Cups

Cathy's cousin, Yae Sun, was in town from South Korea this past weekend. She gifted us a handsome set of ceramic cups that she made by hand, here's three of them:


Apparently it was her first time working with ceramic, but she's a talented artist and I think that shows in the worksmanship. Either way, I'm impressed. I plan on using these to enjoy many a beverage.

Turtle Power

Took a walk with the dogs, found me some turtles...


More specifically, a couple of Painted Turtles on the Chicago River trying to warm up on an overcast day. I feel like the one on the left is pretty big for this species. Anyway, these guys are really common - I think they are the state reptile in three or four states, including Illinois and Michigan.

Highway 1, A View, A Dog...

Visiting Eric/Rie/Seigo/Roland/Clem part two. This post is really just a couple photos from a short drive we took on Highway 1. I've driven most of the 600ish miles before, using it to get to Seattle, but I rushed it and barely stopped to enjoy it. This time around it was much more engaging, since although we didn't go that far, Eric and Rie took us to a couple different spots to go out on little micro-hikes. We easily spent a whole day exploring the nooks and crannies of just a 30 mile stretch...


First stop was Muir Beach. The beach was pretty nice but the best feature about this stop was a little hiking trail that went up the side of a hill where you could get away from the beach crowd and enjoy panoramic views of the area (the photo is just a slice of it). You can also see how low the clouds are here. What you can't see though is how fast they were swirling and streaming in over the hills from the ocean, very much like a river.


Eric with Seigo in tow, hiking down the trail. I'd like to note that I was particularly proud of my mom who, despite being a bit leery of heights, went on nearly all the hikes that involved heights.


The next stop was the Muir Beach Overlook. This was amazing. Although it's known for it's wonderful views, on this day it was a bit different. Just stepping out of the car already felt like stepping into a wind tunnel, and you could "see" the wind due to the moisture in the air. There was a short, developed path running along a ridge line (see photo) that led to a small octagonal overlook platform. That day it wasn't a run-of-the-mill overlook platform but instead it a platform into a cloud. It was a fun experience to stand on this thing and see nothing but the wind rushing past you.


Anonymous on aforementioned ridge line trail.


Next stop was a random hike out to a cliff to enjoy an oceanside view. At this stop, however, I was more compelled to photograph the view behind me. I'm not sure why, but I guess I just liked it.


Next stop was Bolinas. Eric described it as a small, somewhat hermetic, community that tears down any signs along Highway 1 telling you how to get there. We checked out a big beach and saw some nice waves for casual surfing...which Eric looked at wistfully. I liked the (sanctioned) graffiti that decorated the seawalls, like this surfing droog.


This was a view from our last stop. Just a nice little trail down to some big, big rocks (though it's hard to really see how massive this thing was without a reference). Check out the blanket of clouds in the distance. There was a huge rock/boulder, similar to the one in the photo, that you could climb onto but it required negotiating a dangerously narrow trail and climbing up loose stone, all while ignoring the possible plummet to your certain death on all sides. I got about 10 feet into it before it put the fear in me and I turned around.

I left out a lot of events and photos from this summary, like eating at Chez Panisse, a random search for espresso beans, and sipping scotch at a whiskey bar in the Mission District...but I think you can see it was more than just a great time. Anyway, I would have fun visiting my family even in the most boring of places, but all this stuff is extra icing on an iced cake.

One more:


Roland is sooo cool.

Berkeley, Museum, Sonoma...

So anyway, after Memorial Day, we pretty much immediately flew out to California to link up with my family. A very brief two-post summary will now commence:


One of the first things we did was visit the California Academy of Sciences, a huge natural history museum. It has a wonderful assortment of things, including a huge aquarium, planetarium, a green roof, and a rainforest dome. Unfortunately, the dome was closed due to maintenance or something, but despite that, we still didn't have time to see everything.


Aquariums are always a favorite of mine. As well as obligatory silhouette photos.


Sea nettle from the aquarium. Among the other specimens hanging out there were various reptiles I've never seen before, an albino alligator (named Claude), a Pacific octopus, Alligator gars, and more fish than you can shake a reel at. So much fun.


The next, we did another always fun thing: wine tasting at the vineyards. Last time Cathy and I visited we went to Napa Valley but this time we went to Sonoma Valley. I gotta say, I liked Sonoma better since it was drastically more laid back, casual, and natural.


Seigo is not yet of age and so did not partake in any of the tastings, but he did enjoy running around the grape vines (this was at Wellington Vineyards).


Bartholomew Park vineyard. We ended up flying back with an armload of wine, some of which I'm enjoying immensely as I type this.


Eric and Rie actually live in Berkeley. A nice feature of their particular area was a weekly farmer's market just a short walk away from their house. We came to check out on one of the days.


It wasn't terribly big but there were more than enough tasty morsels to choose from and the local support is strong, which is great. We bought a variety of edibles that we snacked on for the rest of the week. Also, the weather was excellent everyday we were there - which wasn't all that surprising, but it was excellent.

Next post soon.

Memorial Day

Ahhh...finally back home and time for a new post. First up is Memorial Day. Like last year, Cathy and I went up to Nick's cabin. Last year was awesome and cloudy, this year was awesome and sunny. Needless to say, the weekend was chockablock with good times. Chockablock. I took a bunch of photos, natch, here are a couple:


Emily and Cathy on the pontoon boat. Lots of time was spent floating around lazily, enjoying some drinks, and enjoying life. Super-mega fun.


Nick and Brent on the deck, probably talking about the American imperialists.


Nickbot


Brentbot


Bell's Oberon Ale was the weekend's drink of choice because it is the color and scent of a sunny afternoon.


There is a joke to be made here.


(Sun + pontoon boat + tunes + friends) x Oberon = daaance paarty


Nonsense shot. However, when I took this I didn't see that a dragonfly (known as the bonus dragonfly) was on the mushroom, which is on a stump, which is in a lake, until I looked at the photo back home. Great stuff.

To sum it all up: Awesome friends, awesome weekend.