Holgas

Finally got the film I shot in San Francisco developed, along with a roll started in SF and finished off here at home during a walk around the museums. You can see the rest here.

Holy Crap!

One of my pics from our trip to San Francisco was picked for today's photo on Photopol.us. I'm amazed! Thanks!

San Francisco Leftovers

Just wanted to share a few of the random photos that didn't really fit into a specific category of our visit. San Francisco/California was such a fun place to take pictures, and I can't wait to go back to explore more. If you click on the first pic here you can see the car lights winding down Lombard St. More here. I've got one more set of photos to share from our trip later. Thanks for looking at my excessive vacation photographs!

Cali Vacation Day 4: Golden Gate Park and Film Festival

On our last day in California we all got up plenty early to make sure we got a good start. We stopped for coffee and donuts and then drove in to San Francisco. That day's agenda was Golden Gate Park and then the 9th Scary Cow Film Festival that night at Victoria Theater. We walked around Stow Lake, up to the boat house and then headed over to JFK Dr. to find the Lindy Hoppers. I love all forms of dancing, although I don't really do it myself, so I was super excited to get a chance to see them dancing and snaps some pics. Then we walked around, past the de Young and Academy of Sciences, back over to the boat house. I convinced the boys to get a pedal boat and they pedaled me around Stow Lake, again while I took more pictures. Once we got back to the boat house we hopped in the car and headed off to Victoria Theater to pick up Diggy's friend and former teach, Carl. Carl has lived in the Bay Area all his life and he took us on a whirlwind driving tour of the city, pointing out interesting sites and sharing some historical and note so historical anecdotes- like areas that had suffered severe earthquake damage, pirate/indian/spanish mission stories, and where his first dope dealer lived, ha. We drove up to Twin Peaks where I got a good row of shots I stitched into a half-panoramic view, past the Palace of the Legion of Honor, stopped for dinner at a decent Italian place, and then headed back to the theater. The film festival was interesting. Diggy's film was definitely the best in my opinion. You can see for yourself here. His film ended the showing to loud, long applause and won first place along with a slew of other awards, announced days later, such as best directing, best acting, and best original score (by our other friend, Cory). We stopped by Tommy's for a celebratory root beer and then it was back to Palo Alto to try and pack for our flight in the morning. Here are some pics from our day in the park. Rest are here.

Cali Vacation Day 3: Shopping, Shooting and the Golden Gate Bridge

Back to vacation re-cap! Day 3 of our vacation we drove in to the city to do a little shopping. Josh and I love H&M, but we don't have one here in Texas. Emily directed me to the H&M on Powell, so after a brief viewing of the Love Parade, that's where we headed. I bought a cute gray sweater dress, gray cardigan and cream & black striped tee. Josh got a few tees, a peachy/pink button down shirt, and a nice striped sweater. And Diggy was a good sport through our long shopping trip and bought Josh a brightly colored plaid bow tie- on the condition that Josh had to wear it to the film festival the next day. We followed the shopping up with a late afternoon meal at Sears diner where Josh had 18 tiny pancakes, and I enjoyed some of the best sausage I've ever had. Then we walked down to the Ferry Building for some picture taking, took a street car back up towards where we parked and then headed over to Chrissy Field. Walked down Chrissy Field to Fort Point for more picture taking. After we headed over to the Cliff House for a couple of glasses of wine and some truly scrumptious fried calamari. Then it was time for the boys to suffer for my art so I could take some night shots of the Golden Gate. We drove over to the Sausalito side to several look out spots. It was pretty cold, and soooo windy. The boys danced and serenaded me with their renditions of Spoon songs while I shot. I had lost feeling in my right middle finger by the time I was done for the evening. We packed up and went back into the city for some Chinese food. A variety of fried rices were ordered and we had a nice meal before we headed back to Palo Alto. I was exhausted when we got back and we were planning to get up early the next day so I uploaded my pics and hit the hay. Here are some of my Golden Gate Bridge photos. The rest can be seen here.

Cali Vacation Day 2: Muir Woods, Overlook, Beach and Sausalito

Second day of our vacation started out with Muir Woods where we had a lovely hike, saw a chipmunk, some deer and teeny tiny birds amongst the giant redwoods. Very beautiful and peaceful. From there we went to Muir Overlook, where we had a great view of the Pacific and saw ravens the size of a cat! Oh, and some sort of groundhog or similar hole dwelling vermin. Then we drove down to Muir Beach where, despite Josh's complaints about getting sand in his shoes, we saw starfish and anemones. Then we drove back in to Sausalito and had dinner on the bay at Scoma's. We split a dungeness crab and I had fish and chips with some truly amazing tartar sauce. Capped the meal off with some tiramisu and a boozey coffee. We drove back across the bay to San Francisco and drove around the city at night, stopping up at Coit Tower so I could take some night shots of the city. I had fun taking some pics out of the moving car window too, which I'll share later. Here are some pics from our outdoorsy day in the bay area. The rest can be seen here.

Cali Vacation Day 1: Winchester Mystery House

We tried to make an early start on Thursday, our first morning of vacation. We stopped by Keeble & Schucat so I could get some 120 film, Philz Coffee for a cup of joe and pumpkin muffin, and then we were on our way to San Jose. I was super excited to visit the Winchester Mystery House and it didn't disappoint. Beautiful and strange, the house tour was great and the behind-the-scenes tour was really interesting. After leaving Winchester we went back to Palo Alto and grabbed lunch at a deli that is owned by Diggy's friends. We stopped by the apartment to put up some of the snacks we'd bought and then walked over to the Stanford Theater to see The Trouble With Harry. This is one of my favorite Hitchcock films and it was so fun to see it in the theater. On our way back to the apartment we saw a guy get hit by a car (but he was okay), and two guys arguing in front of an Apple store. Weird. We went by Trader Joe's to grab a few more snacking supplies. Back at Diggy's place we started our project- I had talked him into alphabetizing his DVDs, ha. We put The Birds in about halfway through our work and finished the movie while snacking on our fancy cheese, crackers, olives, salami and a little wine for Josh and I. Fun day! Here are some photos from Winchester Mystery House, you can see them all here.

By the Bay

Tomorrow night we will be on our way to California and I can't wait! We get to stay with our friend Diggy in Palo Alto and wander around the bay area to have lots of fun. I'm notorious for being a super planner when it comes to travel, but this trip has been put together a little more loosely since I was a bit preoccupied with our housewarming. In fact, I still have to finish A LOT of packing tonight (mostly because I decided to fall asleep on the couch last night). But we've got a general schedule in place and I can't wait to explore and see San Francisco, Palo Alto and surrounding areas. Here's a general idea of what we're planning to see and do:

Thursday:
-Winchester Mystery House in San Jose
-The Trouble with Harry at the Stanford Theater

Friday:
-Muir Woods , Muir Beach?, Tide Pools?, other outdoorsy things

Saturday:
-Shopping at H&M
-Richard Avedon exhibit at SFMOMA
-Coit Tower

Sunday:
-Lindy in the Park
-Stowe Lake
-Scary Cow 9th film fest at Victoria Theater, including Diggy's short film Cult Fiction

Other things to be fit in where/when able:
-Ferry Market
-Bob's Donuts
-Eating from a taco wagon
-Crissy Field and Fort Point?
-Secret slides?

Any other ideas or suggestions?