This is my entry for this week’s (my second, yay!) meme. It’s a sign about the first Catholic church in Nevada. The church is located in Virigina City, Nevada, some 20 miles from Reno. It wouldn’t be enough for just the signage right, so I am posting a photo of the church too.
Exterior of the church.
Interior shot.
THIS WAY THURS WAY is a fun meme to play, just post signs, signage, etc. Go and visit the page.
My Sepia Scenes entry today came from a Memorial Day road trip to the state of Oregon. This is the coastal view somewhere near or about Lincoln, Oregon. It was a rainy, cloudy, and grey and cold day.
I tweaked and twiddled the colored version until it resembled an HDR, which I long to learn soon, then I converted it to regular sepia and voila here was the result. I kinda like it, a bit eerie I thought, but presentable IMHO.
Want more sepia? Get more sepia here.
This is Kirby Cove, up close, a little beach on Marin Headlands. I have yet to climb down to this little beach. May be next time.
It’s that time of the week again to get get. Wanna get cyberwet? Check it out here.
Memorial Day is the unofficial start of the summer around these parts. And in the past it has been our favorite travel time. We started going out around the Memorial Day weekend in 2005 with a road trip to Williams, Arizona (gateway of the Grand Canyon) where we drove for 11 hours from the Bay Area to Las Vegas where we stopped for lunch before driving another 4 hours to reach our destination.
Aerial view of the Grand Canyon and Colorado River
In 2006, we embarked on a Memorial Day weekend road trip to neighboring Oregon with stops at Crater Lake NP, Ashland, Salem, Eugene, Portland, and Multnomah Falls.
Multnomah Falls
The first half of 2007 was especially busy workwise for both hubs and I. We were logging a lot of hours in the office. So, we needed something relaxing for a vacation, not a road trip. Enter a cruise to Alaska with stops at Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. It was one experience I will never ever forget.
Cruising Tracy Arm Fjord
Back to road trip in 2008 with the long awaited drive to explore the scenic Highway 395, Eastern Sierra, where we stopped and explored Reno, Carson City, Viriginia City (all in Nevada), Mammoth Lakes, Mono Lake, Bristlecone Pines State Park, and Yosemite (all in California).
Yosemite Falls
This year however, we are staying home. We have quite a handful in our plates, plus this year we already had two mini vacations, one in February to Vegas (with sidetrips to Grand Canyon and Valley of Fire SP), and a second in April in NYC. So this year, our tradition of going out on Memorial Day weekend is cut short. Here’s hoping we’ll get back to road tripping next year.
As I am writing this on a Sunday night, let me tell you out here in this part of California, its cold. It was breezy and foggy. I told my husband the weather reminded me of a Thanksgiving weekend than Memorial Day weekend. People are walking around in jackets and are very cold. A lady at church age 81 said, well this is California and its cold in May (even summer for that matter, ask any San Fran resident). I spent the whole afternoon snoozing, the weather was just made for that.
MY WORLD is a weekly meme that is brought to us by wonderful people headed by KLAUS. Please go and visit and proably join us.
I found another meme that I can really get into, it’s about signs, road signs, etc. For my initial entry I show you the welcome to alaska marker in the border of Alaska and British Columbia somewhere in the Yukon region.
TWTW is a relatively new meme. To join please click here.
I love the setting for this type of sepia that’s available on my software. But I haven’t yet found a way to remove the “freckles” that seem to appear on the people’s faces when I used that setting. I think I may need to use the “skin smoothing” button as well.
Here’s the face of an expectant mother (photo taken last year, before she was pregnant). Congratulations Timmy, we can’t wait for your baby boy!!!!!
More Sepia Scenes are available here, come join us.
A drive-by shot of Stinson Beach as we are coming in from scenic Highway 1. Always full, this beach is one of most visited in NorCal. Although the beaches of Northern California have cold waters, unlike that of our neighbors in the southern part of the state, that day in summer the water was just cool and not cold, 🙂
You can also read up on Stinson Beach here, here, and here.
Wanna get wet? Visit WATERY WEDNESDAY.
The Bay to Breakers is an annual footrace which takes place in San Francisco, California. The name reflects the fact that the race starts at the northeast end of the downtown area a few blocks from The Embarcadero (adjacent to San Francisco Bay) and runs west through the city to finish at the Great Highway (adjacent to the Pacific coast, where breakers crash onto Ocean Beach). The race is 7.46 miles (12 kilometers) long, and is run on the third Sunday in May. (Wikipedia)
The marathon was held today (Sunday, May 17, 2009). These photos were from last year’s marathon. I did not participate/join/watch this year.
And while this is SF’s version of the other cities marathon (NY, Boston, etc), this footrace is more known around these parts for the totally SF flavor of the participants. Real atheletes, serious participants join every year. But mostly what gets a lot of buzz are the ordinary people who come to join the marathon in costumes, sometimes without costumes at all. Last year, those were not the only two I saw and photographed without costumes.
You know it’s a serious footrace if Elvis had to rise from the grave to join it, right? It wouldn’t be a complete spectacle without the king.
The parade/marathon is filled with college-aged kids in costumes. These people asked to be photographed. I heard this year the organizers/city are banning public intoxication and no nudity. Actually last year newscasters asked people not to come naked as requested by the organizers, but people still came without clothes.
I enjoyed watching last year. I walked with the participants 4 miles to the finish line and another four to get my car which I parked at a McDonald’s parking lot. Eight miles of shooting people, that was fun. But as expected I had a little souvenir from the city of SF on my car’s windshield. Well that was worth the $40 that I had to pay for parking 🙂
Did you enjoy my world? There are plenty more like this one from different parts of the world, all you do is visit MY WORLD for wonderful post all over the world or join the meme yourself.
I’m feeling a bit introspective today. It must be the fact that boredom starts to set in 2.5 hours from quitting time and I have completed my tasks. Or it’s perhaps the year is creeping in on me. In two weeks’ time it is Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer in this country. And yet around here, it seems like the fire season has begun–already the state had seen two fires, one in SB and the other smaller one in Santa Clara County. I thought that there would be a little bit of precipitation coming our way as I spotted some heavy fog rolling in on my commute home last evening. It was just fog and the weather is going to be hot this weekend. We are topping in the 90s. Anyway, a lot of people love those warmer temps. I’ll stay clear of outdoor activities then. I just need to convince hubby to do the same, but I’m sure he’d be one to bask in the glorious warmth.
I was thinking of decluttering my closet. On the floor of my closet is some junk. I don’t know what’s there, but I know I have placed them there for a reason. I just don’t want to investigate what’s gathering dust. Occasionally I would run the vacuum on top of them so the surface dust is removed, but never really had the guts to see what’s there. I just don’t have time to do that. So when I thought of all the junk that we have boxed in the garage, or in the other closets around the house I broached the topic of garage sale to the mister. Over the years we always have been Salvation Army donors. No, we only give away those that are useful and usable. But I haven’t cleaned out a closet in a while so I thought garage sale is a good idea. Hubs shot me down by saying do you think people would love to buy old VCRs? I think we have 3 or 4 of those. Good point. I wouldn’t want to buy one so I would guess no one else would. I think we’ll just wait and dispose of these properly.
Back to almost summer, I haven’t really enjoyed the spring season yet. I think this year has been really busy in some ways. I don’t know where the first few months went, but it’s really outrageous to see all the maple trees filled with their green vibrant leaves. The last time I noticed them was when they were bare and I thought at that time how much I loved their graceful bare limbs. It’s really true what they say about missing something when one blinks. How long did I blink?
With summer comes camping. And husband is a camping aficionado. Okay aficionado is a bit of exaggeration. But he loves to camp. And his friends do too. But they only camp if he organizes it. And last year we were too busy, he had no time to fix it. The year before that he organized a camping for the family, without the friends. So, it’s reasonable that the friends have started to grumble. I don’t know why these people can’t organize a camping trip among themselves and had to wait for hubs to put a trip together. This year, hubs gave in to the demands. He is organizing one. And has told me to put in a vacation request for a certain date so we could go camping. Now, I loved my first camping experience. It was more of a cabining, with the cabin equipped with modern amenities including flush toilet, shower, and AC, only three of the most important things for me.
But what he’s planning is tent camping, sleeping on the ground kind of camping. Not my kind of camping. But I have to try this kind of camping too at least once in my life. And the location of the camp he chose is to my liking. I pretty much would spend a lot of time snapping some photos. I can’t wait. Yeah, now that I’m typing this I believe I am excited to go.
And oh we’re going back for a day trip to Yosemite tomorrow with some friends. I haven’t even posted my summer 2008 Yosemite pics here I am again going to take more shots. Ayayay!
Enjoy the weekend every one.
Because I think I was the only one in the entire blogosphere who didn’t have a post dedicated to the day of Mother’s, I am posting a mother and child for this week’s Sepia Scenes.
I found a quote that rings so true with my mom and no matter how I tell her, we’re all grown, she keeps responding that doesnt count. We are forever her children.
Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that suppose to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing. ~Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987
It’s Sepia Scenes day once again. Click here to view more sepiaspectacular images.
FRANKLY MY DEAR....... 