someone’s windshield…and pop! Thunk, thunk, thunk….right front tire is flat! And we are in the middle of a five lane highway. Traffic whizzing by at 80 m.p.h.! Luckily my dad did not let me get my license without knowing how to change a tire! The hard part though, was trying to do this with crazy fast traffic flying by. I was doing it though. Our luggage lined against the side of the median, my ass sticking out from under the car…London standing guard, waving at cars, making sure they wouldn’t hit me! Thankfully, a tow truck driver had been driving by and pulled over to help us. I would’ve been able to do it myself, but not as fast as he did!

The best part was feeling like we were in a NASCAR race. All of sudden the lovely, helpful tow truck driver says “okay, pack up the car…10 seconds till take off! Let’s go, let’s go!” We look behind us and there is a motorcycle cop stopping traffic. He’s driving back and forth across all five lanes, not letting anyone through. They stopped the whole freeway, just for us! It was pure craziness. Never seen anything like it before. London kept screaming, “ OMG! They stopped traffic for us. Do you see this? All five lanes of traffic, stopped..just for us!!!” So we threw the suitcases in the car and took off on my little donut tire. Thankfully there was a Firestone right down the street from the next exit and I got a new tire. What an experience!

My Birthday and the big L.A. party in the Hills!

I turned 27 on this trip. My birthday in L.A.! What to do??? Big L.A. party in the hills! Hell yeah, Let’s go!

Malibu

Early Monday morning…once the sun hit the tent, we decided to head out for L.A. We took the polls out of the tent and dragged it out to the car with all our blankets, clothes and stuff in it. We probably looked ridiculous but it was much easier that way!

So we packed up the car and got changed in the parking lot…and were off for L.A.! We didn’t have any shoots until the next day so we decided to drive to Malibu and spend the day at the beach. First we drove up to the top of a hillside and did some hiking. It was so gorgeous! We could overlook the valley and stare out into the ocean. And the coastline was just sick! It was lined with cliffs, waves crashing up on them leading your eye up to a beautiful blue sky! The hills were lined with luscious greenery and giant boulders that stuck out of the hillsides so amazingly! It was great to be in such a beautiful place. It made me forget about the thick, dark layer of smog I saw hovering over the city as we drove in.


After a nice little hike in a heavenly spot, we drove down the hill and hung out on the beach. London was brave and floated out in the water for a good half hour. The water was way too cold for me. I’m such a baby when it comes to cold water. I got in…but quickly got back out. It was nice to just lay on the sand and catch a nap under the sun, with the sound of waves breaking in the background. We even saw a school of dolphins swim by. They would jump out of the water a few times pretty high. It was so neat =)

After soaking up the sun and getting sand in every nook and cranny of our bodies, we went to eat at The Reel Inn. I guess it’s a pretty famous place. I had some of the largest yummiest shrimp I’ve ever had and London had some Oysters! Mmmmmm Hmmmmm!
That night we arrived at Lenny’s place between West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. London stays with him every time she’s in LA. He has a nice big house and lives only with his dogs…Tito and Lola. So we get our own bedroom. That is a huge plus when traveling, we mostly just get couches. So a nice big bed and the privacy of a bedroom is fantastic! Thanks Lenny ;)

COACHELLA!!!!!!!!

The Coachella Music Festival is located between two small towns in California called Indio and Coachella, near Joshua Tree Nat’l Park. It’s a pretty area with tons of gorgeous palm trees, but it is very strange. We kept getting lost in a vortex of walls and palm trees! Every time we would try to find the city to buy some food or beer, we would lose our sense of direction. The whole place is full of big expensive country club houses behind walls lined with Palm Trees.

Neighborhood after neighborhood, the same thing….lines of palm trees along high walls, protecting the mansions behind them, each subdivision all looking the same. We would turn down street after street and all we would see were these walls and houses and palm trees. Where was the freakin’ town??? It was hilarious that could never tell what direction we were going. We would think we were headed the right way, but no…just more fancy homes behind gates and walls. Crazy rich country club place!

Eventually we did find our way to the section with a gas station and a grocery store.
Mmmmm beer!

The music venue doesn’t open until 11am and since we would start baking in our tent once the sun came up, we had a few hours to kill in the morning to go out in town and chug down some beer. This also helped us avoid spending tons of money to get our buzz on. The cost for a cup of Heineken, the only beer offered at the festival, was $7.00! Since London and I love our beer, we knew we had to go out and buy some cheap stuff or we’d go broke! It was cool though because tons of other people had the same idea. We would grab some beer and tailgate in the parking lot.
The main problem with that though was having to pee. We were pretty funny hiding and ducking between cars , poppin’-a-squat and peeing right there in the parking lot with tons of people walking all around. But it was part of the fun! We’d get nice and tipsy and then head into the venue and jam out to music until midnight.

Music music music…people people people!

Pretty girls in pretty dresses everywhere!

Heineken, Heineken and more Heineken!

Some of the many awesome bands we saw included:



Franz Ferdinand, The Ting Tings, Paul McCartney, Crystal Method, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Joss Stone, Jenny Lewis, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, Ghostland Observatory, Gaslight Anthem, The Cure

We met up with London’s friends Mike and Ryan from San Francisco that she had met last year. They were a lot of fun to hang out with! We went with them to watch Ghostland Obsevatory who I had not known of. They put on an amazing laser show that just blew my mind. It was so fun! Then we chilled on the grass and watched the LED light show display. It was a light sculpture that was at Burning Man…strings of LED lights that lit up different colors in fun patterns that would just flow with the music so well! I could sit and watch that thing for hours and hours!
There were actually a lot of things there that gave Coachella a “Burning Man” feel, especially the Do Lab and the Lucent Dossier Experience. They also had a small temple and a bamboo sculpture that looked just like center camp. Anyway, I enjoyed the “burner” touch that people brought to the festival.

The whole place was awesome. I had such a blast!

Roadtrippin' with London Again!

London flew into Tucson. Yay! We’re headed to the Coachella Music Festival. Yay! Then we’re gonna go work our stuff and model in L.A. and San Diego for the next two weeks. Hopefully make up the dough we’ll be spending at the festival. Yay! Yay! This will be my first time at Coachella, London’s second. I can’t wait to go experience 4 days of camping and music fun. WhoooHooo! Hopefully we’ll meet up with the friends London made at last year’s festival.

White Sands

So…I get a random call from Kimberly Marvel one night…

“Hey! Want to come model for a photography workshop in the White Sands this weekend?”

“Hell Yeah”, I say! ***I love that place***

Two other girls scheduled for the workshop couldn’t make it. Since I was only a 5 hour drive away, I got to fill in for them. So, I packed up my wardrobe and headed out to New Mexico! I really needed to be home to prepare for my upcoming trip to L.A., getting my laundry done, booking work, soaking up time with my boyfriend… But, the White Sands Nat’l Park is a place I cannot pass up. It is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to! Endless white dunes of gypsum under a beautiful bright blue sky! It’s very surreal feeling. When I’m there I feel as if I am walking on another world. I wish I could describe it well enough to do it some justice, but I can’t, so you should just go! If you’re ever driving through New Mexico, make sure to stop off at the Sands!


It was so good to see Kim again! Last time I saw her we were in Phoenix last October for the Arizona Shootout. She is so fun! We had a blast staying up all night chatting like little girls at a slumber party. The only thing bad about that was that we had to get up super early for a sunrise shoot out at the Sands. But our hotel room had a coffee maker so I was able to make some hot tea in the morning to get me going.



It’s too bad I didn’t take some hot tea with me out to the Sands…it was so freakin’ cold! It was a very windy and cold day…the sand was freezing. Our toes went numb from the coldness! The best part was listening to the photographers gripe and moan about the cold while wearing jeans and sweatshirts. Kim and I were laying down on the cold gypsum in our birthday suits! We got a little sandblasted and took turns huddling under a big blanket…but we still had lots of fun. It got better after it warmed up a little. Then we blew up some inner tubes and tried to slide down the dunes. It was a funny little spectacle. Kim ended up wearing the inner tube around her waist and did a little ballet dance for us. It was great =)