I grew up an American Girl.  And by American Girl, I mean the doll brand founded by the Pleasant Company in 1986.  It wasn't just because of my Bitty Baby (Rosie), Girl of Today (Paige), and Historical doll (Josefina).  The real reason that I define myself as an American Girl is because of the literature.  The historical fiction novels sparked my interest about the lives of girls in the past.  American Girl Magazine (to which I have been a loyal subscriber since August 1998) connected me with girls across the country and sparked my creativity.  And through the collection of advice books, American Girl helped me conquer tricky preteen situations with confidence.


When we were kids, my mother used to dream about a girls' trip to Chicago on which she'd take Rachel and I to the (original) American Girl Place and we'd see Oprah.  That trip never happened.

I love skylines.  The most familiar to me throughout my childhood was the Atlanta skyline.  As a kid riding in the backseat on long road trips to our family in Mississippi or vacation home in Florida, I would look forward to the 20 minutes we spent driving through Atlanta.  I didn't even mind sitting in the traffic.  Whenever we would detour for some reason and go around the city, rather than through it, my heart would sink a little in disappointment.  To this day, whenever I drive through Atlanta, my eyes divert from all electronics (if I'm driving, it's a little hard for me to keep them on the road) and stare happily out the window for the fifteen or twenty minutes it takes to cross the city.

While the skyline during the day is beautiful, there is something about seeing a city illuminated at night that just makes my heart sing.  So in Los Angeles, my heart sings quite often.  And on the overpass, I have to constantly remind myself to keep my eyes on the road.

The overpass is incredibly tempting to me.  I want to just pull over on the side and stare out at the city... and take out my camera and tripod for long exposures of the beautiful Los Angeles skyline illuminated at night.  But I fight the temptation because that's incredibly dangerous and also, I believe, illegal.  So I went to the internet for suggestions of parking garages that I could access for nighttime views of the skyline.



Someone on a photography forum suggested the parking garage at The Grove, an upscale outdoor mall in West Hollywood.  Shopping and photography?  Sounded like the perfect combination to me!