The Good Life

A few weeks ago, I took another trip to Palm Desert, CA

To visit my grandmother Pearl in the hospital,

and spend time with my Grandpa.

To enjoy the desert scenery,

and spend some time relaxing at the pool.

A beautiful setting for a photo shoot,

the perfect place to make sun tea,

and another excuse to just kick back and enjoy life.

Have you had any escapes lately?

Sweet Escape

There is nothing quite like a quick getaway to clear your mind, and make room for new inspiration, new ideas, new paths. A spring cleaning of sorts. Sometimes I feel bogged down in the day to day, and need a little refresh.

While in the desert visiting my grandma, I had the opportunity to meet up with friends I met through the blogging and photography world. Incredibly inspirational and talented, I felt I had known these women forever.

Sharing a passion can spark a lifelong friendship in an instant, and I feel like a passion shared is a passion that grows. I get excited when I meet others who love photography as much as I do, share my desire to seek beauty through my lens, and go to great lengths to get that perfect photo. It deepens my love for all things photography.

Great food, great friends, great conversation, great photo ops, great time. This mini overnight vacation was just what I needed to clear out the dust and get back into the swing of things. Have you had any sweet escapes lately?

Friday Five

January 2007 I went to New York for two weeks with my friend and roommate Kelly. It was both our first trip to the city, and we had a wonderful time. We spent the first week on our own, and the second week with our previous roommate, April, who had transferred to NYU. I never did anything with my photos from the trip, so for this week's Friday Five I am sharing five of my favorites. For never having taken any class, they aren't bad! Mostly just remind me of the fun trip we had.

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in California anymore...

The signs I knew I was not in orange county anymore:

• There was a tornado shelter in the Denver airport.
• Huge bat's nest outside my window, and one got into the house one night.
• Eating pancakes one morning, I looked down and there was a spider crawling across that plate. "Was that IN your pancake?" Hillary asked.
• Bears and mountain lions roaming the yard

I went with the Williams on their annual family reunion trip. Two years ago I went with them to Chama, New Mexico, this time we are at Eagle Eye Ranch in Granby, Colorado. It is a huge 100-year old ranch house (the website does not even do it justice) with three floors and more beds than I can count. Seriously...in just one room alone on the third floor there were 10 beds (5 bunk beds).

It was a fun trip. Gorgeous area, only my second time in Colorado, the first just passing through on a train but didn't spend any time there. The 5 days were filled with hikes, relaxing, trips into the local towns, card playing, snapping pictures left and right, trip to the local hotsprings and playing with the caretaker's three dogs- Gonzo the basset hound, Ivy the Husky, Bentley the American Bulldog, and Tyler & Hillary's dog Bodhi.

{Highlights of the trip}

On the flight to Denver, I wanted some kind of ice pack for my back, so I brought a ziplock bag, and filled it with ice from the airport Starbucks. About halfway into the flight my leg felt strange and realized the entire bag of ice had melted and completely leaked out. My jeans, seat and back pillow were all soaking wet and I had to sit like that for the remainder of the flight. Luckily I was wearing dark jeans so it didn't look like I completely peed myself.

The caretaker had warned us not to go outside alone at dawn or dusk because there had been bear and mountain lion sitings. The first morning we went outside and there was a big bear print on Tyler's car, but luckily it didn't try to break in!!

I went on a hike, a 2.5 mile hike. Yes, ME! I paid for it later bigtime, I think I am STILL not back to my baseline of pain. But that being said, it was really fun and I am glad I went! Beautiful hike with a really cool abandoned and dilapidated house, a wild raspberry bush, wildflowers, wild mushrooms....

We were able to fill a ziplock bag with the raspberries on the hike. We ate them for dessert with vanilla ice cream and they were so sweet and fresh and amazing!

Tyler and Hillary made a killlllller dinner on their night: chicken posole, sweet potato fries, and spinach salad. Absolutely delicious!

Granby is about 2 hours away from Denver (above is the downtown Denver skyline). To break up the driving and flying time for me & my awesome back, we spent the last night in Denver and flew home the next day.

So on Monday night we went into downtown Denver and explored the 16th street mall. Its a 1.25 mile long stretch of restaurants, shops, and street performers, we saw a lot of musicians. It was a cute little area and fun to explore, my favorite part was the pianos. The city rolled out nearly a dozen pianos painted by local artists in the midst of the 16 blocks of the outdoor area. Anyone is free to just plop down and play away on the pianos, and we saw quite a few of them occupied-so cool!

Dodging bears, hiking through Colorado, learning how to build a fire....I kind of like Colorado Chelsea!

♥ ♥ ♥

Tip From Abroad: Please Do Not Pull The Bird's Feathers

I love funny or strange or interesting signs. Someone sent these Strange Signs From Abroad and some of them are hilarious! Here are some that I have come across...

{New York City, NY}

These signs were in front of trees everywhere!

Looks like a sign aimed for toddlers, not dogs.

{San Clemente, CA}

This sign has been up for more than 6 months. Maybe

if they fixed the spelling it would actually come true!

{San Francisco, CA}

I bet I was smiling in the Inner Richmond that day!

If that sign won't get you into their store, what will?

{San Francisco, CA}

This guy was on Market St. every single weekend chanting

"no sex before marriage. Sex is a sacred union between

and husband and a wife..." And plenty of other things.

{San Francisco, CA}

Poor lady. Maybe she needs the wheelchair?

{Cabo San Lucas, Mexico}

They were soo close.

Dolphins, Drowned iPod, & Cheeseburgers in Paradise

Brent's dad, Rudy, turned 65 in February, and his mom, Colleen, turned 60 in March. Colleen is a travel agent and the family has taken trips all over the world. Every few months she travels to some amazing place, in the past year alone it was South America, Fiji, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and a cruise to places I have barely even heard of! But to celebrate their birthdays, they chartered a private 60 foot yacht in La Paz, Mexico from March 31- April 4. It was just the 6 of us: Rudy & Colleen, Elicia & Johnny (Brent's sister and brother-in-law) Brent & I, and Jimmy & Estrella (the skipper and his wife, the cook).

The first day, we flew into Cabo San Lucas, and stayed at a breathtaking resort- The Sheraton Hacienda del Mar. I have never been anywhere that even comes close to this place, Maui was even somewhat bland in comparison. Huge beautiful rooms with ocean views, a gigantic pool running the length of the resort with disappearing edges, cabanas/bars right next to the pools, big selection of restaurants, white sand and turquoise waters. Wow! The next morning a driver took us to La Paz- about 2 hours away.

{All taken from various places at the resort}

Once we got to the harbor in La Paz, we got directly on the boat and started the trip. Our days went like this:

Woke up soon after the sunrise to a beautiful morning and ate a delicious breakfast outside. Then with our full bellies we would take off in search of sea life. Unfortunately the whales have not been around much this season down in that part of Mexico (something to do with El Nino). But we saw a ton of dolphins, big pods of them would swim and play in the wave

s created by the boat.

We then went to a beach or cove for a few hours. We ate lunch and afterward went kayaking, snorkeling, hiking, fishing, or explored the beaches. The fishing was crazy, almost every line Johnny and I cast came back with a fish! Mostly Cabrilla, which are in the photos below, but Johnny also caught a skipjack and a trumpet fish.

We swam with sealions, they swam right up to us, two of them were playing with a feather...it was really cute. The snorkeling was incredible, we saw starfish, an eel, 3 lobsters, a trumpet fish, a wide variety of other fish I have never seen, and lots of different coral and plants.

While they hiked I wandered the beach and found red crabs about the size of my hand that jumped from rock to rock, a giant blue and green crab in the shallow water, and thousands of tiny crabs that when they moved, they made the ground look like it was moving! Exploring the beaches I felt like I was in 2 completely different areas. From one direction you see the beach with bright crystal-clear turquoise water and white sand, and then turn around and see full on desert with cactus everywhere.

In the evenings we would dock in a cove to protect the boat from the wind at night. Our nights involved margaritas, music (including multiple playings of Rudy's favorite, Jimmy Buffet), dinner, games...

The food was one of the highlights of the trip. Estrella was a fabulous cook and I stuffed myself silly at every meal. With every meal we would all rave about how good everything looked, then silence - as we all demolished the food. Breakfast consisted of some type of egg dish, an abundance of fresh fruit, toast, orange juice, coffee and tea. Lunches: day 1-huge ham sandwiches with all the fixings; day 2-Mexican food with chicken quesadillas, homemade guacamole and salsa, chips, beans; day 3-cheeseburgers with jalepenos...sounds ordinary but I am not exaggerating when I say it was one of the best cheeseburgers I have ever had! Dinner: day 1-grilled Cabrilla, fish found locally and also the type we caught a ton of while we fished. Day 2-chile rellenos stuffed with cheese and smoked tuna (my favorite meal of the trip); Day 3-Steak with mushrooms and pasta.

The only downsides to the trip were: Johnny and I both got seasick one day, the beds were rock hard so I woke up constantly in horrible pain, the traveling killed my back, and Brent dropped his iPod in the ocean (oopsie!). But overall, it was an incredible trip and I am so thankful that I was invited. The weather was beautiful, it was relaxing and the area was breathtaking. It was such a fun group, everyone meshes so well and they have always made me feel so welcome as part of the family. I will never forget this incredible trip!!

*I have video from the trip, once I finish putting it together I will post it!

Back to The City

The first of my friends from San Francisco got married March 7th. I flew north Thursday, March 5th and was there until Monday, March 9th. Brittany, Kelly, Kasey and April are the girls I met Freshman year at SFSU. We have been friends ever since, and this was the first time we have all been together in a few years. I stayed in the old apartment I lived for two years, on the same side of my old room, in a different bed with different stuff everywhere. The only familiar and comfortable part was Kelly sleeping on her side. It was a very weird feeling.

Thursday night around 10 pm Kelly, Monica and I were the only ones home, Kasey left to meet April at the airport, who was coming from NY. Someone started banging on the front door of the apartment building, which is directly below the living room. It continued for the next 10 minutes - a man yelling and screaming, which turned into crying, while relentlessly pounding on the door, then something hit the front window. The building has been broken into a few times (before we lived there) so we were too afraid to look out the window or ask who was down there. Monica called the police. After a few minutes of listening to him fight with them, calling them idiots and cussing them out we realized it was the crazy upstairs neighbor, Zeo. Yes, Zeo...who has been arrested a few times, gets into domestic disputes with his boyfriend at crazy hours, and crashed his truck into the garage door while driving drunk (in the middle of the day), leading to the complete absence of a garage door for three days. They finally believed that he lived in the building and had locked himself out - and we did not feel bad about it.

Friday night we all went out to a bar in the mission district. My knee and back were killing me from walking all day, so I sat down at a table. I had my crutch with me and a guy I did not know came up to me and asked if I had a peg leg. I told him I was sorry to disappoint him, but that no, I did not. He said he had to make sure and proceeded to feel both my feet with his hands. I was so caught off guard that I just played along. Next, in response to asking why I had the crutch, I spun an elaborate lie about getting hit by a car downtown. It was not my intention for it to be such a long conversation, but he was insistent. This is the conversation that ensued: "GUY: where did it happen? ME: I can't remember. GUY: How do you not remember? Were you knocked unconscious? ME: Ya I was, but I think it was somewhere around 3rd or 4th and Market. GUY: 3rd or 4th and Market? Do you work down there? ME: No. GUY: What were you doing down there? ME: Shopping. GUY: How did it happen? ME: I was walking across the street and someone ran a red light and hit me. GUY: Oh so you totally had the right of way...it was not your fault? ME: Ya it was the driver's fault. GUY: Did he hit anyone else? ME: No...there were other people in the crosswalk, but I was just the lucky one. GUY: Wow that is crazy!! Well, this is the most important question...did you leave a mark on the windshield?" Finally I got away from him and had a good laugh. But it was a pretty small bar and ran into him a few times. He would point me to me and say "Hey!! Be careful." I've become pretty skilled at fabricating lies in response to the "why are you on crutches" question.

Saturday was the wedding, the ceremony at a church in Dublin and reception in a Veteran's Memorial Hall in Pleasanton. We left San Francisco on time, but got completely lost. Apparently there are two streets with the same name near each other and we of course took the wrong one, ending up in a residential area 10 miles west. April and I both quell the initial panic with "oh no problem... no need to worry, we can just use our phones to find the way." This however did nothing more than to make snobs out of us. The overconfidence in our (I'll say it) toys only getting us more confused as we both barked out conflicting directions. Meanwhile, 20 minutes remained until the start time and the stress level in the car was palpable. We pulled over asking people if they knew where the church was located, no one could help. April called 411 for directions, which were also wrong - The agent told us to make a right instead of left off the freeway, costing us even more time. We finally arrived at 2:00 - the ceremony was supposed to start at 1:30 and we were sure we missed the entire thing. They all ran from the car to the church with me trying to quickly hobble behind. Luckily it started late and we missed the first 5 or 10 minutes, not seeing them walk down the aisle or hearing his vows.

Kasey, Kelly, Brittany, me, April

Sunday morning we went to my favorite brunch place in San Francisco, Mama's. It is right in the heart of North Beach next to Washington Square, down the hill from Coit Tower. It is so popular and so small that you have to wait in line to get inside. After an hour (pretty standard), we finally got in and it was worth every minute of standing in line. Incredible omelets, homemade jams and baked goods, the best French toast I have ever had, friendly staff, with a warm and cheery ambiance. Below is the chocolate French toast with fresh berries. It was a gorgeous day and there was even an art show in Washington Square Park. It was an exhausting but fun weekend, and visiting San Francisco is like seeing an old friend, welcoming me with open arms, my home away from home.