Visitor

My good friend Nicola is visiting for the week, and we're keeping busy. She's great - she's come to see me now three years in a row - which is wonderful times a million.

We're going thrifting today for a couple of photo shoots.

Something wonderful happened yesterday.We swam. In the ocean. Which I haven't done since I moved here to California four years ago. I know - it's ridiculous - but the combination of friends who don't like to swim and my aversion from wearing a swimsuit have cause this long hiatus of one of my favorite activities. Thankfully, a good friend and an OK swimsuit have changed things.

Now, I think it will be hard to keep me out.

More later.

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Exahustion = No Blogging, but Good Pics

So I've been absent from the blog world for a bit. Can't blame me though - it's been visit after visit around here and lots of working in between. Not to say that it hasn't been fun - it has, but I'm exhausted.

My Dad and stepmom just left on Saturday after a week-long visit in which we drove around California seeing some nature and other things in the wild. It's always nice to do some car-tripping. Also nice to see family and know that we're not going to have to drive to someone else's house the next day.

I sometimes forget about how cool stuff is around here until someone visits and asks to see it all. We visited Point Reyes, which is a great little lighthouse/coastal place a bit north of Stinson Beach. It was literally amazing. Similar to the Lost Coast when we were there, there's something about how incredibly desolate certain areas are compared to the constant people, roads and industry of the city and surroundings. It feels so far removed from all of that, yet it's so close.

We also did the 4th of July at the Berkeley Marina which was pretty neat. It's your basic Americana celebration dotted with puppies, flea markets, and babies wearing red, white and blue. My stepmom and I got some very pretty sterling silver jewelery from a vendor who made charms. I had some kettle corn made fresh, my Dad had a corn dog, and my Stepmom had an ear of sweetcorn. We made out pretty well. We left the Berkeley celebration before the fireworks simply to avoid traffic, but headed back to the apartment where we co-opted the vacant upstairs apartment's balcony deck to watch the fireworks from Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, and Marin County. It was a nice way to finish off a long week.

I took a lot of photos and got a few good ones for my portfolio.

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Wilderness

Dave's parents left today after a great visit. We had lots of fun and were quite busy while they were here. Sunday, we drove up to Humbolt County in northern California, where the giant Coastal Redwoods grow, and there's more trees than there are people.

Hanging out with an 800 year old log!

Our quick visit up north was really eventful - we saw real wilderness, almost ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere, and saw a 5,000 year old tree.

Honestly, being in the middle of nowhere was fantastic. There were points in the trip where my cell phone didn't have service. I can't remember the last time that happened. It was incredibly liberating to know that I couldn't be contacted by anyone. The air was cleansing.

Sunday we left Richmond early and drove the 5 hours to the Avenue of the Giants, which is a 30 mile stretch of thick redwoods. I had never seen large redwoods (they grow here, but don't get that big) and neither had David, so it was pretty spectacular. I won't go in to the major details, but we did all the Americana stuff you'd imagine goes along with giant trees.

Not knowing how extreme the terrain was, we journeyed to the coast, which was about 30 miles from our hotel at the end of the Avenue of the Giants in Fortuna, to visit Cape
Mendicino - the most western point in the continental United States. We ended up taking a trecherous drive through the King mountain range, through three tiny towns of 300 or less, and pleading for gas in the first California town ever drilled for oil (Petrolia). Any of the bitten down nails were worth the absolutely pristine, wilderness of the Lost Coast (near Cape Mendocino) - it is quite possibly the most beautiful and wonderful places I've been in my life. The rocky beach was covered in beautiful, colorful seashells and bits of crabs and lobsters left by passing sea birds. No trash, no people, no trace of humans...I cannot believe such a beautiful place exists that has not been exploited, especially in the country's largest state. The Lost Coast, in fact, is 80 miles of untouched coastal area - the mountains around it are so treacherous that no construction of roads has ever been possible, leaving it as the largest stretch of undeveloped coast in the country.

The Lost Coast, Humbolt County, California

I'd talk more about our mini vacation, but it's really difficult to put in to words how it went. Being in the wilderness was incredible, and spending time with family was great as well. I would recommend that everyone spends time in a place like that...where people are an afterthought.

We stayed in Northern California for just one day and night; Monday I took the day off from work so that we could take a long drive home and stop in Sonoma County for a few wine tastings. It was a beautiful day, and we had some great wine.

We're back home alone today. Just a week until we get ready for my parents to arrive for an entire week. We're thinking of driving down to Yosemite, and I hope that works out for us.

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