adventures out west

my final work trip this fall was a three-week jaunt to the west coast (los angeles, san francisco, and portland with a few personal days in seattle). here are a few highlights:

{LACMA}

 {halloween cupcake, west hollywood}

 {little brother weekend visit in los angeles}

 

 {san francisco}

{golden gate bridge, san fran}

{powell's books in portland}

 {my sweet friend claudia at the ace hotel, portland}

{voodoo doughnuts, portland}

{pdx signage}

 {mt. rainier, train to seattle}

{train to seattle}

{public market, seattle}

{space needle and me, seattle}

charlottesville in september

i do quite a bit of traveling for work in the fall, which is undoubtedly the best perk of my job.  my two and a half month journey began last week with a quick trip to los angeles, followed by a visit to charlottesville, virginia to see an old college friend/roommate (see? it's not all work). cali and i packed up a little picnic and headed to the king family vineyards on sunday to watch a polo match--a first for me.  we sprawled out on a blanket and drank a bottle of the king family's finest red... nevermind that we only caught the last five minutes of the polo match. ha.

 cali and her sister ashley are two truly talented ladies, who started their own photography business a couple years ago. check out (once like a spark) to see just how amazing they really are.

sunnytime jams

{image via dirty gold}

i'm heading back to los angeles next weekend for work, so i thought i'd make a new mixtape for the occasion. this is my "nearing-the-end-of-summer-but-i'm-not-ready-to-surrender-yet" compilation. it's short and sweet, so do enjoy.

1. "colour me in" - broadcast
2. "california sunrise" - dirty gold
3. "baby's arms" - kurt vile
4. "the alter" - wye oak
5. "car crash" - telekinesis
6. "we are gods! we are wolves!" - le loup
7. "get up" - washed out
8. "i'm the one" - wilderness survival
9. "communion" - maximum balloon
10. "midnight city" - m83
11. "got blinded" toro y moi

where do i begin?

i would love more than anything to travel the world (and country). unfortunately, it's a tad more expensive than my wallet can handle at this point in my life.
here are some of the places i dream about visiting:

san francisco
portland
seattle
chicago
austin
new orleans
los angeles

spain: san sebastian, barcelona, madrid, valencia, sevilla
sweden: malmo, stockholm, dalarna
italy: rome, venice, cinque terra, florence, cortona, milan
uk: london, oxford, cambridge, surrey, edinburgh
ireland: cork, dublin
portugal: lisbon, porto
france: paris, marseille, lyon, nice
germany: berlin, munich, hamburg

i think that's all for now...

{photo courtesy of paper tissue}

(bold = checked off my list!)