So I'm a little behind...

Sorry for the lack of updates... I'd love to say it was because I was so busy having fun and exciting adventures but it is a sad thing to say that work has reared it's head.

Okay... so where did I leave off? I believe we were on our way to Yosemite National Park....

So here are some highlights

El Capitain... Can you believe people climb this rock?

On the walk to Yosemite Falls

Lower Yosemite Falls - I hear they often dry up by the end of the summer. Would be great to see what they look like in the spring.

Half Dome Rock

A great spot for a picnic lunch?

I didn't see the bear trap in the parking lot until AFTER we finished lunch....

Bridal Veil Falls

and then there are the very big trees...

First Earthquake...

"A magnitude 4.4 earthquake rattled Southern California on Tuesday night. The quake was reported at 11:23 p.m. and was centered around Yorba Linda in northern Orange County.

There was no immediate word of injuries or damage, but the quake was felt over a wide area.

According to the the U.S. Geological Survey, the temblor struck two miles northeast of Yorba Linda, about 29 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

It was felt from Long Beach northwest to Santa Monica, as well as in downtown L.A."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/44-earthquake-rattles-southern-california.html

So for those of you that didn't catch my Facebook notice... I actually felt this one...I'm sure though if I had been asleep I probably wouldn't have noticed it. Very strange sensation to feel the bed shake... it probably only lasted about 10 seconds but in that very short period of time I realized I hadn't really thought this all out. Things like... "where's the safest place in the apartment" came to mind.

The next day at work a couple of coworkers felt the aftershock but I must have too focussed in the meeting I was in to notice.

Good Bye San Fran and hello Yosemite July 2, 2012

Monday was a pretty full day --- ride a cable car to China Town and walk to Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf and then walk up the crookedest street. No fog so I can finally get a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and then a drive to Yosemite (well technically the hotel we are to stay in is just outside the park.) It was a very busy day.

and the "elusive" bridge...

Sunday in San Francisco

We found a church relatively close to the hotel and enjoyed meeting new people. The schedule for the afternoon was to check out some of the Victorian houses (namely the Painted Ladies, but a lady at church told us about another street that had some cute houses), climb the Filbert Steps to Coit Tower and check out the Golden Gate Bridge.

First of all - I knew that there were in hills in San Francisco but I didn't realize they had HILLS. Some of the roads are crazy... definitely not possible to have in Winnipeg - nobody would be able to safely get up (or down) some of the roads if they were the least bit icy.

See... (and this isn't even that great of an example)

So the Painted Ladies...

I love this picture below... how San Franciscans park...

Filbert Steps & Coit Tower

And Golden Gate Bridge...


was a no show....


literally ... it was COMPLETELY covered in fog.

Pacific Coast Highway

A friend of mine from high school came to California to visit her aunt & uncle and ME! My very first visitor! And what better to do with a friend than a road trip.

The plan: Up the coast to San Francisco, hit some National Parks and then some whale watching. Sounds awesome, right? It was and over 1000 photos later I'm finally getting around to write about (and no... I will not be posting all 1000 photos :) )

So today's post is all about the trip from LA to San Francisco. I heard that the drive north along the coast was beautiful It proved to be a beautiful if somewhat long, and curvy in bits drive.

I'm calling this one "Beach Bums".

Beautiful despite the fog!

Memorial Day at the Beach

Memorial Day is the kick-off to summer here in California. So what better way then to head to the beach. A Co-worker friend and I headed to Hermosa Beach to spend the day checking out the various vendors at the Hermosa Festival, music and the sun.





We had lunch on the beach, while checking out some beach volleyball,



and then a nice stroll along the water.







Beautiful day....

the down side...

I ended up a little crispy (no picture...) I have to remember SUNBLOCK.

Fun "Facts"

So I pulled this information from various websites and can't attest to the accuracy, etc but I just thought it was interesting to look at some figures to try and give you a "picture" of how many people are around and what this would mean for traffic, etc. Everyone knows there are lots of people and know traffic is bad but did you realize this:

California population approx 37.3M
Canada's population approx 34.5M

Size of California 414,000 sq. km
Size of Canada 9,093,507 sq. km
Size of Manitoba 649,947 sq km

so....

Picture cutting 1/3 of Manitoba off and moving all of Canada's population to the remaining 2/3 and you would have the State of California.

Crazy!

Even crazier... almost half the population (17.8M) live in the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Just crazy...

Ranunculus????

During my painting class the instructor mentioned this place south of Los Angeles where there are fields of flowers... so of course, I had to figure out where and when was the best time to view. Well, I figured out that about an hour and a half south of where I live is a place called "The Flower Fields", which is over 50 acres of Giant Tecolote Ranunculus, which can be viewed in early spring.

So I left fairly early on Saturday morning (Apr 28) and took the I-5 south. Drive went fairly smoothly - not a lot of traffic and got to the fields in about an hour and a half. It was pretty amazing to see the rows of colors...

The flowers belong to the buttercup family and feature a variety of shapes - some with tightly packed petals and others open, with only a few petals.

Besides the fields they had a hot house full of different varieties of poinsiettas - who knew there were so many.

There was a rose garden...

and a sweet pea maze

And then after many more photos, and a stop at the nearby outlet malls I headed north following the coast where I could.

And the hour and a half drive south turned into excess of 3 hours when heading north (until I got tired and headed back onto the free way for another hour of driving).

A Rock and Tree and Water

Lacking for inspiration for the title. Funny thing: I picked up a travel California book the other day and when I opened it up it opened to a picture of this rock and tree. Strange....

Don't ask about the "grass"... it does look a little odd.

Artiste in Training

Some of you may know that I've long had an interest in learning to paint but either was too busy or just a little chicken. Well, I finally signed up for a class: Introduction to Watercolors.

Like most classes there is a supply list - all I can say is even if I'm not any good at this I better enjoy it because the brushes alone weren't very cheap.

I walked into the building where the classes are held and met the instructor. Right off she asks if I am Melanie. Wow... how did she know that? Well it seems like everyone else that has signed up for the class has taken it a few times before. (mmm... I thought this was an introduction to watercolor). A little bit of uneasiness settled in.

So I went into this class expecting the first class to go through the supplies, maybe talk about some brush strokes, practice mixing colors... you know... introductory stuff.

Everyone arrives, many carrying completed pictures that the instructor was critiquing. Okay... this was intro to watercolors, right?

then the class starts.. The instructor hands out a photo of a large tree, some ducks with a pond in the background. She looks at me and says "You know how to draw, right?" and turns back and proceeds with outlining the images, mixing colors and applying paint.

Overwhelming is probably too mild a word but I did make it through the class and overall I'm pleasantly surprised that I managed to produce something that looks like a tree, ducks and a pond.

Festival of Books

For those book lovers out there this was a pretty cool event. After the mishap a few weeks ago, Laura (co-worker) offered to drive me this time (just so I don't get lost ...)

I gather this is an annual event where a number of publishers, book stores and authors set up tents with their wares and the public gets some great deals and can get books signed and listen to a variety of speakers and presentations. This was the second year it was held at USC (University of Southern California).

It was very hot (30C)but very interesting.

The statue in the fountain was of a couple graduates.

USC Trojans

Lots of tents set up all over the campus.

There were a number of different stages set up as well. The university marching band played for a bit as well as a youth orchestra.

I'm not very good at crossword puzzles but even I managed to get one or two clues on this one.

Great stall - $5 or less for books. How can you resist?