Echo Mountain

My week off of work has been nice. I have been mostly painting the hallway today and yesterday, cleaning and organizing a bit too. And when I'm not motivated to do something I just relax. It's quite nice and the time seems to fly by. Tomorrow I'm planning on hiking the Boney Mountain trail with my friend Michelle.

On Sunday I hiked up to Echo Mountain. This is one of my favorite hikes, I really should do it more often. It's a great workout with a remarkable reward at the top. The trail is about 2-3' wide the whole time, which means the dogs do better on the leash. Round trip it totals just under 6 miles and takes about 2.5 hours. It's at the top of Lake Ave. in Pasadena. Here are some pictures from the hike:

The view from the top of Echo Mountain (the ocean was beautiful!)

The ruins are of this house, that was burned down.
There was a railway that went from this house down to Pasadena:

The ruins:

This panorama didn't turn out that great as I don't have my software for panoramas with me, but you can get the idea pretty well:

Friday's Photo of the Week #46

Photo of the week:

We took the pups up Brand Library park hike after weeks of rain. It was BEAUTIFUL!
Here's a photo that Sam took of me with the dogs:

Christmas time

The past few weeks have been busy. I went to AZ and saw my brother graduate from ASU:

My parents:

I'm so proud of him. He's seriously so talented.

He graduated in a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The lights were awesome:

Before I left for AZ, I took some family photos for my friends Andy, Danny and Zoey:

And I got to spend a lot of time with my niece and nephew, which was a blast:

(Last week's photo of the week:)

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Travel

So I missed my "Friday photo of the week" last week. First week in almost a year, I guess it was bound to happen. I left Thursday for AZ and watched my brother graduate from ASU on Friday! SO proud of him, he is very talented in broadcasting and editing videos.

Anyway, I've been away from the internet for 5 days (which is why I couldn't post my weekly photo). It was much harder than I thought it would be, and I have way too much to catch up on. I got back from AZ last night. It was a really tough drive with all the rain and fog, but we got home safe. Celebrating Christmas a week early is actually pretty great because I'm really looking forward to relaxing and catching up on the usual for the next week and a half. Stay-cation! Lots of organizing, hiking (if it stops raining!), movie-watching and tea-drinking. And Sam's planning on cooking a ham for Christmas dinner!

Tonight I'm headed to the Hotel Cafe for The Hopelessly Devoted's rockabilly Christmas set @ 9:30pm. Really looking forward to it! Feel free to come out also! Should be fun.

I'll be posting some pictures soon. In the mean time, enjoy this Christmas song that my friends Nick and Jonathan wrote:

Glendale/Burbank Hike: Brand Park

At the northwest corner of Brand Library Park, just past the Doctor's House, is a wonderful little trail that goes up the southeast side of Verdugo Mountain to result in an incredible view of Burbank and surrounding areas. I just walked up for 30 minutes, snapped this picture with my phone, and walked back down. I even saw a bobcat! Crazy!! Thankfully both dogs were on leashes at the time.

Friday's Photo of the Week #45

This has been a fun week overall, but I got sick again. Luckily this time it isn't lasting as long and wiping me out as much as the last virus.

But even through the sickness, I put up Christmas lights outside (the cheesy multi-colored big bulbs) and we got a tree and decorated it last night with my niece and nephew! My sister-in-law's family is in town visiting for a few days. I love playing with the kiddos! Within 5 minutes of getting home Audrey was out of her first princess dress doing somersaults naked and riding around on my back while we ate pizza. Amazing how much energy these kids have! It was a perfect end to the night: cuddling with the kids and the dogs watching Pixar flicks. :)

Photo of the week:

Friday's Photo of the Week #44

Photo of the Week: A beautiful display of mountains!

Taken from the plane to Vegas for our company Christmas party yesterday.

We are back in L.A. today and we got a lot done in a few hours. Sam installed the flooring in our hallway while I cleaned out the garage and the patio and organized the house a bit, ultimately so that I could make space for a Christmas tree. I'm hoping we can decorate this weekend, but we'll see. It's a busy one...

Also, since I couldn't resist posting a few more photos, here are a couple of my favorite from the Verdugo Mountain hike this past Sunday. There will also be some panoramas to come. It was incredibly clear and beautiful!

COTTON!

DOWNTOWN!

THE LOS ANGELINOS!

Winchester Mystery House and Oakland Museum

I've been enjoying trying to get artistic photos lately, and also been reading about the Fibonacci ratio (1.618...). Not all the photos below have the "Divine Proportion" but it is neat to see how the ones that do are more pleasing to the eye than those that do not. Here's a few photos from my trip up north that are just for fun:

We went to the Winchester Mystery House:

WHITE

ORANGE

RED

YELLOW

GREEN

Let me know if you have a favorite picture!

Telegram: We Come And Go

Sam's band's most recent EP (3 songs) just came out. Take a listen!

Some Family Photos from Thanksgiving

The newest family member, Genevieve, our relatives David and Sarah's daughter.

She is just so freakin adorable.

Sam, my man, cooked an incredible Thanksgiving dinner. I am so spoiled. :) His band also just released some more music and I am so proud of him. It really is incredible stuff:
Telegram for you sir... take a listen! :)
My brother Robbie (on the right) is in his first year of college and just got offered a full ride to University of AZ next year for baseball!!

Sam with Jenni's dog, Roxy:

My brothers, Robbie and Jonny. Jonny, the one making the funny face, is graduating from AZ State University in 2 weeks with a degree in Broadcasting. He is an incredible video editor and broadcaster. He works with the sports programs at ASU and his videos are featured at main events and online.

My relatives: Sarah and Dave, the proud parents of little Genevieve!

One of my relatives, Kaitlyn. Such a beautiful girl!

And some more family, the beautiful Emily and her mom Jennifer. Jennifer and my mom are cousins.

My twin sister, Jenni. She works for a non-profit that helps teach high school students in low-income neighborhoods financial literacy. She was the lead writer for their curriculum that just got published: FutureProfits. What a difference she's making in the world!

And me posing with the dogs, as a dog.

We went to the Oakland Museum (mostly for the Pixar exhibit which was incredible!)
So much fun. We've also been to Pixar studios in Emeryville together, so it was really inspiring to see all the artwork.

Hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings with family and friends!
Now, who's ready to celebrate CHRISTMAS!! ;)