Saturday, September 26, 2009

Missing Autumn


For the past several days, I've been dreaming of fall. Apple-picking and pumpkin patches and of hills covered in red-garbed maples. Dreams of bundling up in a warm sweater and corduroy pants and getting lost in a good old fashioned corn maze. The midwesterner in me always comes out with a vengeance in the fall, because as much as I love California, fall never feels like autumn to me here. This is my 4th fall living here, and this is the closest I've ever found to the midwestern autumn colors in my heart:

This was taken last year in Lake Tahoe, somewhere near Emerald Bay. It's lovely -- the yellow aspens against the brilliant blue of the sky. In fact, I'm planning a trip to the Sierras in a couple weeks to enjoy the lovely weather again. (Anyone want to recommend where's best in October -- Tahoe, Yosemite, or Sequoia / Kings Canyon?) But, still, I'm lonely right now for home and the paintbox autumns of my childhood.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 5


Enjoyed a lot of sunsets:

San Francisco, Land's End, June:

At an Oakland A's Game, June: (Fun game, lousy baseball stadium)

May Lake, Yosemite, July:

On the Trinity River, July: (My first time whitewater rafting!):

Lower Sunrise Lake, Yosemite, August:

Cathedral Lake, Yosemite, August:

Glen Arbor, Michigan. August: (The view from the porch of my parent's Lake Michigan beach house)

Lake Michigan, Glen Arbor, September:
(Don't know the guy fishing, but he sure does add to the picture, huh?)

Oh yeah, and lest you think I'm never home (Ken, I'm totally looking at you!), Right outside my own front door.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

What I did on my summer vacation, part 4






Went hiking and in love all over again with the brilliant sunlit green of midwestern woods. Don't get me wrong, I love love love the California out doors, but we just don't have the same kind of gorgeous hardwood forests here.



I only wish I hadn't been too early for fall colors. The brilliant red orange yellow against deep blue sky of a Michigan October day has always and will always take my breath away.


Also, remembered just how gorgeous Lake Michigan is.


Especially seen from the top of a crazy steep sand dune in the middle of the woods.


What I did on my summer vacation, Part 3

Oh, and did I mention the jumping?


Monday, September 14, 2009

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 2


Made other people jump, too.


My sister, Dana:



My dad (jumping for apples):


Dorian:



(Aren't they all good sports, indulging my new-found joy in jumping pictures?)

Monday, September 7, 2009

Molten Lake

On vacation with the family in Northern Michigan right now. I've been spending a lot of time NOT at my computer, looking at scenery like this. Just lovely.