It’s a busy month ahead, and Halloween and fall festivities aren’t even included in that. Throughout the month, there are celebrations and events featuring countries and cultures from all over the world – Lebanon, Southeast Asia, Lithuania, China, Cuba, Germany, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, Greece, Philippines, Congo, Mexico, India, and Asia in general. Where will you travel to this month without even leaving the city?
October is also the month of one of my favorite LA events – CicLAvia. On Sunday, October 16, close to 6 miles of streets will be closed to cars in Downtown LA, and participants will be free to explore all it has to offer. See more details below. I did it last year with my oldest son. There is no better way to get to know a part of town than to ride slowly through it stopping as you please along the way. Now with the Expo Line open all the way to Santa Monica, it’s even easier for Westside families to participate.
How will you explore the diverse richness of Los Angeles this month? Continue reading
Many of us are back to the grind with school and after-school and weekend activities, but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to seek out opportunities to explore other cultures or visit new-to-us areas of Los Angeles to broaden our horizons.
It’s always hard to return to real life after a vacation full of unique and interesting experiences. This week we seized the opportunity to relive a bit of our recent vacation in Catalonia, Spain, right here at home. We learned that there was an exhibition of Salvador Dalí sculptures in Beverly Hills – an open-air exhibit of 12 “monumental and museum sized” bronze sculptures, free and open to the public at Two Rodeo Drive. We were intrigued.
Summer is the perfect time to explore and take advantage of all that Los Angeles has to offer. This summer make a pact to visit a new area of Los Angeles or participate in a new activity—a cultural art project, a concert in a special outdoor setting, a festival celebrating a unique culture, or a bike ride exploring a new part of Los Angeles, just to mention a few options. The experience will open your eyes to the richness of where we live. You’ll be amazed at what’s available to us.
On the weekend of May 20, the long awaited Expo Line extension from Culver City to Santa Monica opened with great fanfare. There were free rides for all Expo Line riders and parties with food trucks, entertainment, and children’s activities at new stations. Despite there not being an official party at our new station, there was still a very festive feel. So many interested and curious people had come to check out the new light rail service, so many that they all couldn’t get on the train to Santa Monica when it came.
I tested the new line the other day. I had to serve hot lunch at my kids’ school in Santa Monica, an activity which has kind of lost its luster because they’re not as eager to let me hang with them while they eat with their friends. It all became much more alluring when I decided to make a little adventure out of it for myself. I made a pact to take public transit to the school. 
Norway’s National Day snuck up on us this year even though it was on our calendar. We didn’t decide to attend the festivities at Nansen Field until the evening before. The next morning we rallied the troops, dug out our Norwegian flags (and once again remembered we need new ones for next year), and headed down to Rolling Hills Estates, about a 30-minute drive south of Los Angeles.
It didn’t take long for Sonny and Doobie to head off to the open soccer goal on the huge empty field. But it also didn’t take long until they were overrun by little kids and their parents and had to abdicate the goal.
