A Joyful Trip to California

A while ago, I offered to come and help with photography for Beth's daughter's wedding. She took me up on it and last week I flew to California for 6 delightful days. I got to celebrate my birthday with friends and strangers, got to enjoy the golden desert as well as the turquoise coast. I feel so comfortable in her home, and was so glad to be helping and involved with the preparations and celebrations. I'm just about done editing the photos I took, and I am happy to say that I was able to tell the story of the reception, and that makes me happy. Here are some photos:

From Instagram:
These California times were completely refreshing. A wedding at the temple; lovely evening walks in the desert; Joshua trees; time with precious, lifelong friends; the glory of the coast, and more: This state is golden in my book. 👌🏻☀️🌊🌴🕶

The day of the wedding, I helped out by making this twig and grapevine initial for the reception. I totally winged it, but it turned out okay. 

I always enjoy seeing a joshua tree up close. They are true trees, with bark and everything! 

One of my favorite things about big skies is being able to watch the sunset on one side, and the moonrise on the other side. Love. That. 

There are actually a million colors in the desert. 

Then we went to the coast for a day. The other side of the split personality that is California. It's actually split three ways-Mountains, deserts, sea. This time I got to two of the sides. 

The sweet, misty air of Ventura. 

Toes touching the Pacific. 

Beth, Jenny, Me, Karyn. It was good to be with all of them. They were an important and major part of my teenage years. 

All the exotic cars on the highways in the LA area. Here's a Ferrari for ya. 

Rule number 47: If you have the chance to spend the morning in a treehouse, do it. 

Heart rock, sunset, walk in the desert, this pretty much sums up the weekend. Beautiful, relaxing, just what I needed. 

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Gypsy Me

Just checking in from cloudy Arizona. With apologies, because I'm very tired, and can only think in small sentences.

No paragraphs today.

Here's the view from my window.

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Coast to Coast: Utah-California-Maryland

After having dinner with the in-town kids, then seeing Sara off on Sunday afternoon January 3, I went over and spent a pleasant evening with Sam and Madison at their cute apartment. Late that evening, after some adventures in navigation, Sam dropped me off at the train station in Salt Lake City and I got ready for my first overnight train experience in 40 years. I had booked a sleeper compartment on the California Zephyr and I was excited!

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Some Days are Diamonds...

Since I last wrote about 2 weeks ago, I have been working and traveling. This is one of my crazy-long words-and-pictures catching-up extravaganzas, so you might want to get a cup of hot cocoa.

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Yes, It's a California Post

I'm in the lobby of a chain hotel with a lovely fireplace and the smell of free breakfast in the air: coffee, syrup, and sausage. The tv is playing infomercials (Nutri-Bullet right now,  before was Wen and before that Insanity) and I've been out here since about 5am.  I wanted to let the guys sleep. I only sleep about 6 hours at a time these days, so after getting in bed around 10pm, yes, I was up about 4:30. Awesome. It's become something of a routine, so I'm trying to make the most of my early mornings.

This past week, we've been traveling in California and I tell you, as a place to visit, it has become a favorite. I have no idea if I'd ever actually want to live here, but I sure like looking around. There are oceans, plains, hills, mountains, Joshua trees and cacti. There are mighty cities that give way to enormous fields of real food framed by endless orchards of nuts and fruits.  Beautiful vistas unfold everywhere we go. Admittedly, I'm easy to please and curious about anyplace that's not familiar, and many people would not be quite so thrilled with some of the things that thrill me, but that's okay. I'm having a blast.

We started out in Newport Beach last weekend. That town is seriously like a living museum of What to Do and Buy if You are Among the Much-Monied in America. Houses everywhere that when Zillowed (something you do when you are NOT among the monied) show prices in the multiple tens of millions. Dream cars. As in Lamborghinis and Ferraris and McClarens. Seen every day.  In Newport, a Mercedes C-class or BMW 5-series is the like a Camry or Accord in Real-World America. It is fascinating to observe as an outsider. I'm sure that life has its own kind of normal, and Sam, who served here for 6 months of his mission, loves the town and the people here. That's why we came. We got to meet one of the families who loved and cared for him on his mission, and that was the true treat. They were wonderful and their admiration for my son was evident. Thank you Sanders Family, for your goodness.

It really is beautiful though, both in natural ways and man-made. Here is the view from just outside the condo where we stayed:

I loved Balboa Peninsula for its cottages, set right next to each other; each unique but with a certain style that creates a wonderful, harmonious neighborhood. We had a lovely sunset walk on the beach there:

It's a bit surreal for me to be towered over by my sons in this photo, but it represents a happy memory of easy togetherness. Maybe that is why I love California so much. It is the place where many moments like this one have happened for me and my family. And now my early morning time is gone. More about the rest of the trip soon.

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Long Time Gone: California Girl

Looking west out my hotel window

The second half of my journey west was a whole week in lovely Silicon Valley, CA. The weather was super nice, and I made myself go out in it as much as possible, but mostly I was inside the hotel and convention center that were my home from Wednesday to Wednesday. From Thursday till Sunday I was teaching at Stitches West, one of my regular conferences. It was great as always. Familiar yet fresh and filled with happy reunions with friends and the professional pursuit I love most of all: teaching. The folks I've met who are fellow-teachers have become some of my truest friends, and because our time together is brief and concentrated, we've managed to get to know each other pretty well over the years. It was a pleasure to spend time with all of them.

After the knitting expo was over, some of us stayed on to get some work done and take further classes. I did some photo work for two other teachers and continued working on a sample job that was also for one of my friends there.

Landscaping outside the hotel. 

This camelia was the size of my head. There
was a hedge of them in full bloom outside the
hotel. 

One social highlight of the weekend was a shoe party with
some of my fave pals. This purchase was the result. 

Trying out my panorama feature while out for delish Indian
food. This is Edie, Cindy, Beth and Sarah. Love them!

Thanks to this nifty arrangement found in
about half the seats in the San Jose airport,
I was not doomed to sit on the ground to
make sure my devices were charged.  

Over San Fran. I could SEE the
Golden Gate Bridge,
but because of the thickness and angle of the
airplane window, I could not get it in the frame. 

It was of course refreshing to have so much time to myself, but it also feels a little strange yet. I realize when I'm away what a distraction my actual house can be from getting certain things done. In another environment, I have no trouble getting up and exercising, or spending hours at a time finishing a photo shoot. When I'm home, I jump from thing to thing because I can see around me all the parts of my life, and it's sometimes hard to prioritize. I talk myself out of exercising because I didn't get the dishes done the night before. I go in spurts of work because I look up and notice that I REALLY need to vacuum or that I forgot to mail that package.

I've been working on rethinking our little office area on the lower floor, and trying to make that room a work-centered, distraction-free zone, but it's challenging because I like to do so many different things, and the office/studio has distractions of its own. Mostly I have a renewed (yet again) desire to make the space more empty, more restful for the eye, so that everything is not out in view and I can pick and choose what to at any given time, rather than feel compelled to do things.

Overall, it was indeed a long time to be gone, but every day was full of joy, renewal and fun, and I'm grateful I had the means and opportunity to take such a luxurious and special trip!

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