Coming soon to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is a surreal experience known as the, Rain Room . It’s an interactive simulated rainfall exhibit which I can not wait to see! Since James Turrel’s genius Light Projections at LACMA, I’ve been itching for more interactive art and here it is! Enjoy the rain, indoors and don’t worry about the drought in LA, they recycle the water… it’s in a loop!

Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman is an English author of novels, short fiction, graphic novels, comic books, audio theatre and films. He said something genius once and NITCH, my favorite website posted his quote:

“Do the stuff only you can do. The urge starting out is to copy, and that’s not a bad thing. Most of us find our voices only after we sound like a lot of other people. But the one thing that you have that nobody else has is you: your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can. The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you’re walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself, that’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.”

My husband and I decided to take a quick getaway this past weekend to Seattle, Washington. We had both never been there but I did my research and knew where to eat and what to see, in that order. We stayed at the “Inn at the Market” hotel on Pine street, we couldn’t have found a better hotel that was close to all of the downtown action.

We ate fish n’ chips about 3 times in a matter of 3 days. “Anthony’s” by the bay had the best fish n’ chips. We also went out on a ferry to Bainsbridge which was a great ride but Bainsbridge itself was a little boring. The best thing about it was the restaurant, “Public House” which is where all the locals go. Their fish n’ chips were also amazing! The seafood in Seattle in general, as everyone knows, is ridiculously tasty and we couldn’t get enough!

When we first checked into our hotel room, we didn’t know what to expect since the lobby of our hotel was mediocre but the moment we went upstairs to see our room, we were blown away by our spectacular view of the bay. We knew we scored big time!

We pretty much walked most of the city, from “The Market” which we visited everyday to see the fresh flowers & beautiful fruit displays, to our favorite area, “Capitol Hill” which had all of these hip new restaurants and cafes. Don’t forget to go to the first ever Starbucks, if you’re into that sort of thing and grab a “Piroshki” while you’re at it just across the street from “The Market”!

Of course we went to the Space Needle, which had a killer 360 degree view as well as wine to enhance the experience. Afterwards, we head down to the enchanting Chihuly glass garden, yes, it was magical.

All in all, it was an easy city to get around by foot or by tram and what most people don’t mention is how kind everyone is there. As a person who was born and raised in Los Angeles, I was pretty shocked at just how polite and nice everyone was in a city not that far away from home. Why is that? Why are the people of Seattle more helpful and just generally a calm people who don’t seem annoyed or agitated by anyone or anything. Can it be that they’re just passive? Which can be a great trait btw, or is it that they just know the secret on how to enjoy life? I really don’t know. But what I do know is that my husband and I are looking forward to many more trips back to Seattle for it’s mouth watering Seafood, coffee, Piroshki’s & it’s kind, fine people.

from the blog www.abitofsoul.com

This is a rendering of a single tree that bears 40 different fruits! The idea is genius and the artist, Sam Van Aken came up with it. He began by integrating two different species of plants, then three, then four and so on until he figured out a way to have 40 different fruits on the same tree.

Sounds like magic but it’s really just science. About 14 of these trees are planted across the country. Each with their own varieties of fruits such as peaches, apricots, plums, cherries and more.

In 2008, Van Aken used a technology called chip grafting. Growing up in Pennsylvania on a farm, he was mystified by grafting. Although he was quite skeptical about the whole process, he realized that the tree actually grows and becomes a multiple fruit tree.

Pretty amazing, right?!?