The Ladies Who Lunch

Today the celebration of Rachelle's birthday week got into full swing. The state of California parks system stomped all over my plans to see elephant seals today *shakes fist at the sky* so we decided to step outside of the ordinary day of hiking to lunch and catch a film. We began with lunch at Scratch in Mountain View. 

This is a house made lemonade with fresh squeezed lemons and agave nectar. OMG, best lemonade I've ever tasted. Hands down.

 Then this ooey gooey plate of mouth-wateringly delicious grilled cheese for grown-ups arrived.

I'm still reveling in the fact that all bathrooms have seats on their toilets (after 9 months of maybe you'll get one if you're really, really lucky in Mexico) but this bathroom had lovely orchids too. Ambience in the bathroom scores points with the ladies, you know. 

Then we headed to the theater to see Les Miserables. Nothing to photograph there but here are some lovely sights from the center of town.

I have tickets for the seals tomorrow so I shouldn't have my plans ruined again! However, if they are, someone is going to pay dearly...

A Day of Whimsy

Wunderlich, a San Mateo County Park. Sounds downright fascinating, doesn't it? Well, wunderlich is German for whimsical and I let my imagination run wild in this park. Everything was mossy and vibrantly green from all the recent moisture and I imagined I was walking through the Shire, and that a hobbit would emerge at any moment from a hidden doorway in a tree, kind of like me!

They have stables here for horses that I'd be pleased to live in. The stables, not the horses. "Where do you live?" "Oh, in horse condos." "Really? That's nasty." "No, in Woodside." "Ohhhhhh, damn, girl, you must have some serious cash!" An imaginary conversation I had with myself in the land of whimsy. Also, check out the lovely nod to Chinese labor that they gave in such poetic fashion. I'm sure that makes up for all their misery. You can see the wall lining the road in the photo to the right. 

 

I have no idea what this dilapidated building is about, but it virtually begged for a photo, so I obliged. Fortunately no orcs emerged ready for battle.

Here I am , consoling a fallen tree in my path --- OR --- gloating that I felled a tree with my bare hands? You decide. 

Along the way, I enjoyed the work of a spider caught between two limbs and catching the rays of the sun in sparkling splendor...

...and the potentially dangerous, potentially enjoyable fungi along the way - I chose to merely enjoy the view unenhanced by its psychedelic potentiality. I so did NOT take that nibble on the left side... 

And the day ended with a majestic pink sunset! 

How do I top 2013?

I spent nine months in Mexico in 2012. At some point I will do some blog posts to showcase some of those photos and tell about the many adventures I had while there. I truly can say that my life has been changed irrevocably for the better as a result of my experiences. Well, now it's 2013. After spending all that time living in another country, how am I going to top that?

Life brought me back to California, but there are more places that I simply must visit! This year I plan to add a pin to three more countries. I'm not sure how it will happen yet, but I firmly believe that if we have a dream, we can achieve that dream.

First on the list is China. There is a photo just waiting to be taken of me on the very edge of the Great Wall of China where it meets the Pacific Ocean. The following are NOT my photos, though I promise to have some of my own before the year is out.

This year I already have a trip to Peru planned. Macchu Picchu beckons - and so does this llama!

The last travel experience to a land far, far away for 2013, at least that's on my list so far, is Istanbul, Turkey.

I honestly have no idea how I'm going to accomplish all of this, but I have faith that it will be done. 

Today I woke up with the memory of my childhood friends Jennifer and Christopher and decided that all persons today should have names that end in -fer. Thus, I became Rachefer, auntie became Kathyfer and so on. We managed to squeeze in two parks today. Don Edwards and Coyote. 

This orange lichen warranted a picture - and you thought a photo of lichen on a rock would be lame. Ha. 

Basically we wandered over bridges, past lots of birds and adorable little buildings.

This is NOT snow. Seriously! It's caused by weird proteins in the water that get whipped up like egg whites - really! Want me to post the picture of the sign that said so?

Jesus birds, that's what I call 'em. They walk on water, for reals! Ha, not quite, the pipe continues just beneath the surface.

Uncle Charlifer met up with us after for the walk over to the Peruvian restaurant I'd been salivating about forever, well, ever since I found out about it -- yesterday.

 My favorite Peruvian dish -- lomo saltado! Get in my belly.

Bedwell Bayfront Park

When someone says, "Hey, let's go to a former landfill site!!!", I don't usually get amped for the experience. However, I trust my aunt so I let her lead the way. First she took me out for errands, wow. I thought I'd be bored, but look at his adorable neighborhood!

After visiting the post office, grocery store and doctor's office - none of which captured my photographer's eye, we hit the landfill. Beautiful day and not too shabby of a cleanup job! They closed and capped off the landfill site in the 80s and it's turned into quite the lovely spot.

Pretty little wildflowers - in January - which is why I don't live in Rhode Island anymore! 

Aunt and uncle strolling romantically down the windy path....

Then the sun was getting close to setting so we finished up with this...

Some quick photos on a rock, because photos on a rock are cool...

...and then I came home to cook up a vegetarian lasagna. But apparently, hockey skates were the appetizer, because they were already in the oven and ready to serve! (I'm still unclear what that was about...) 

Lake Tahoe

I had the privilege of being invited to a house in South Lake Tahoe, CA for New Years with a large group of people. After traveling, and traveling, and traveling some more, we arrived in the night and I snapped a few photos. 

At the house, champagne was chilling in the snow on our deck.

As the night wore on, the kitchen table was littered with more and more evidence of our heavy drinking, as this seems to be the nationally accepted way of celebrating the beginning of a new year.
I imbibed an "End of the World" brew which satisfied my palate, while others drank Bud Light.

After everyone was good and toasty - which was incredibly necessary considering the amount of snow and ice on the ground and the 17 degree temperatures - we headed over to Stateline, Nevada for partying in a casino. We saw Chromeo perform.

While everyone else was suffering from severe hangovers, I bundled up the next morning and bounded out into the snow to take more photos. This was the view from our back walkway.

Here was a lovely shot of our neighbor's place.

This is what I had to climb down to get to the road. Totally worth it though - look at the view of Lake Tahoe!

From the road, I was able to snap this photo of Lake Tahoe and its surrounding snowy mountains. 

Here I attempted to capture the magnificence of the mist rising through the mountains.

 The rest are just gratuitous shots of snow, because snow is amazing! I hope to visit Tahoe again soon and do some extensive hiking through the Sierra Nevadas with a group that doesn't feel the need to be in awesome surroundings to cause themselves severe anguish and gastronomical upset by participating in extreme sports of alcohol consumption. :)