SHANGRI-LA

Behind one of the most iconic views of Hawai'i, Diamond Head, sits Doris Duke’s estate, Shangri-La. At the age of 12 she inherited her father’s $100 million dollar fortune (made from the Tobacco industry) after he passed. From that she gained the opportunity to be able to buy property and travel around the world. She became very inspired by Islamic Art and after she purchased her Diamond Head property she began to create Shangri-La. The estate took about 3 years to build (1936-1938) but it holds thousands of art pieces collected over a 60 year time span. There is not a square inch of this property that wasn’t set down with intention.

I would highly recommend visiting Shangri La if you get a chance. To visit you must book a tour with The Honolulu Museum of Art. Tours are available in guided group tours. Below are some pictures from the tour. Unfortunately when we went, the pool area was under renovation. This was kind of was a bummer, since one of my first memories of Shangri La was a picture of the pool and the backside of Diamond Head. Regardless, I am so happy I finally got a chance to visit Shangri La, it is definitely a must see on Oahu. Her estate is quite the work of art and it is a reminder that everything is a work in progress and beautiful things take time to build.

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Prada Marfa, TX

My boyfriend is moving to Houston, TX for work. I decided to go on a road trip with him so he wouldn't have to do the drive alone. I had seen pictures of this Prada Store in the middle of nowhere and suggested we take a pit stop to see it. Fortunately, this was only about an hour off of the I-10 and he was down to check it out too. 

Driving from LA, on the I-10 East, it takes about 15 hours straight, with no traffic. Except we left on a Friday and of course we lagged and caught the LA traffic, as well as some gnarly accident traffic on the border of CA and AZ, so it took us about 17 hours to get there. The next afternoon we finally pulled off the I-10 and onto the US-90 in what seems like the middle of no where farmland. Much of America is in the middle of nowhere, so this seemingly could of been anywhere in rural North America. 

We finally pull up to our destination and a few cars and people were already there. We waited and found a moment of solitude, just us and Prada, but not for long as a roadwork truck passed by to warn us they were about to pave the road. For being in the middle of no where, it was quite busy. We snapped a few pics and continued on our way to Austin. The road back to the I-10 did feel desolate and it kind of seemed that way all the way until we reached Austin, TX. 

The pics below include Prada Marfa and a couple of Austin. Apparently Austin is a food truck city, and I can attest it is, there are Food truck parks on every corner.