Anniversary trip, part 2.

Could you do me a quick favor? Seriously like one second of your time is all I need. Will you share your opinion? (Quiz on the right side of this page--) Thanks bunches!!!

Part One is right HERE.

. . .
The day after Sequoia National Park was a L-O-N-G driving day. Poor Jon had to drive us through Malibu during some crazy mid-day traffic. We moved about sixteen miles in an hour! Ridiculous, people! Finally, we just HAD to have a pee break. But you know what? Eateries around there aren't required to have bathrooms. So we had to hit up five different places before some guy at the gelato shop took pity on Jon and let him use the employee bathroom. Yes, Jon went first because I felt so bad for him. And then I decided that the best plan of action would be to first decide on some food and then have me find a bathroom. Certainly the deli that we chose would have a public bathroom, right? Nope. So I told Jon what to order for me and then I went on a bathroom-seeking journey. I had to walk two blocks to a public bathroom. It was like this-- one tiny girl's bathroom along a line of shops across the street and around a corner from our deli. And that was the closest public bathroom. Not even the Starbucks had one. Hello-- people in there are drinking coffee and coffee makes you need to pee lots. At least that's what I've heard. What the heck? How do the people of Malibu put up with such nonsense? Anyway, I finally made it to the bathroom and there were three ladies in line in front of me. The two at the end let me cut. Apparently I looked like I was ready to burst. I made sure I left the bathroom in a much better state than the older lady who went in front of me did. Yikes!

Anyway, after that things calmed down and were much better. We ended up with delicious sandwiches that we ate sitting in cool wood lawn chairs on a grass-covered mini-lawn. Suddenly California was sunny and lovely all over again. And our sandwiches were so big that we could only eat half of our lunch, saving us the expense of buying a real dinner. We had linner all ready and waiting for us.

After getting more gas for the 4-Runner, we made our way to our destination-- lovely, gorgeous, wonderful El Matedor beach. It did not disappoint. We pulled up into a parking spot IN the parking lot! Our luck had turned. And then I saw these guys with Polaroid Land Cameras. Jon asked if I'd go talk to them and I said, "Of course!"

Now, I'm not usually the type that just goes off and talks to new people like that, but they were driving a refurbished bright orange car with glittery-sparkly upholstery. And they had Polaroids. So I went over to chat while Jon paid our parking fare. They told me that they were impressed that a non-local knew of El Matedor, and I told them that I liked their car and their camera, and we got to talking about Polaroids, and I was so jealous. The one guy had a stockpile of old vintage Polaroid film-- 669 and 600 stuff. . . And then I took a picture of them sitting in their tangerine car overlooking the Pacific and handed it back, and a minute later, they peeled it and said, "Man, this girl really knows her stuff." Yay. In the first place, they liked my photo lots. And in the second place, they thought of me as considerably younger than them, which I doubt I was.

And then we walked down to the beach.

How gorgeous is this place?

On the way downstairs to the beach, I got stopped three times so people could ask me questions about my Polaroid cameras. I had my SX70 and my 350 land camera out, and Jon asked if I was feeling like a rock star by the time we got to the bottom. He said, "You're getting way more attention than all the people with their fancy digital cameras running around here." And it was true. There were seven or so other people running about with fancy-pants digital cameras, several of them doing shoots of "models." None of them were asked about their cameras. Jon was watching. And I still got asked about my cameras a few more times while walking along the water's edge. I'm not going to lie, it was kind of fun telling them that yes, these were functional older Polaroids and yes, there is still film to be had for them.

I make faces when I take photos. That's my secret. 

I wish I'd taken photos of the "models" out there-- There was one girl with purple hair who kept swinging her head from side to side as her "move." I'm guessing. There was another girl in a skimpy outfit that was so giggly, but as soon as the camera turned on her, she'd make these deep, thoughtful faces and would really get into it. Also, she was maybe 18 and had dyed her hair gray. I'm not kidding you. I saw it in several lighting conditions. Each time, gray. Oh, and Jon saw her get trounced by a big sneaky wave while she was trying for a seductive pose laying on the sand.

So happy to have some beach time together.

There isn't much more to say about the beach other than it was lovely and relaxing and so scenic. We'd never been to this beach before and even though it was crazy to get to, it was so worth it. Even Jon (who did the driving while I did the directing) had to agree. Amazing place.

We LOVED this beach.

Jon, jumping. :)

We spent the night at a really nice place for not very much at all. We woke up and had a lovely continental breakfast, and then we took a long walk along a river trail and fed some ducks. Then we drove over to pick up a dresser that we'd bought on e-bay. As Jon put it, "It looks better in real life than it even did on-line." An it's true. We are so happy with it. It is a mid-century solid wood 8-drawer dresser. I'll put up photos of it soon. We are delighted with our purchase. And the young woman we bought it from was so helpful. She provided the additional human-power that we needed to keep the dresser balanced on its back while Jon put the drawers in it. She marveled that our 4-Runner could fit it, but fit it it did. And there was plenty of room to spare for our clothes and cameras and snacks to fit in around it when we were done.

An amazing whirlwind of a trip. It was a great quick little anniversary trip out to California. A change of scenery and pace. And as always, it was so fun to go adventuring with Jon. It was great to have hours and hours of uninterrupted quality time with my honey. Time to talk in the car, time walking, hiking, and photographing-- I couldn't have imagined a better anniversary. Jon says it could have been better if we'd gone back to Hawaii. . . haha.

Polaroid Week 2011

Real quick-- Will you please take a second to answer the question on the right side of your screen?




So, the week of Trek they were doing 'Roid Week on Flickr, which is where I post most of my photos. Each year they set up a new group for that year's Polaroid entries. It is a celebration of instant analog photography and any kind of Polaroid or Fuji instant camera is welcome. This year, with The Impossible Project's wide variety of new films, their has been a huge jump in the number of photos shared.

The Impossible Project selects some of their favorites each day, and one of mine was picked on Day 4. You can see it HERE on The Impossible Project's Blog, or HERE on my Flickr photo stream. (You can also scroll through their blog to see their other favorites.)

I am just so happy that other people like my photos. And it's crazy that that one was chosen to be shared on the Impossible Project's blog. And sometime soon I'll have one of my other photos up on one of their newsletters. (I'm still waiting to see what they do with it.) It feels so great to be a part of the renewal of instant integral films. I'm so glad that they decided to bring back that magic form of photography.

Trek and stuff

After all the craziness of sewing and planning and packing and attending meetings, it is finally here. We leave our house at 5:15 in the MORNING to meet up with everyone at the Stake Center and we leave from there no later than 7AM to head out to the trail head. There, Jon and I will be assigned a family. We'll go from not having any children to have eight teenagers. I'll let you know how that goes after the fact.

While we're a little nervous, we're also really excited. We'll be dressed up as pioneers, we'll be pulling a handcart, we'll be sleeping under the stars, and we'll be playing games and participating in reenactments. Jon's favorite part of it so far is knowing that we don't have to pack our own food-- every meal will be provided for us. He says that alone will make it the easiest camping trip he'll be a part of planning.

It should be good. Wish us luck!

Also, a happy bit of news that I don't feel like I can share on my photography blog yet-- I have been asked to share a photo of mine in one of the next newsletters that will go out by The Impossible Project. I've been photographing all kinds of subjects with film by the Impossible Project for over a year now, and it has been exciting to see how far they've come. I'm so excited to be a part of their history.

31

I feel like I've hit a big landmark. Turning that page onto thirty-one was a bigger deal to me than turning thirty. Now I'm in my thirties, not a newbie. So far so good.
We've had friends staying here from northern California. That's been taking up all my time.
But I wanted to mention the very, very awesome birthday present my darling Jon got me-- A Canon EOS 7D. I don't know how I got so lucky. Jon may have slipped and referred to it as "our" camera, but I'm cool with sharing.
I have been snapping a few little photos here and there, but today I finally got to take it out and really break it in. I took some shots of our friends Tim and Genevieve, because if you stay around our house too long, you become subjects of my photographs. That's all there is to it. That and we decided that today was a nice day to take a break from some of our adventuring. So we drove to the Red Cliffs recreation area and I took all kinds of faux engagement shots of them (since there may well be real ones soon to follow, we thought it was good practice).
I haven't even finished even looking those photos yet, so I thought I'd share these flower photos instead. These were all taken today, and they are all straight out of the camera. The first two were taken while walking around the Red Cliffs, but the others are flowers that are blooming in our back yard. I like what my new camera can do already, but I'm really looking forward to learning more of what I can do with it. So exciting!

I especially love my tea rose. It makes me happy that roses will bloom in our little corner of the desert. I hoping next year is a better year for my parrot tulips. My poppies should be blooming any day now. I can't remember what colors I planted, so that will be fun to see.