On our way home from Big Sur, we decided to head south and a bit inland to the Paso Robles area. I had never been to this wine region, but was familiar with Turley. We enjoyed the rural area and terrific wine. Since I wasn't in San Francisco for harvest at Crushpad, it was fun to see harvest in Paso.
(Photo edges by Lynn Grieveson (Worn Edges 2)
Wow, what a drought my poor blog has been in. Lisa and Mike have started tumblelogs and friends who don't even read my blog are hearing from other friends about how I haven't updated my blog in forever. So I'm finally spending a few minutes to update. I don't quite know where to start. I will say that I was originally going to make my New Year's Resolution to blog every day--phew thank goodness I didn't do that! I'd hate to have such a let down only three months in!
So where to start...
Well the old Jetta up and died on me. It was a welcome occasion quite frankly. I didn't want to put another dime in the thing, so when the elusive "check engine" light came on, I knew it was time to move on. Fortunately I knew what I wanted. So with some negotiating help from USAA, this baby came home with me:
It is a BMW 335 and I LOVE it. My Jetta was a V6 and has some get up and go, but nothing like this BMW. The first week I had it I was about 10 minutes early to work every day. Now I certainly don't do that by choice. So the question is, was I utilizing the 300 horsepower and driving more quickly or was I just so excited to have a new car that I would speed through my morning routine just so I could drive my car sooner?
I think I might have been destined to be a BMW owner. I bought my BMW almost exactly 40 years from when my dad bought his first BMW when he and my mom moved from Manhattan to New Jersey. He bought the 1968 BMW 1600, I believe the first model to be sold in the US. He drove that car for probably more than 20 years. Let's hope I have as much good luck with my BMW. Here is a picture of me helping my dad wash his BMW way back when. (Gotta love the plaid pants of the 1970s).
I've been traveling a bit as well. A business trip to Denver in January which was fun, especially since I got to have dinner with my friend Katie. Then In February, we went on our annual ski trip over President's Day weekend. Again this year we went to Tahoe. There wasn't much snow, but there was plenty of fun. Kev did a great job finding us a house, and there were many reasons why we didn't even need to leave it! You can see pictures here.
Then last week I went to Puerto Rico for work--yes work. It was actually quite busy with business related things. But there was some time for fun. And the people putting on the conference did a good job making sure we had fun activities in the evenings. You can see pictures of that here. Puerto Rico was actually a pretty cool place. Much more than just a place to enjoy the beach. Old San Juan is beautiful. I didn't get a chance to take too many photos--hopefully I get back sometime soon!
Well, I think that is enough for now. I'd hate to shock someone who has been persistently checking for updates with too long a post! More soon--I promise???
So I am in NYC for business. Getting a hotel was very difficult (and expensive) because of the UN thing. But what is so interesting is that I did get booked at the same hotel as Clinton's Global Initiative Annual Meeting. The place is crazy! So today, just while coming and going from my hotel, I've seen Jimmy Carter (literally almost bumped right into him), Jesse Jackson, Colin Powell (on a kid's scooter/bike thing going through the lobby) and Don Cheadle!!!!! For a political junkie like me, this is waaaaayyyyy cooler than running into actors. And I think I've seen more secret service people then when I lived in DC. I know Clinton is in the building right now and I'd love to see him or Gavin who is also in town for the event. I literally just want to hang out in the lobby hoping to see more famous people. I'd take pictures but I don't want to get tackled by some secret service guy who takes my baby from me.
I didn't get to take many pictures today, nor did I make it to B&H this trip. But I did snap a few quick ones today. I assume St Patrick's is obvious, but the other is this public art in the Rockefeller Center Promenade. One side (facing 5th Avenue) is convex and is similar to the bean in Millennium Park in Chicago. The other side that is below is convex and reflects the sky and part of 30 Rock which is across the promendade from the art. It is pretty cool and hard to capture on film. It is like watching a film of the sky. Pretty cool!
Next we visited Bodie State Historic Park. It was freezing cold (ok, said by the weather-wimp) and there were snow fluries. Bodie is a genuine California gold-mining ghost town. You can wander the real deserted streets of the town. It origianlly had a population of more than 10,000 people. The founder, Waterman S. Bodey, had discovered small amounts of gold in hills north of Mono Lake. In 1877, the Standard Company struck pay dirt and a gold rush transformed Bodie from a town of 20 people to a boomtown.
Only a small part of the town survives. Interiors remain as they were left and stocked with goods. Designated as a National Historic Site and a State Historic Park in 1962, the remains of Bodie are being preserved in a state of "arrested decay". Click on the image to enlarge.
First, a happy birthday to my Dad! He doesn't seem like a day over 65! Here's to many, many, many more happy birthdays!
Second, a happy Memorial Day to everyone. I spent the weekend with my friends in the Bode/Mono Lake/June Lake area of California. It is pretty much directly east of Yosemite. Although it isn't quite as direct a trip from SF as one might think. Tioga Pass is still closed due to snow, so we took a more circuitous route. We didn't think there would still be snow when we planned the trip, but it certainly wasn't enough to keep us away!
Here are some pictures I took at the Tufa State Reserve at Mono Lake. Mono Lake is near the town of Lee Vining and is one of the largest salt lakes in the US. Freshwater evaporating from the lake each year has left the salts and minerals behind so that the lake is now about 2 1/2 times as salty and 80 times as alkaline as the ocean. Years ago, the LA Dept of Water and Power began tapping into some of the streams that feed into the lake. As a result the volume dropped substantially. When this occurred, these amazing calcium carbonate spires started springing out of the ground. They are formed when the freshwater springs interact with the alkaline lake water. These tufa towers are so beautiful. Here is what it looks like... Click on the image to see full size.
Whenever I'm in NYC, I try to catch at least one show. I love being a series subscriber in San Francisco, but there is just something different about seeing a show on Broadway. I'll admit that I usually pick the show I want to see based on who is in it. We don't always get the big stars in San Francisco (although we have seen a few) so I like to take advantage of that in New York.
So this year I picked a play called "Three Days of Rain" because Paul Rudd was in it. I have always loved Paul Rudd since I first saw him in "Clueless." As I read more about I saw that Julia Roberts was in it. Perhaps you've heard of her ;-) Seriously though, Julia being in it was 
just kind of a nice added benefit. So I got my ticket. And I might add that when you want to get just a single ticket to a show, you always get awesome seats!!!! Fifth row was pretty good. I was actually embarassed that I brought binoculars. Then a week later I read it was the hotest ticket in NY and that the entire 12 week show was almost sold out, even though it was still in previews. Who knew I actually had any luck!?! I was so excited!
So anyhow, as I'm walking out of the theater after the show trying to make sure I understood it (I missed having Lisa to talk about it with) I was asked by an usher to see my program. He looked at it and then pointed me to the right outside the theater. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but I soon noticed a TON of people. I was in this small section that I then realized was the "holding pen" for people who actually saw the show outside the door Julia would exit. I'm not a huge autograph person, but I thought, "what the heck, I'm here." I was about three rows back so I was pretty sure my autograph potential was low. But while at Spring Training in Scottsdale I did perfect my "photography in crowds over people taller than me" ability. While waiting the hour for her to leave (what does she do?) I met some nice people who were also waiting. And I realize how many people were all around the theater trying to get a picture of her. There were police and barricades keeping people out of the street (it didn't work so well) and giving Julie room to get to her car. I'm not that good at judging crowd size, but I'll guess about 1000 people. I felt sorry for all the actors performing at neighboring theatres because no one wanted to stay and wait for them.
So finally she came out. She only signed a few Playbills. I just kept snapping pictures and managed to get a few. I was really hoping Paul Rudd would emerge next and so was the nice guy next me. Our eyes did meet during his performance, so I was sure he'd recognize me after ;-) But after Julia left the security guard said he and Bradley Cooper (the other guy in the play-he was in Wedding Crashers and Failure to Launch) left about a half hour earlier. This other person said that he sneaks out through the door of the theater next door where David Schwimmer is in a play (being Friends and all I guess). I have no idea if that is true, so I just walked back to my hotel. So now on this trip I've seen Nancy Pelosi and Julie Roberts. A full review of the play will come tomorrow or something. I'm off to the new MOMA before flying home!
Wow, it has been almost a month since I last posted. Here I thought I would be good about posting more regularly, but I guess not! Of course it takes a trip to NY for business to give me a quiet night in my hotel room and time to post.
I was in Albany, NY at the beginning of the week. I was a bit worried for awhile that I wasn't actually going to get to Albany. The weather was pretty horrible throughout the country. I made it out of SF on time, but ended up being delayed at Dulles for 6 hours! I guess we all have that nightmare business travel trip and this was mine. The plane was stuck in Syracuse due to weather there, but they had to close Dulles due to lightening so we weren't sure it could even get in if it got out of Syracuse. We (my 20 new friends) were pretty sure we were taking a noon flight on Tuesday. If this was the case, I had to rethink whether I should even go to Albany. I wasn't sure I could do it all in half a day. I needed a business trip to DC, so it almost made more sense to stay in DC and try to squeeze in those meetings instead!
We finally took off and made it to my hotel around 12:45AM! The weather was horrible and I had no idea where I was going. Thank God for TomTom. So I get to the hotel in one piece only to find out that they had no reservation for me. What good is a confirm number if it means nothing?? Fortunately they had a room left. I was so pissed! So the next day I called our Travel Dept and they had it out with the manager. Apparently there was a res, the dude at the front desk was just an idiot. Could you imagine if they didn't have a room and it was almost 1AM? So apparently the dude at the front desk didn't like that I wanted a room because he gave me a room with a broken chair, broken remote and no sink stopper. When I mentioned it to the woman when I checked out she didn't even care! After I told her she went about checking me out. Then I asked if she was going to write down the issues with the room. I kept my eye on her while I waited for my car to come around and never saw here write anything down about the room. So should you ever find yourself in Albany NY, do NOT stay at the Crown Plaza Albany.
Anyhow, I failed to mention how it SNOWED all day Tuesday! Nothing stuck, but it was kind of cool. The first picture is of a building I needed to look at for work, but you can see all the snow.
The second pic is the back side of the NYS Capitol Building. Very different from the state and national capitols I'm most familiar with.
Then I took a very leisurely train ride from Albany to NYC. To fly would have cost $300 and the train only $34. And the train at only 2.5 hours was actually a shorter and easier process than flying into Newark and then taking a cab into Manhattan. It was so nice! Pretty scenery and a comfortable stress-less travel day. Plus it drops you in Midtown.
And did I mention, that Penn Station is just a mere three blocks from here:
Yes, the most favorite store of the photographer set. It was an overwhelming experience. It is a huge store with pretty much every photography, video, audio and lighting product known to man! People everywhere, bags of purchases traveling on conveyor belts above your head and the nicest and most helpful salespeople I think I've ever met! I didn't buy much since I can ship it to Cali with no sales tax. I did get a chance to actually look at the tripod that I really wanted as well as some camera bags that I wanted to see in person before buying. The guy who helped me was so cool. I did see that I should have bought this tripod instead of the one I did buy, but we'll figure that out later. I will definitely add B&H to my list when I'm in NYC. Especially since it is open late and on the way to my hotel from Penn Station!
And as I sign off, here a pic from near my hotel. I LOVE NY!
Hi!
Sorry for the long absence! Getting back into the swing of things has definitely taken some time. And I'm still going through my photos, so it might be awhile until you see those.
But I know that many of you have been waiting anxiously to know whether you won my photo contest! Well, wait no longer! First, I had to implement a last minute rule. I am only counting entries posted on the blog. Mainly because I can't remember what people told me in person, so I can't really count them. So a big shout out goes to Grace, who guessed the closest! I actually took 3,204 pictures. Grace's guess at 3,500 was the closest! Congrats Grace!
I'm also attaching a picture of my big purchase in Thailand--a Buddha. This was the one thing I really wanted to buy while I was there. It is the 
typical story of almost not finding him. We were shopping in Chiangmai, Thailand (shocking) and I found a small bronze Buddha that I liked. I was ready to buy him and go to bed. But Karen wanted to just quickly peruse the top floor in this shopping area before we left. Well, thank goodness! Because that is where I found my Buddha. So a big thanks to Karen!
It's just like they say--love at first site! I've attached the pic below. The entire statue is 3 feet tall and he is made of wood. The position of Buddha's hands always means something. The position of my Buddha wards away evil. Always a good thing! I've got a place in my living room picked out for him. I am also currently getting a painting of bamboo that I bought in Vietnam framed that will go right above him. I can't wait!
Now everyone please keep your fingers crossed, because shipping him has been more of a hassle than I thought it would be. We essentially chose a bad shipping company which has clearly taken advantage of us. But we were in a position where either we lose the extra $85 they wanted for shipping after they shipped it or lose the amount I spent on the Buddha, which was a lot more. So, he is apparently arriving in LA next week at which point he will be trucked up to Oakland. Hopefully he is in my living room by the end of the month!
