Just two scenes from my room because I was going through old-ish photos (and I’m missing this morning sunlight).
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62 hours in joshua tree
For the past 6 years, I’ve taken an annual girls’ trip with two of my best friends. Usually we go to LA, but this year we kicked off 2022 with a few days in Joshua Tree. A very different kind of trip for us, but we had such a good time :)
We stayed at The Joshua Tree House and spent most of our time there.
Our favorite place to get breakfast was Natural Sisters, and our favorite grab-and-go lunch spot was The Dez. For coffee, we liked Joshua Tree Coffee Company (but good luck getting a decent cappuccino in this town—when I ordered one, I received the dreaded Small, medium, or large? question and quickly changed my order lol)
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the joshua tree house
After years of having The Joshua Tree House on my radar, following it on Instagram, and seeing friends stay there, I finally got to stay in it myself! This home was the perfect place to begin the year on an ultra-relaxed note. Every room was filled with thoughtful details and the space was so inviting that we were content to spend the majority of our days inside, or on the front porch, or in the hot tub :)
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scenes from twin peaks
“Above all, San Francisco’s weather is a feast for the eyes. This is a city of famously clear light, but it is also one of a thousand exquisite shadings, of every possible combination of sun and clouds and warmth and coolness, mist and fog and wind and brightness and darkness. The San Francisco sky is a vast canvas, painted by the ever-changing sea. Those of us who live here take stupendous sights for granted because they happen so often: mighty banks of fog breaking like slow-motion waves over Twin Peaks, skies of cool translucent pearl clouded by evanescent washes of silvery mist, sunbeams landing on random spots in the city like the annunciation in a medieval painting, winter mornings of such crystalline clarity that the whole city looks like an icicle-covered branch, the twin towers of the Golden Gate Bridge rising up above a billowing sea of thick white clouds.”
—Gary Kamiya
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weekend getaway to carmel
Pretty neat that we can drive to Europe for the weekend 😍
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Near Park City, Utah.
across the country in four days
When one of my oldest & best friends told me she would be moving across the country, I of course volunteered to make the 2900-mile drive with her.
We drove nearly all of I-80 over the course of four days—from San Francisco to Roxbury Township, NJ, where we exited to drive south to our final destination. It was late and by that time we didn’t have it in us to drive the extra 45 minutes to Teaneck, NJ (where I-80 ends) before heading south to New Brunswick.
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bike ride scenes
One of my favorite routes around the city takes me through Golden Gate Park, the Inner Richmond, Presidio Heights, Pac Heights, Russian Hill, Fort Mason, the Marina, and the Presidio.
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sunset at the cliff house
Forever one of my favorite places to catch the sunset. 💕
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almond blossom season
Maddie, Leyna, & I spent the long weekend at my parents’ house and it was so lovely ✨ Living in the city, I definitely miss being there for the short period of time when the orchards are all white and pink 😍 Even though the trees weren’t quite in full bloom, I’m so glad I was able to get a little glimpse this year and share it with my friends too!
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sunset reservoir
“Most of the time we forget to notice this place where we live—because we’re so used to it, because we get so caught up in whatever our work is, whatever our lives are—but every once and so often maybe we notice and are filled. “He restoreth my soul,” is the way the psalm says it. For a little while the scales fall from our eyes and we actually see the beauty and holiness and mystery of the world around us, and then from deeper down even than our hunger, restoring comes, nourishment comes. You can’t make it happen. You can’t make it last. But it is a glimpse, a whisper. Maybe it is all we can handle.”
—Frederick Buechner
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heidrun meadery
We had this weekend outing to Point Reyes planned for a Saturday. That morning, we got the best news that turned the whole day into one of celebration—light, relieved, and [for a short time] carefree.
Heidrun Meadery was the most delightful place to spend the afternoon. We sipped meads under olive trees. We snacked on bread and cheese. We talked and laughed, enjoying the setting and the company.
Good for the soul. ✨
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whale watching in monterey
This was an incredible experience!! My friend Liz gave me the whale watching tour for a birthday gift, and we made a weekend out of it, staying overnight in Carmel. It was so fun to be out on the water, and even more fun to see orcas in the wild! 😎
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scenes from the headlands
I love it up here. 😍
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meegan in california
A year and a half ago one of my best friends flew from Colorado to California to hang out with me for nine whole days. It was her first visit to California, and we had THE BEST TIME. I will always smile when I think about that extended week that we spent gallivanting all over the northern part of my state (and putting over 700 miles on my car in the process ✌️).
Photos from that trip never made it here to the blog. I think I took so many that I paralyzed myself and rather than post just a few, I didn't share any. 🙃
In preparation for my upcoming trip to visit Meegan in Colorado, I revisited some of those old shots and thought I'd compile some highlights.
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the peach blossoms
The blossoms—almond, peach, cherry, etc.—are one of my favorite things about the valley. They are only here for a short time each year but luckily each variety comes in waves, so for a few weeks each spring there are white and pink blooms everywhere you look.
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beach study
Last month I spent countless hours at the beach. Lots of hours walking up and down Ocean Beach, and lots of hours walking, chasing dolphins, and sitting in silence on beaches near Monterey. It's my absolute favorite. My happy place.
On the last day of my mini vacation near Monterey, I focused my photos on textures and objects rather than waves as I usually do. Seaweed freaks me out, as do other small beach creatures (birds are chill), but I don't mind photographing them as long as we don't touch :)
Here are things!
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scenes from mount tam
Well I'm horribly behind on blogging, but that's nothing new. Since I last shared photos in this space, there's been another LA trip, an Oregon trip, a Monterey-ish trip, and some more pretty great weekends in the Bay Area. I'll hopefully get around to sorting/sharing scenes from those first three soon, but these photos today are from the most recent weekend.
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fun with a disposable camera
Here's an idea for 2017: go to Target. Buy a disposable camera (for $11.99). Take pictures on it all year. When December rolls around, get it developed!
I bought a camera in October 2015 and took photos with it through December 2016. The best part about stretching it out for so long is the added fun of not remembering which pictures you took, in addition to the suspense of not knowing how the pictures will turn out. That anticipation is lost with digital.
Of course, this is not about making high-quality photos. They're grainy. The lighting is funky. But heck, it's a whole lot of fun to do something so opposite iPhones and Instagram (which I still love, btw).
Here are some of my favorites from the last camera.
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john + annette | engaged
When I first started at my job, I met my next-office-door neighbor, John. I spent a month or so trying to figure him out... I kind of thought he hated me or something. Fast forward to present day I'm so glad he's my office neighbor. He's hilarious, knows a wealth of random trivia, and is a major movie buff.
The most common occurrence is for John to walk into my office and ask, "Have you ever seen [insert movie title]?" If I have, we converse about it. If I haven't (much more likely), he either turns and walks away in silence or tells me I "am wrong" (direct quote).
He also happens to enjoy cooking as much as I do, so we have great conversations about that topic and often send recipe links back and forth on IM.
A couple of months ago on their annual vacation to Florida, John proposed to his lovely girlfriend, Annette, and I had the honor of being asked to take their engagement photos. We drove up to a winery in Lodi for a lovely afternoon of wine slushies and pictures.
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the orange tree
There is an orange tree right outside my window. I grew up with an orange tree in my front yard (a perfect climbing tree- it was great), so I like having this tree in sight. A couple of months ago it was relatively monochrome as the fruit started to appear and its green color blended right in with the leaves.
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