California Trip Part 1

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a while after we got back from the trip, my first day of high school was literally the day after that. So, here is part one of my trip to Pasadena, CA. The reason we were traveling there was for my mother's cousin's wedding. It was indeed a gay wedding, so it was very important to them that we would be there because of the lack of people in our family (keep in mind most of our family is from the rural south in flordia) that were accepting to gay weddings. I was super excited because that was my first gay wedding, and it seemed like they were more in love than a lot of people getting married I know. 

Here are the lovely ladies of the Northrop family in the arboretum, I am the one to the right.

I was wearing a reworked 1930s dress from Eden in Portland. It took place in the arboretum in Pasadena. It was beautiful, but mostly I loved the peacocks running around. We tried to take pictures of them, but they kept running away,this was seriously the best picture we could get.

So the first day we basically got off the airplane and decided to get some sight seeing done.I used my vintage luggage set I acquired off of ebay and etsy.

I apologize for the bizarre face my cat is making in this photo. 

 A lot of people like the look of vintage luggage but are concerned about the functionality  Here are the top five tips to using vintage luggage. 

First, make sure you look up the overhead carriage dimensions so it fits into the overhead bin. You wouldn't want to check the bag if it is vintage because of how they toss the luggage around. 

Second, You can carry it, mine wasn't that heavy, but often times the handles are a hard plastic that can hurt your hands unless you wear gloves. 

Third, if it is too heavy for you, you can put it on top of another luggage that rolls (if you are traveling in a group that has one) or a one of those rolling things you strap your luggage into.  

Fourth, if you are concerned about space you can have two, they can actually stack up in the overhead bin because of the thin width. 

Fifth, use your train case as the carry on bag that fits perfectly under your seat, and keeps the look of the vintage luggage. 

So, if you want a vintage luggage, here are some things I have learned from my experince. Right away we could feel the heat, being from Seattle we weren't used to such heat. We first went and drove down Rodeo drive and drooled at the expensive shops.

It was a quick drive by, but if we got out and walked, i'm afraid we might have been so sad about how much we can't buy. So, a quick drive through was good enough, especially since our next stop was Beverly hills. We found a map online of movie star homes and stalked them down untill we had seen enough mansions for a whole life time. We saw several homes like Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Donna Reed. Next we ha promised my sister we would go to the store she really wants to go to , Brandy Melville. Bye the time that was over, it was time for check-in at out hotel. 

We stayed at the Saga Motor Inn, it was a really nice place, not super ritzy or anything but a really cute little place from the 1950s.  

It had a great pool too, where I used my new swimsuit I made. CLICK HERE to see how it was made. 

I know there is a huge amount of vintage stores and rockabilly places in L.A. so I was planning my route to vintage shops. Stay tuned for part two of my trip to California!