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Archive for the ‘Travels’ Category

Monday was for the Birds

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Los Angles area had rain and snow in the mountains. We had wind and some spritzing. Mr C and I took a walk in the morning and the sun felt so wonderful, even with the wind. After lunch, we decided to drive to the outlets, about an hour west of us. The further we drove, the worse the weather was. It was pouring and the roads were flooding. There were accidents from hydro-planing and warnings of flash flooding and snow in the pass. Guess what we did? We turned around and headed back to the comfort of the high desert. We could see the sun shining on Twentynine Palms in the distance. There was a rainbow, but too faint to show up.

Outside the kitchen window, is a fenced in area where Diana, the housekeeper, feeds the birds. I love watching them when I am in the kitchen.

There are lots of doves and another bird, I have not identified yet. This morning I saw a beautiful California quail, but by the time I got my camera, he was long gone.

Today, we are driving through Joshua Tree National Park to the Salton Sea. It should be a great photo op. The weather is clear, the sun is blazing and the wind has died down.

Posted in This and that, Travels | Comments Off on Monday was for the Birds

More Travel Talk

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

We arose early yesterday and were on the road by 7 am. Here is the beautiful sunrise from the hotel parking lot. Here is the sunrise again from the road.

I get a kick out of the modern windmills that stand like sentinels on hillsides. This shot was taken in Northern California.

And the windmills as you drive into the desert seemed to have multiplied since we were here 2 years ago.

I wonder where these folks are headed:

I know we are getting close to the high desert when we begin to see the strange Joshua trees.

Today we went up into the hills to Pioneer Town to tour some Ranch homes. I mean Ranch as in horses, not Ranch as in 50’s architecture!

The above shots were from a combination barn and house. It was very cool. Here are Mike and Mr C headed to a small home that had out buildings for the horses.

We cut short the walking around Pioneer Town because it was really cold. We had a delicious lunch at Pappy and Harriet’s. I took this shot of the very interesting ladies room stall doors.

Here is a view of the house where we are staying as you walk across the cactus strewn landscape from Mike and Ann’s casita.

We have to be careful where we walk because of the Jumping Cholla cactus. It is notorious for very loose joint attachment, then the joints attach to hapless by-passers with the slightest brush. They can be very painful.

Posted in Family, Travels | 3 Comments »

Checking in from Rehab

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

Ha! We are in the desert at Mike and Ann’s oasis where we are spending the next week drying out (well, it will probably rain) and rejuvenating in slightly warmer temps (6os). We are staying in the renovated home of Ann’s childhood. Her mom recently passed away and they have turned it into a beautiful retreat. I will post pictures later. I am about 2 days behind in my travels. We had a boring and almost uneventful drive from SF yesterday and arrived here about 3:30 in the afternoon. I had a really bad nose bleed on the grapevine summit of I-5, which is about 4000 ft. We are in the high desert – at about 3300 ft and I had another one last night – not so bad. We also almost had a dangerous collision with a stalled vw bug on I-5 near Magic Kingdom. Thanks to good defensive driving by all those around us, no one got hurt.

Last night, we had a wonderful Thai soup and lots of catching up with Mike and Ann. It was good to unpack and know we will be in the same place for a few days.

I have just uploaded my photos from the new Academy of Science building at Golden Gate Park. It was very crowded, and we did not get to every venue, but we enjoyed the feast for the eyes. You can go to my Flickr set to see all of the photos (click on slide show), but here is a tease. Nature has such a sense of humor and a great color aesthetic!!

A Bromeliad poison dart frog – about the size of your thumb.

Blue jelly fish.

Beautiful tropical fish.

More jellies.

Today we are off to Pioneer Town for a home tour and BBQ.

Posted in photography, Travels | 3 Comments »

On the Road, Again

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

Where was I when Mr C dragged me off to Golden Gate Park. We were driving from Sonoma County, our recent home until 3 years ago, to San Francisco.

Church cross/sign in San Francisco.

Driving through the Castro to get to Lisa’s home, in the Mission.

Look at who was happy to see me. Please ignore the double chin.

We went to Lisa’s show which was inspired by Victorian Valentines. She is just so creative and full of ideas. Many of her friends were surprised to see us there. She runs with a very talented crowd. Amy Ruppel drove down from Portland, too. She followed us all day and we had a big laugh about it and commiserated over the horrible drive on 101.

The show was at the Bell Jar. It is a very electric store, and I enjoyed looking at all the goodies and collectibles. This guy looked out over the event. Isn’t he cute?

Here is a photo that I snapped of Lisa and Clay, her girlfriend – such a cute couple. I never did get a very good photo of Mark and Jayme.

After the show, Mark, Jayme, Mr C and I went to Delfina pizzeria and after a short wait enjoyed some fabulous pie!!

Here is a piece of pruciotto pie – so good. That is fresh arugula on it.

We had a change of plans today and spent most of the day at the new Academy of Science building in Golden Gate Park. It was very crowded, but still very enjoyable. I got some teriffic photos of tropical fish, jellies, butterflies and colorful frogs which I will try to post in the future.

Tonight we had a fabulous family dinner at Foreign Cinema, a really cool restaurant in the Mission, near Lisa’s home. They show foreign films on the wall in the outside seating area. Tomorrow, we will leave early for SoCal, trying to bear the bad weather that is heading this way.

Posted in Eating out, Family, Travels | 1 Comment »

And the Winners are:

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

Liz Hinze, from right here in the Portland area, will get the funky valentine collage and Missy Jordan, from Louisiana, will get the Kyoto Hearts postcard. Missy, did you know that I my maiden name was Jordan? Thank you to all 39 of you who left me such wonderful comments and have inspired me to keep on blogging for at least another 5 years. Mr C drew the names.

I am quite busy trying to get some things done before we leave for a little soujourn to California. We are leaving early on Wednesday and heading South. We will stop at Coos Bay to see the quilt show at the art museum. Then we will keep driving south on 101 until we need to stop to spend the night. Thursday we will stop in San Francisco for a couple of days visiting Mark, Jayme, Lisa and her gal pal, Clay. Lisa has a show opening on Thursday night.

Saturday, we will keep on heading south to the Mojave desert and the town of Twenty Nine Palms where we will spend a week, hoping for some sunshine and warmer temperatures. Looks like it will be a bit rainy and in the 60s. While there, we are planning lots of side trips with Mike and Ann, my husband’s brother and wife. We are going into Oceanside one day to see the Visions Quilt show. I am so happy that it has been extended this year. It is usually over by the time we go down in February. I will have a studio available for doing some work so I will take some supplies with me.

I started work on the collage piece. First, I fused all the fabrics with Misty Fuse.

I used some Japanese fabrics for the background. I usually use dupioni silk.

Here is a sneak peak at the work so far. I think I will have to stop at this point and take it with me.

As I have mentioned, the High Fiber Diet group is doing a show titled line dancing. Each piece will have a lime green horizontal line. I rotated Indigo Construction and am contemplating entering it. I will remove the dangling threads, if I do this. What do you think?

Posted in Collage, High Fiber Diet, My creations, Travels, Vintage Japanese textiles | 6 Comments »

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