Bodega Bay: Evening Excursion

Still back in February, Jacques and I spent one amazing weekend over in Bodega Bay (and the surrounding areas).  It was a much-needed mini vacation, seeing as there was a lot of tension throughout our house at the time and we were able to truly enjoy ourselves before some of it played out entirely... but that's another story that I probably (no, definitely) won't share. 

Anyway, I took a lot of photos and it's really difficult to narrow them all down to the select few that I've chosen to share here... and after a while, photos of the beach just tend to all blur together and look the same, so I've picked ones that have something unique about them.  So get ready to be taken to the shores of Doran Beach in Bodega Bay, where we spent some time during our first night upon arrival.

But first... there was no way I was not going to get a picture of this... "The Birds Cafe" which refers to the classic 1963 Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds, that was filmed in this town.

Capturing a couple of cyclists, along with another couple enjoying their evening at the beach

So this doesn't have anything unique in it, but I just liked this view of the waves.

Some birds at Doran Beach... fortunately, they did not attack!

Catching a seagull in mid-flight!

Just some tracks in the sand that I found interesting for a photo opp.

Possibly my very favorite photo out of the bunch, with the adorable pup heading towards the water.  His name was Diesel, a 4 month old mastiff and he was so very sweet!

Catching some surfers walking across the shore... this is probably my 2nd favorite.

Jacques and I! ♥

Capturing the beginnings of the sunset across a picnic table.

Just a little boat seen way out in the distance.

And after we were done exploring the beach (and also quickly running out of daylight), we stopped here for dinner.  The menu consisted of mostly seafood that I don't eat (I was hoping they had salmon, but was disappointed), but I can say that their fish and chips were delicious!  

Please excuse my awkward pointing skills... -blushes-

Stay tuned for my next post, which will cover our full day in the area: driving around capturing the beautiful views, a short stop at a gorgeous winery and playing in the redwoods! =]

Valentine's in the Snow

Ah, so sorry that I keep making empty promises with this blog!  I really did have good intentions though.  Life seems to just get spontaneously busy for me these days, specifically weekends.  But I'm forcing myself to use any and all extra time to put together some posts. =]

Starting with our day trip back in February, on Valentine's Day to be exact, when Jacques took me up to Donner's Pass to play in the snow as my present!  He knows how much I adore snow and how disappointed I get that there's absolutely none that ever falls where we live, so it was the perfect gift for me.  We drove even further up to Reno, Nevada as well, but the snow was really the highlight of the drive for me.

Starting the day off with a picture of the early morning sun shining from behind the clouds.  This was taken in a small city along the Sacramento River, across from the Ryde Hotel.

First real view of the snow!  Or at least the first time we stopped the car to get out and take photos!

Couldn't resist getting a photo with this beautiful background!

And finally, here we are at a little rest area in Donner's Pass.  We were able to play around in the snow here for a bit.

The snow piled up against the visitor's center...

Me standing in a hole!

Slightly ominous-looking trees in the snow.

Jacques & I taking a break from playing!

Even more ominous trees!

Christmas 2015, 6 months later...

First off, sorry to sound like a broken record AGAIN... but I'm way too backed up on my photoblog posts!  I am really going to try to keep up with them for the remainder of this year, by actually making myself set aside some time to write up my posts and scheduling them out (as a start, since I have about 5 posts I need to get done!).  I know exactly what my problem is, regarding getting them done.  For one thing, I'm a huge procrastinator... and another, I work all day on my laptop, which means I sit in front of the computer screen for at least 6-8 hours a day, and by the time I'm done with work, I really don't want to spend any more time on the computer, so I leave it for the weekend or something and then my weekend gets spontaneously busy and the process repeats itself over and over.  I'm going to break that habit, I promise!

Anyway... so that's why I'm posting my photos from Christmas, in June. ;]

Capturing the calm before the "chaos" :)

Playing around with my new Nikon's focus settings, with a pretty ornament!

And again, this time with a portion of garland wrapped around the tree.

My mom and I! <3  (She doesn't like this photo of her, but it was the best we got of the two of us)

The best we could get of all of us!
Aidan was already getting a bit fussy at this point, because he just wanted to eat his goldfish. =P

Cute capture of an adorable little family! <3

Alameda Beach

So, on the last day of 2015, Jacques and I decided to travel out to Alameda Beach just south of Oakland for about an hour.  We had an ulterior motive for being out that way, but I wanted to use the time to get used to my brand new Nikon DSLR camera that I'd gotten for Christmas.  So that's where this little mini-trip came into play.  I would have liked to stay and walk around longer but life doesn't give me every little thing that I want.  Hah.

Anyway, I'll jump right into the photos!  I love this camera!

Starting out with a view of all of the footprints in the sand...

Official sign that we came across a little further down the trail.

Of course, I couldn't leave without insisting on a photo of us! :)

Blurry, but I liked how I caught the sun in this one!