Guerneville, CA

Tim and I decided to do a quick overnight trip to Guerneville. It's in Sonoma County. We started by heading to the ocean and found an awesome beach with only a couple people. Turkey got in some swimmin' time. We stayed at a place called Dawn Ranch, a cute place that had freshly painted and updated cabins. It also has great food. In the morning, we ate at a popular local diner. By then, it was late enough to justify some tasting at Korbel. We hit up a farm stand for some "fresh off the tree" apples and couple of antique shops. I spotted a super cool desk right when I walked in and - given the reasonable price - bought it up! I think we are going to use as a dinning room table. It's the perfect time of year to see all the leaves changing not only one trees, but also in the vineyards. We live in an amazing state!

NCCC Reunion

I had a great visit with old friends a couple weeks ago. I flew into Atlanta to hang out with my bestest friend from my Corps Member AmeriCorps days. Heather and I were only together 10 months in that program, but our friendship will last a lifetime. Last time I saw her, she was prego with her first, who is now almost 7! Besides catching up a lot and getting to know the kiddos, we went to the Dekalb Farmers Market, which is really an international market. It was awesome! We drove up to Chattanooga to visit another NCCC buddy. Rudy works for a foundation, but in her free time she is a blacksmith! Here are some photos from the trip.

Rudy doing her thing.

Heather and Rude making an attempt at using cardboard to slide down the Cardboard Hill (not it's official name, I just made that up).

Our visit to "The Junk Man." He's got A LOT of shit and I would be in troub-le if I lived there.

We took a very scary tram to the top of the mountain and road bikes down.

And ate delicious breakfast.

Rudy's place is crafty. She makes cool stuff, such at these towel rack/hands!

We visited one of the many studios in the area. This one was a glassblowing studio.

Another handmade item from Rude. Genius: using leather belts to make woven seats.

Painter cans turned plant holders.

A hand-crafted fence with pockets for herbs.

Some of the many dead fish we saw at the market. I didn't realize I couldn't take pictures until after our visit to the fish section!

I realized I didn't take any photos of me and Heather together and this makes me sad. I also regret not getting at least one photo of her beautiful family and adorable children. However, the trip reminded me of the important people in my life that bring me happiness.

(The Exotic) Yolo Causeway

Turkey and I went for a walk this morning on the causeway. This is the wetlands(ish) area between Davis and Sacramento. During migration season, there are tons of birds on the side we can't walk with Turkey off-leash. There are also rice fields nearby (which always makes me wonder how much poop ends up in our rice). Although the freeway/bridge runs through the area, it's still purty. Every time I drive over the causeway, I'm blown away by how beautiful something right off the freeway can be. And, having the freeway as part of "nature" brings me back to all the "nature" in the Chicago area.





I played around a bit with my exposures today. That top photo, which is super exposed, kinda looks like a watercolor or lithograph to me. I donno, I like it! The bottom one of Turkey had the shutter speed a bit to slow; I was trying to catch him in action. I thought it was still kinda funny and cool.

Portland: Even Better Than the Last Time

Tim and I drove up to Portland to meet up with some friends from Chicago that were in town. It was a great trip. We love it there. If there were actually jobs up there, we would probably move there. I think we may go back in winter to see how bad the weather sucks. One of the most memorable places we ate? The Waffle Window. I'm pretty sure it's one of the best ideas ever. We also went back to Andina with a big group, which was delicious (and much fancier than the Window, imagine that). We took one day to drive up and two to drive back. On the way home, we stayed at the oldest hotel in the Pac. Northwest! I was certain it would be haunted, but as far as I could tell, it wasn't. I wasn't sure if I was happy or sad about that.

Every Once in Awhile, Sacramento is Cool.

Every week, there's been drumming at Southside Park. I can hear it from my couch. Today, it culminated in a big event where I was able to take a few shots of the happenings. I also got to play around with my shutter speed, which I'm still trying to figure out. So, yeah, every once in a great while, Sacramento is cool.

Nature

In the past couple months we've had the chance to go to both Yosemite and the Tahoe area. Yosemite was a short, but great trip with Tim's parents. Tahoe was to my most favorite place on earth that I've been going to since I was a wee little thing. (I can't tell you where for fear you will go there ;) ) .We spent a week there and it was much-needed after the last 3-6 months of the job, which has been quite stressful actually. Tahoe was just what I needed. I hope to go back this summer. I felt a little bad about Yosemite because the trip came at what was probably the most stressed I've ever been at my job and it was difficult to relax and enjoy!

In Tahoe, my brother even got to put the boat in the water that he made when he was 16. It was awesome.