Petersen Automotive Museum

A few weeks back all the museums in Miracle Mile were free one day. So Jeremy and I went over to see the Peterson Automotive Museum. It was pretty amazing. I know nothing about cars and I think I had a better time than he did. I might even try to make it back for the fashion and automobiles exhibit coming up later this month! The exhibits are constantly changing and feature tons of cars. This post is really long and doesn't even come close to doing the museum justice.

Fantasies in Fiberglass Exhibit
The Dale

Billed as a space age economy car capable of 70 miles per gallon, The Dale was used by con artist Liz Carmichael to raise approximately $2 million from would-be buyers and investors. Although The Dale attracted a great deal of publicity because of its high advertised fuel economy and innovative design, it was revealed to be a scam and Liz Carmichael, a transvestite whose real name was Jerry Dean Michael, was convicted of grand theft. Although ordered to appear in court for sentencing in 1980, Carmichael fled. He was discovered 9 years later in Texas after the story aired on the Unsolved Mysteries television series and returned to California to serve 2 to 20 years in state prison. Just 3 Dales are believed to have been built: a running prototype, a non-running prototype, and a stylish mock-up. This car, the non-running prototype, was displayed in Carmichael's Encino office.

Notice it only has 1 back wheel!

1953 Bosley

The guy who built this car (Richard Bosley) had no experience but just loved cars. Using fiberglass and piece from other cars, he built this at 21. It makes me feel pretty unaccomplished! Once I built some flower boxes. I was so proud of them, but that's nothing compared to a sports car.

Motorcycles and Scooters Exhibit
John Holt's Bone Bike aka "Iron Death"


What Were They Thinking: Misfits of Motordom Exhibit
1908 Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo

Apparently this has been voted one of the 50 worst cars of all time!

The Hollywood Exhibit
General Lee

1967 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow Coupe from the original Thomas Crown Affair

Modified Jaguar XKR - The villain's car in Die Another Day.

In my attempts to find out what this car was and what movie it was from, I googled "James Bond villains car," and I found an entire page devoted to the vehicles that villains used in those movies! I thought that was kind of cool. Some people really know their James Bond.

The Bat Bike - from the original 1960's TV series.

I'm a huge Batman fan, as you're about to see!

Batmobile from the 1989 movie with Michael Keaton.

It's hard to see, but it has these really cute baby windshield wipers!

When they were putting this car together, the designers were grabbing parts from wherever they could. The nose piece in the front was taken from a Harrier Jet. The whole car, when put together, ended up being 20 feet long.


On the 3rd floor they have a family center. There's not much to do there, but I think it's worth it to visit just for the photo op!

Arroyo Sequit Loop

A while back, probably a month ago at this point, I went on this short hike in the hills north of Malibu called the Arroyo Sequit Loop. I tried to post about it several times, but I am using a new online program to load my pictures up so the quality is better. Blogger's picture program reduces the quality so much that everything comes out blurry. Anyway this program kept freezing, and I never could get my pictures up until now. But finally you can see what a great little hike this is!

These are my co-explorers: Juche and Jeremy.

There is only one area of lush greenery on the hike. There is a small stream, barely more than a trickle, that runs through the area, and it sustains an incredibly number of plants. We even saw a lime tree growing by it!

The path is a bit run down and at points we had to push through forests of flowers. That doesn't sound particularly hard, except for that forest of flowers also comes with loads of bees!

Even though the hills up there are very dry, there is an amazing array of wild flowers that grow. These pictures don't do the flowers justice. It is definitely worth it to do the hike and see them for yourself.

Obligatory butterfly shot! . . . If there are other great hikes up in these hills or anywhere else in the LA area, leave me a message. Living in such a large city makes me relish any chance to get back out into nature.

(In)decorous Taste

Do you read (In)decorous Taste? If you don't, you need to put it on your RSS feed today. Lauren doesn't post that much, but when she does, it is well worth the wait because she's always got something great to share. One thing she is particularly wonderful at is modifying her shoes into masterpieces. In the past this has involved painting, tying, and gluing extras on. But this time she went above and beyond, so I had to share. Check out her archives for more examples of creativity. And then join me in the campaign to get this girl her own shoe line so we can wear something this amazing on our feet as well!

Update: (In)decorous Taste now has online sales!

Beach Bonfires at Dockweiler

A little while back, a friend from school had her birthday at Dockweiler Beach down by Marina Del Ray. I had never been all the way down there. From the downtown area it is quite a hike, but it was worth it. The atmosphere of being on the beach, around a bonfire, roasting marshmallows, and listening to the waves in and of itself is great. But at Dockweiler, there are dozens of bonfires. Each with its own party of friends surrounding it. The feeling of relaxed happiness among everyone is almost tangible. If I were ever to use the word "chill" to describe something, this would be the "chillest" party spot in the world. I wish I lived closer so I could go more often.

I wore my beachiest top and a pair of earrings made to look like coral, thinking this would be prefect for a beach party. Wrong. It was so chilly (in the other sense of the word). The birthday girl had a huge sweater that looked like it took an entire sheep to make, and I was very jealous of her.

Here's a close up of the earrings. I hope you can see them a little bit better. They are really cool. I don't often have a reason to wear them. I'll keep my fingers crossed I get invited to another beach party just to have an excuse to break them out.

Mmmm... Marshmallows. I love marshmallows.

Chile Lime Tilapia & Mussels in Beer

I've tried out a few new recipes lately that were pretty good. The first one my boyfriend found on Epicurious: tilapia with a chile lime butter. It is a complete winner. So quick and easy to make, but unexpectedly delicious. You soften up some butter, and then throw in chopped chile pepper, shallots, lime zest and lime juice. Then you put the butter on the tilapia as soon as it comes off the pan. It melts flavor into the fish immediately.


I served a spinach salad on the side with walnuts and apples. I made up the dressing for it on my own! (I was proud of my tiny moment of ingenuity.) I mixed some honey, .5 teaspoon of vanilla, white wine vinegar, and olive oil together. For a summer salad with fruit, its perfect.

This second one is from my dad. Almost every time I go home and eat at his restaurant, I order the mussels in beer. He serves it with loads of garlic bread, which is good because the broth (full of tomatoes, sausage, spices) is like a meal in itself. You don't want to miss a drop.


If you want to make a version at home, the general ingredients are: bell peppers, chorizo, garlic, tomatoes, scallions, oil, beer (Sierra Nevada recommended), and mussels. Although if you are not a big fan of chorizo, there are many other good looking recipes are online. You could try it with garlic, thyme, and bay leaves or shallots, cilantro and Parmesan or a creamy version with fennel and lemon. I am looking forward to trying out some of these others this summer!

Christian Siriano Talon Heels

I have been dying to post about these shoes I won on Ebay over the weekend. Like everything Christian Siriano touches, they are fierce. They just arrived today, and so of course I spent my first hour at home trying on different outfits with them! This is one of the more wearable ones I came up with. I have to be careful with these shoes because I think they could easily turn an outfit from edgy to stripper-esque.

I have a couple trips coming up later this summer, and I will certainly be bringing these along. There are a couple of other pieces in my closet I am excited to wears these with.

The Big Move!

In 10 days, the boyfriend and I will be moving into our new, schmancy downtown apartment, which we are so excited about! We are going to have a patio, and I have big plans for it. I'm thinking a trellis covered in wisteria, an herb garden, and hopefully one of those hanging strawberry plants. I am going to try to make a video of the move, but until then, here is my patio garden inspiration: