Archives for category: photos
2011, a saturday
Too congested to work out :( Went to the farmers’ market and it was AWESOME. Got 7 ears of peaches & cream sweet corn that had been picked that morning, a bundle of multicolored carrots, 2 pints of heirloom tomatoes, a little raspberry-rhubarb pie, pear balsamic vinegar, peaches and freshly roasted anaheim peppers. Had lunch, then went to Flatiron Crossing mall to get more makeup and ended up taking advantage of a couple sales. I also visited the largest, scariest Forever 21 I’ve ever seen. Seriously, I walked in and spent a good 30 seconds trying to figure out of the far wall was one big mirror, because that was the only way my brain could account for the vastness of the space. Got a faux leather and fur winter vest that should come in handy in a month or so. Home, homework, dinner, lots of reading (have to get ahead again in preparation for Terry’s birthday trip to Las Vegas), ate that glorious raspberry-rhubarb pie. I meant to only eat half, but oh well. Read until 3am. I love Inspector Gamache!
2010, a friday
class, errands, caught up with tv shows and had a nice relaxing night. cameron made delicious muffins!
2009, a thursday
worked out, ran errands, saw ‘gamer’, processed photos, watched two of my favorite shows’ season premieres, started the conversational german course jula got me for my birthday. already cannot pronounce ‘hier’ correctly to save my life.
Oh yes.
be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!
Mom, Dad and I finished packing, then spent the morning across the street from our hotel, at the Royal Botanic Gardens. It rained a bit, but we found some trees to stand under and it passed by in a few minutes. We saw lots of pretty sub-tropical plants and flowers. Then we noticed – that racket? It was hundreds of fruit bats in the trees. EVERYWHERE. It was CRAZY. We also saw an eel following a duck around a pond (sorry, that duck won’t fit in your mouth) and found out that they drain the pond every once in awhile but the eels repopulate themselves—rangers have seen baby eels crawling over the lawn from Sydney Harbour!
Dad went back to the hotel and Mom and I went across the other street and looked around the Museum of Sydney’s forecourt. There is an archaeological site under the flagstones, and metal markers in the stones showed the boundaries of several buildings that used to stand in that spot. There was even a little window down to the dig so one could glimpse the old walls and foundations.
We watched a little of the Olympics, then went to the airport. We said our goodbyes to Aunt Pat and Uncle Denny, then promptly found out our flight had been pushed back seven hours. We hung out in the airport and used our meal vouchers. Finally our plane came, and we settled in for our 13 hour flight. I slept a little, but not well; I watched a couple movies to pass the time. We got popsicles as treats! More airlines should do this; it was completely delightful.
Once we got into LAX, Mom and Dad got standby for the next morning’s flights to Chicago, and when I left them they were heading back to the Qantas desk to get a hotel. I couldn’t believe I was back in LA—it didn’t feel quite real and I kept expecting to blink and find myself back down under.
be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!
After breakfast, Mom and I went up to the pool on the 31st floor and checked out the view of the Opera House, bridge and rest of the harbor. We met a nice English lady up there who had a lot of historical info and a very plummy accent.
We went on a city tour and saw Mrs. Mcquarie’s chair, King’s Cross, Woolloomooloo, Nicole Kidman’s former home in Darling Point, and Bondi Beach. We had a little time to buy souvenirs (I got a SLSC hoodie, one for Clayton for his birthday, and a great t-shirt for Maria) and Mom took a stroll down to the water’s edge. We saw a lot of examples of Pennington lace – a style of iron work – on Oxford Street and saw the Queen Victoria Building on George Street.
Mom, Dad and I did a tour of the Opera House which was very cool. The engineering and design was impressive and the lines and angles of the interior were beautiful. We met up with Aunt Pat and Uncle Denny and took the ferry to Manly. Mom, Dad and I walked to the Oval, saw giant spiders and a nice lawn bowling green. Then we relaxed with a beer (Fat Yak) and chips and watched the boats go in and out of the harbor.
That night we had dinner at Caminetto, an amazing Italian place nestled against the stone wall of the Rocks, where I had probably the best pasta of my life.
be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!
After probably the worst drive to SF ever, I got to Eric’s new place in Oakland and he had beer and probably the best burger I’ve ever eaten waiting for me. His new place is great, and the neighhborhood is really pretty. We played L.A. Noire and the Incident until 1am.
The next day Eric made awesome breakfast burritos and then his new GH1 was delivered, so we went to Best Buy to get filters, case, tripod, etc. We drove up to Mt. Tam to test it out. Hiked a little around the summit and took photos of the fog rolling in and some patient little lizards. We stopped in Stinson Beach for dinner, then went back to Eric’s for video games and comics.
Got up early and read comics and snacked. Hit Homeroom for mac n cheese (sooooo good!) then checked out the Escapist, a comic store in Berkeley. We picked up an ice cream pie from Fentons then went to Mike and Tiffany’s to meet up with them, Mike’s brother, and Emma and her boyfriend for dinner. Mike and Tiffany’s condo is amazing, and Mike made some fantastic pizzas on the grill. We all ate and drank until we could barely move, then rolled ourselves to the movie theater to see ‘Tree of Life’. Afterwards we went back to Mike and Tiffany’s for ice cream pie and coffee/tea.
Breakfast at Café Trieste, picked up food and supplies at Retronyms, then headed to Golden Gate Part for the Seek ‘n Spell meet-up. Had a great time enjoying the sun (had to go all the way to NorCal to see any) and eating and chatting. I got a sunburn though – I was sure at any moment the fog would roll in and it would be freezing and gloomy so I skipped the sunscreen! Took a nap, ate leftover hamburgers and cookies for dinner, watched the finale of ‘Game of Thrones’ (INSANE), played some ‘Red Dead Redemption’, read more comics. The next day Eric and I had breakfast at Café Trieste again, then I dropped Eric off at the BART and drove back to LA.
exhale
0
clouds over Mt. Tamalpais, June 2010
Another photo of these.
peonies
0
Nothing like fresh cut flowers to brighten a room :)
be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!
Skipped the lines for the parts I saw last time and went straight for the vacuum chamber space simulator and the microdevices and in-situ laboratories. I saw the Harrison Ford-narrated video, “Journey to the Planets and Beyond”, which was really inspiring just when I needed it.
be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!
Megan and I hit the Spring Brewery Art Colony artwalk for the second year in a row and were not disappointed. The weather was gorgeous, and we took the time to have a leisurely lunch at the restaurant inside the Brewery; we people-watched from our table on the balcony.
Megan bought some gorgeous earrings and a collage piece, we saw some amazing huge paper murals, and lots of other cool things. It was especially cool to see what the artists we remembered from last year had been up to in the past year.
Chado Tea Room, Pasadena
