close of the year

Yesterday we went to see the coho salmon run out in Lagunitas creek. I took some pictures of the salmon, but they were difficult to capture- photos look distant and blurry whereas in person you could see the salmon clearly in the water. People lined the banks and watched them thrash against the current. Myself included.

Anyway, it was pretty incredible to see. It's one of the things I love about living in the Bay Area. The things you can see, just a few minutes outside the city.

Afterwards, we drove out to Pt. Reyes and did a walk up along one of the ridge lines. 

The light was beautiful, turning from gold to pink to lavender as we moved towards evening.

It's hard to believe the year is almost over (isn't it always that way, at the end of the year?) but I'm looking forward to 2013. Happy New Year, everyone.

merry christmas

I know that Christmas has already technically come and gone, but I'm still in the Christmas spirit.  Christmas itself was lovely- I spent it in Napa with Daniel's family and we did an admirable job of drinking and feasting. There was a magnum of prosecco, sticky toffee pudding, and a healthy dose of red meat. We didn't get around to making Christmas cookies until yesterday, but it turns out that Christmas cookies are still good even if they're made after Christmas. We met up with friends in the city and made gingerbread men and punitions and drank mulled wine. And today I fly back to San Diego for a belated Christmas celebration with my family. I'm pretty spoiled, I know.

Merry (belated) Christmas.

christmas vacation

A few photos:

Everyone arrived late Monday evening- there were storms and my family's flight from Denver was cancelled. They ended up flying to Riverton instead and driving the 160 miles to Jackson. My flight from San Francisco arrived around 9:30. We were up the next morning with the sun to ski at Jackson Hole. In the evening, we drank whiskey at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. We celebrated an early Christmas.

Thursday, we went dog sledding. Ten miles out to Granite Hot Springs where we wrestled out of our heavy coats and boots and hopped into the steaming water. We saw a bald eagle.

At night, we took a gondola up to dinner.

It was a great vacation.

jackson

Greetings from Jackson.

I'm on vacation with my family in Wyoming. It was -10 degrees today. The sky was incredibly blue. It feels good to be here, breathing in the cold air and looking out at the mountains. It feels good to get away, just for a few days.

happy thanksgiving

the dish

Solvitur ambulando. It is solved by walking. I never studied Latin, but I've always liked that phrase. You put one foot in front of the other and you move forward. Going on long, solitary walks is something I do when I need to clear my head. It always makes me feel better- a little bit calmer, a little bit more centered. 

I slept badly last night and felt out of sorts when I woke up. I couldn't seem to shake the feeling and so I decided to take a walk to the Dish.

It was hot and dry and there were squirrels everywhere, though they never stayed still long enough for me to take a picture. I could see turkey vultures making wide, wobbling circles overhead. I stopped under the Dish thought how odd it looked, alone out there in the foothills. 

I felt better. 

the weekend calm

Monday is the busiest day of my week. I guess it's nice to get it out of the way, but I always find myself feeling drained and frazzled by the end of it, which is a tough way to start the week. I'm trying to get better at hanging on to the weekend calm.

On Sunday morning, Daniel and I spent a few hours walking around Mill Valley. Just off of the town square there's a forested area with a creek running through. Little kids were playing hide-and-go-seek among the redwoods. I sipped my coffee and inhaled the fresh air, feeling totally blissed out. I'm trying to keep that feeling around. 

Have a good week, everyone.

the alemany farmer's market

I spent the weekend up in Marin and San Francisco. This has become something of a pattern. Two weekend in Palo Alto, one weekend in the north bay. It's an essential break from life on campus. 

I usually try to fit as much as I possibly can into two short days. This weekend, we had dinner with friends, carved Halloween pumpkins, ate Thai food, watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, explored Mill Valley, sampled pastries at Beth's, and visited the Alemany farmer's market in Bernal Heights. 

We met up with our friends Caitlin and Dave and wandered around checking out the produce and enjoying the October sunshine. I came away with a bag of tiny Thai eggplants, some gorgeous red apples, a few Bartlett pears, and an enormous pomegranate. I haven't been cooking as much now that I'm back in school and living on my own. Left to my own devices, I'm perfectly happy to make a dinner out of scrambled eggs and apple slices. Still, it's always inspiring to walk around farmer's markets.

I miss living in San Francisco. A lot. But at least I still have my weekend visits.

Alemany Farmer's Market
100 Alemany Blvd
SF 94110

one martini is lovely

Have you read that Dorothy Parker poem?

I've always liked the idea of a smart drink at the end of the work week. I know that Thursday isn't the end of the week for most people, but now that I'm back in school, it marks the end of my week.

Well, not really. There is no real end to the week when you have a never-ending heap of reading to push through, but sometimes it's good to pause, take a sip of a good gin martini, and relax. 

a bit of paris

I've been getting on my bike and riding around campus without any particular purpose or destination. Sometimes you just need to get out and let the wind blow through your hair. 

While biking aimlessly around this afternoon after class, I found myself at the Rodin sculpture gardens. 

Sometimes, you find something you didn't even know you were looking for and it's exactly what you needed at that moment.  

When I was in Paris, I used to love going to the Rodin museum, just to walk around the gardens.  

I miss it sometimes. 

It was nice to find a bit of Paris in Palo Alto.

Happy Wednesday.