Journey to the Point

This entry is a little late...it has been waiting in my draft box for about two weeks not.  But better late than never. ;)



Point Reyes



Here we are in week 2 of the 2011 and I'm proud to say that I'm still in my creative state of mind.  Meaning, and I am still being creative everyday.  Now even though it has only been 11 days into the year I've already encountered an obstacle that upset my piece of mind one night.  But the next day I realized it was a blessing in disguise...

Here it was Tuesday, January 4th and I decided I was going to make Faustino's mom a draft dodger for her door.  And what to my surprise happens... my sewing machine isn't working.  I thought it was user error, so I took out the useless stitches, tried to figure out the issue and tried again.  Only to encounter that it still wasn't working.  Finally after 3-4 times of using my seam ripper and trying again I gave up.  Now the reason this was a blessing in disguise: the sewing machine in its brilliance was telling me I needed to finish other projects that I had started but never got around to completing.  This makes me laugh because: I'm exactly like my grandmother and I am the first to admit it.  Now I love my grandmother and she was a great woman but she, like everyone else, had her faults:

1. Starting projects but never fully completing all of them (75% of them yes, but to this day my mom and I find projects she started and never finished - that's a lot for the amount of space she had to be creative).
2. She was a pack-rat.

I posses both of these qualities.  I have started many projects but never fully completed them.  And I love to keep everything and anything.  For example - my mom and I are in the process of cleaning my grandmother's craft room and what do I decide to do...take material and anything else that I might (big MIGHT) use and store it until Faustino tells me its time for me to go through my stuff and reorganize or toss. Though I hate to do it he's right.

But enough about the background, I want to talk about the fun stuff.  I have a few projects on my list (to once and for all complete):

1. Scarf for Faustino
2. Scrapbook of the year I spent in studying and exploring Spain (5 long years overdue)
3. Old sewing projects

During the week, I have diligently worked on the first item.  I'm expecting to be done by the end of the month.  Yay!  But of course, I'll keep you updated.  On the weekend, I try to explore my other creative activities such as photography...

The need to explore this area we call home (Bay Area) took Faustino and I took Point Reyes on Saturday.  I had heard on the news that we would be able to catch glimpses of the grey whales migrating south.  And I was not disappointed.  After a two hour drive we made it to shuttle bus that would take us to the Lighthouse where the whales would be waiting.  Unfortunately we were not able to see the whales' bodies because contrary to my hopes the whales didn't jump out of the water upon my arrival. We did however see spouts and fins.  And let me tell you, it was enough to make the drive worth it.  After 15-20 minutes of spout watching we decided we would make the trek back up the 302 steps to the path.

After the long trek (even though it was only 302 steps it was still long), we decided to go on a 3-mile hike.  And what we found was great scenery, a peaceful walk and a fantastic day together.  With photos to document. :)

What would a day trip be without me insisting that we take a photo together on our hike.  He says he puts up with it, but I think he secretly enjoys all the photos I take of us.


Faustino and I on our hike

And of course I learned something new...Seals are called cows, bulls and pups.

Cows, bulls and pups down in the middle

And what would the day be without some fog?  I loved every bit of the fog, even the cool weather.  And, I enjoyed photographing it.

Fog along the coast

Finally, after 5 hours at Point Reyes we decided to head home.  We had a great time but we were exhausted.  I got some good shots in, enjoyed a nice hike, learned something new and went whale watching.  What an exhilarating Saturday it was.

And the creativity starts...Adventures in making Coffee Cake

January 2, 2011 - Adventures in making Coffee Cake

I will start by admitting that I'm not a cook.  A couple of years ago I would have even went so far as to say that I hated cooking.  Besides Faustino is good at cooking so who am I to stand in his way.  But as time would go by he started complaining more and more informing me that he wanted me to try my hand at making dinner.  And since then, I have and I've even improved my cooking skills.

But that is cooking and we're now talking about baking!  I've always liked baking, but was never great at it.  Then some how in the past couple of years I decided to take up baking again here and there.  And by Christmas 2009 I was even confident enough to bake massive amounts of goodies and hand them out as presents to my family (they were awesome by the way).  It was definitely a step up from my thought of never stepping foot into a kitchen to make any kind of food for someone other than myself.

Anyhoo, I had planned on starting 2011 by making Country Living's Crunchy Coffee Cake.  Haha that didn't happen.  I was too tired and of course I needed milk and my kitchen was dry.  Moving forward one day...January 2, 2011.  I rested all day before so I didn't have an excuse to postpone my planned breakfast that I had promised Faustino and Megan.

Everything was going great until I had to start making the crumble that goes on top...Cake Flour?!?  What the hell is cake flour and where do I get it?  Store.  No way, I wasn't going back there, I was in my pjs and I intended to stay that way.  Looking like a raggamuffin and all.  Screw it.  I'm using regular flour.  And you're supposed to cut the butter in the mixture, but that was too much work for me.  I had the mixer out from cake portion so I decided to be lazy and mix in the butter and thought nothing more of it.

Until I laid the topping on the cake and thought that doesn't look right.  Oh well, into bake it goes.  20 minutes later and this is what comes out...

Now I'm not an expert but I know this doesn't look right.  Megan took one look at it and then the recipe and knew that I didn't cut the butter in like I was supposed to.  Whoops.  Well, I guess that's what I get for cutting corners and not following directions: ugly coffee cake.  We ate it anyway, because I had promised coffee cake.  And you know what?  It tasted great.  Maybe next time I'll follow the recipe a little closer and I'll have a better looking meal and thus a better photo op. 



Coffee & Cake :)

Here's to a Fruitful 2011

Here's to a great 2011 with the one and only

What would life be without my two big brothers?

Megan and I
getting ready to head out on the town

After spending a great New Years Eve with my family (my brothers Nick and Justin, my one and only Faustino, and my irreplaceable Megan), I'm starting to look forward again.  And as I said last year, I'll say it again this year...I'm excited about the New Year and whats coming.  Last year I had plans, and while some of them fanned out others fell short...very short.  This year, however is going to be different.  For one thing, as of yesterday around 2 we unplugged our cable.  Not only did we cancel the cable (actually we cancelled it in August they just continued streaming it to us for free) we actually unplugged the cable cord.  This means that if we turn on the tv we see static/white noise.  Yay!  This is a new step for me and I'm stoked with what this will mean for me.  That being said this is what it will mean...

More creativity:

A week ago I decided I wanted a challenge.  I wasn't sure what kind of challenge I wanted but I knew that I needed something where I would be held accountable.  Accountable to myself.  And what did I find but...Creative Every Day Challenge.  Now this seemed PERFECT.  I had wanted to be more creative for months but hadn't had the drive to do anything after a long day of work...especially since the tv was right there waiting for me to turn it on.  With the tv turned off, it will give me more incentive to find other things to do with my spare time.  Like finishing the scrapbook I started last year for my year abroad or sewing projects I had started in my teens and recently.  So among other small "resolutions" for the year, this is my goal.  I want to be creative every day whether it be finishing my knitting projects, completing new sewing ideas or taking pictures.  This year will be a year of putting my creativity to the test.  I'm putting myself to the test.  And I'm looking forward to the challenge.  And of course, I'm going to try to maintain my blog along the way, blogging about the adventures in creativity I'm having.

Keep coming back for a great year of great creativity.

Beginning to see that Southwestern Flare...Day 3

Day 3
Sunday, October 3

 We started off day 3 well rested.  Sleeping in a bed for more than 4 hours was awesome!  We awoke at 8 or 9 and it was already warm out.  I could get used to Arizona weather in October, but the summer weather would deter me.  Though we would only be spending half a day in Tucson, Shelly was planning on making those 6 hours eventful.

We started the morning off by heading to Sabino Canyon which was only a 10 minute drive from Shelly's house.  We took a tour up and down the main road (we were too lazy and didn't have enough time to do the 7 mile round trip hike).  The tour offered some good background info on the Canyon and the area.  One cool fact that we learned was that the cactus (pictured below) don't grow their first side arm until they are about 80 years old.  Crazy!

Sabino Canyon

 

One eyed tiki man

Cactus older than 80 years

Snoopy on top of his house

Faustino and I at the top of the tour

Shelly and I

 It was a beautiful day and it was a beautiful area.  I'm glad that we got to go and see a different part of Tucson.  They even had a couple funny signs (below).

Showing what could happen when riding your bike across the bridge

After Sabino Canyon we went to Shelly's old apartment complex to use the pool and lay around.  Couldn't have asked for better weather to lay around under the sun.  Honestly - relaxing by the pool was just what we needed after two long days of driving. 

Finally our stomachs were starting to growl and football was on (it was Sunday of course).  We headed to Sir Veza's Taco Garage for what else but tacos and beer.  $2 Bud Lights to be exact.  Awesome!  We sat outside under the mister, drank beer, ate chips and salsa and watched football while we waited for our food.  Our food arrived and my shrimp tacos were delicious.  :)

After watching the 49ers lose, we headed back to Shelly's to pack up our stuff.  After a quick goodbye and thank yous, we were on the road once again.  Next destination: Las Cruces, NM.  But not before taking a photo with the cowboy pictured below.

Ahh, don't shoot!

Faustino was the driver for day 3 - my legs needed rest.  And in no time we were crossing the border into New Mexico.  The Land of Enchantment should be known as the Land of Great food!

After the jump forward (time zone change) and 4 or so hours of driving, we made it to our campsite in Las Cruces.  We set-up our tent, made dinner and were in our makeshift bed by 9pm.  We were even far enough out of town that the stars were illuminating the skies.  But soon enough our eyelids were heavy and we were out.

Thought on Day 3: Tucson was cuter than I had originally expected.  I didn't think I would care for it much, but the styles of houses showed that there was a lot more culture there than I had originally thought.  Even the cookie cutter houses weren't so typical.  They each had the southwestern flare that I was so excited to see.  It was great seeing Shelly and she showed us a good amount in what little time we had together.  We were even able to relax which is exactly what we needed by Day 3.

Battling Thunderstorms from the Grand Canyon to Heart Attack Grill all the way to Tucson...Day 2

Day 2
Saturday, October 2

Day 2 started off earlier than I normally get up...4:15am that is.  Now, I'm used to waking up 6-7am with an alarm.  So I was astonished when I actually woke up on my own at 4:15am (I accidentally set my alarm for 4pm) after only going to sleep a measly 4 hours earlier.  Faustino and I made it to our car by about 4:30am after stumbling to get our stuff ready to go.  When we went to open the door with the clicker we realized something was wrong.  Either the clicker was broken or the battery was dead because it wasn't unlocking!!!  What the...  Its only our second day and our car is not working.  This can't be happening.  After about 2 seconds, I tried the car and you guessed it...our battery was DEAD.  Kaput.  Beyond life.  Again...this can't be happening.  Oh no, what do we do?  I'll call a tow truck so they can jump it...  Wait a moment, why do that if I can call Jackie and have her jump our car.  She couldn't have fallen asleep that quickly, we only just left moments before.  Jackie's phone's dead...what the???  So I ran back to her apartment, knocked on the door and yes she was still awake.  So after about 10 minutes of giving juice to the car, we were finally able to start the car.  And phew, we were on the road by 5am.  But boy was that nerve wracking.  It had all the signs of ruining our trip.  And I'm too much of a control freak that I would have let it drag me down for the next 10 days.  But luckily that wasn't the case.

So here we are, on our way out of LA and everything is going smoothly, until wait for it.  We missed the exit to the connecting freeway and didn't realize it for about half an hour.  Faustino's sleeping because he needs to sleep (running on 6 hours of sleep for two days isn't healthy you know).  FAUSTINO!  Wake up!!!  Where are we, we missed the exit.  Do we go back or keep going?  Luckily, Faustino with his dreary eyes found that we would hit another freeway that would continue to take us to the Grand Canyon.  Phew!  Relieved to say the least.  Hopefully we'll only lose an hour or so.  And that is probably all we lost being that I was driving fast and there wasn't any traffic because who is up at 5am on a Saturday to go to the Grand Canyon anyway.  Me...us.  We're that crazy, yes we are.

View from the road on the way to the Grand Canyon

Driving in the Mojave Dessert

 Driving through the Mojave desert was the most beautiful site I had seen (but each day as you will see, I saw many beautiful things).  It was so desolate which made it even more pretty.  Anyhoo, as we were driving, I saw ahead of me a massive amount of rain.  In a couple moments I would be driving through a rain shower so heavy I could only see 10-15 feet in front of me.  And then a few minutes later we were out of it and it was bright as day.  And there we were in the Mojave Desert again with nothing around us but hills and land.

So after about 5 hours of driving and finally getting to the Arizona border I ask Faustino to drive.  I need a break and he's awake.  Driving through northern Arizona was nice and fast (I feel like we have the slowest speed limit in the U.S.). 

Getting into Arizona, obviously

We only had about an hour left to go before we got to the Grand Canyon and what did we see in front of us?!?  More rain and gray skies.  Though some think its dismal, it was spectacular to me. 

Rain on the car

Then lightning!!!  I loved seeing and looking for all the lightning coming down.  Little did I know, that lightning would follow us through most of our trip. :)

Lightning seen on our way to the Grand Canyon

Finally after several hours of driving we get to the Grand Canyon!  Woo hoo!  We finally made it.  It was still raining when we arrived but it wasn't too cold or windy.  We decided to pack our cameras and go for a hike which was only a little more than a sprinkle.  When I saw my first ever live view of the Canyon I was amazed.  So amazed that my mouth dropped and Faustino had to tell me to close it (haha).  At the beginning of our hike, we only saw 2 other people.  20 minutes into the hike, the rain stopped and it was a nice day with mist covering the Canyon.  Soon there were 20 people and then 200 (okay maybe not 200 but still, many more people started showing up).  We were able to take a nice slow hike, taking pictures and we were able to really just enjoy the moment.  We weren't there to be professional hikers, we weren't there to build up a sweat, we were merely there to enjoy the scenery and be amazed by what this world truly has to offer.


Faustino and I

Faustino enjoying the view

Photo by me...

After revelling in the immenseness of what the Grand Canyon is, we bought a couple hot chocolates and decided to be on our way.  Our next stop: Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, Arizona.  Let me start this part off by saying that we are huge lovers of a good burger.  That paired with Faustino seeing an article about the Heart Attack Grill on msn.com and it was settled.  He had wanted to visit this restaurant since he saw the article over a year ago, so what better time to do it when we are on our way through Arizona.  Off we went to Chandler.  We had 3 or so hours to drive and we needed to get to the restaurant by 8:30pm.  We were making great time, we'd be there by 7:30-8pm.  But of course everything in the world said nope you aren't going because as soon as we got to Phoenix we hit traffic, then once we got off on our exit we made a wrong turn, and finally our car was saying that we had such little gas that if we kept going we'd die right there in the middle of the street.  But I pushed it, Faustino wanted to go and even though he said it would be okay that we didn't I wanted to make it there for him.  I'm controlling but I like to see other people happy too.  We turned the car around, and made it to the Grill about 5 minutes before they shut down the kitchen!  Woo hoo, we would have our lard cooked french fries after all.  And I must say, that even though the women are dressed in tacky and demeaning outfits (think Hooters), the restaurant is filled with cheesy decor (again think Hooters), and it could give me a heart attack, despite all of that...the burgers were awesome!  They were indeed superb.  I wouldn't go again but I enjoyed the experience.

Faustino in the hospital gown and wrist band provided by the Heart Attack Grill

From Chandler, after getting gas that is, we drove down to Tucson.  And as soon as we got back on the road the lightning started up again.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, it was so beautiful.  And each time the lightning struck down I smiled.  The 1.5 hour drive to Tucson was quick and we made it Shelly's house and hopped into the shower.  That night we went to a place called the Sky Bar in the hills of Tucson with Shelly and her roommate Allison.  We had a couple of tall beers and caught up on each other's lives.  It was great seeing Shelly since I haven't seen her in a year and the likelihood of me seeing her before Kiersten's wedding next August are slim to none.

After closing down the bar at 2:15am, we headed back to Shelly's.  Faustino and I passed out shortly thereafter, seeing as it had been the longest day (22 hours that is).  Once our heads hit the pillow the lights were out.  What a great day!

Lesson from Day 2:  Never think just because you're only listening to music for about a half an hour the night before that your car won't start.  It doesn't take THAT long for your battery to die.  And if you have an instinct from the night before that the battery is losing life, don't dismiss it.  You don't want to wind up in the streets at 4:30am with a dead battery and an 8 hour drive ahead of you.  Word to the wise...

Thought on Day 2:  I loved sharing the Grand Canyon experience with Faustino.  It was both our first time seeing such an incredible place.  I felt like a kid again, so naive.  But this time I had some knowledge about the world being bigger and more remarkable than I could have imagined.

San Leandro to Santa Monica to Brentwood to Burbank. Oh what a day...1

Day 1
Friday, October 11

The Road Trip (RT) started out like any other...driving to get to destination and I drove from San Leandro to West L.A. while Faustino slept because he worked the night shift thus needing to sleep.  I've never driven down south so this would be interesting.  Luckily it was pretty smooth because we left at 11am on Friday.  I'm sure my driving 90mph didn't hurt either.

The view of the grapevine

 After driving the grapevine (my first time), we made it to the LA area by about 3pm.  But because my friend was still working we decided to head to Santa Monica.  Despite being stuck in traffic, we made it to the pier. I'm typically not a big fan of the huge tourist spots.  But this was nice, especially because 10-20 helicopters decided to fly over the pier about twenty minutes after we arrived.  Because Faustino has great eyesight he saw them first from far away (I thought they were birds, haha).  Within minutes they were overhead and louder than I could of imagined.  I don't think they typically fly over the pier on Friday afternoon so it was a nice treat to start our trip.

One of the helicopters overhead

 We then walked around, enjoyed the pier and some fries in the nice weather.  Even took some pictures to share.  Couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

At the Santa Monica Pier

 After playing on the swings and feeling sick, we went to Jackie's in the Brentwood area.  Drank a beer, waited for a couple friends and then headed out to Burbank.  

Jackie, Faustino and I at her apartment

Beer Jackie sells at work

At the Big Boy's in Burbank we went to the car show that they have every Friday night.  We got to see boat loads of cars (hehe).

Of course I had to take a picture with the yellow boat. :)

Not supposed to touch the cars.

With Big Boy

The ladies with Big Boy

After walking around looking at cars for an hour or two we decided to go eat at an Italian restaurant down the street.  Food was superb and the beer was good.  They even had a little club in the back called "The Lounge" or something similar.  The DJ wasn't great at mixing and the music selection wasn't very good, so needless to say it was a little lame.  There was about 10 people who must have stayed from dinner because no one in their sound mind would have gone to this place on a Friday night just to go.  Unless they were getting free drinks.  Overall, we would go again to have dinner but not to listen to the music.  We finally decided to call it a night around midnight, seeing that Faustino and I had to get up early for the next day's adventures.

Thought about day 1: The drive wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I was able to drive calmly while listening to music and letting Faustino nap.  The weather was beautiful and it was a great way to start the trip.  Can't wait for day 2. :)

Soul-searching, gut-wrenching trips

For me there are two different types of trips.  There are the trips/vacations which are mindless and they're meant to be that way.  Meaning that during these trips you aren't trying to determine the meaning of life on earth.  For me these type of trips tend to be quick getaways to places like Vegas where life is so fast you don't think about whats going on in the world or they're to the beach somewhere because you're trying to getaway from everyone and everything.  Essentially I call these breather vacations.  These trips are usually nice and they help you relax.  Though, I definitely enjoy them, they don't tend to be fulfilling to me, they are basically just an easy way to escape reality.

Then there are those soul-searching and sometimes gut-wrenching trips.  These trips are journeys and adventures.  They are the things life-long memories are made of.  These tend to be the stories you tell with a wide smile on your face a big chuckle in your heart.  These experiences can open your heart and mind past what you ever thought possible.  They tend to offer a lot of firsts.  Like the first time stopping on a busy highway, putting on the hazard lights just to get a picture with the "Welcome to Arizona" sign meanwhile trucks and cars are honking to cheer you on. ;)  Or they are a first time to a country completely different from your own, with a culture unlike any that you've ever encountered.  Even more so, these trips often put your life into perspective.  You have deep conversations with both yourself and other people.  And generally, they are life altering and they mold the rest of your life.  Sometimes these trips start out as the first type and quickly change into the second and other times you know from the get that they will be both soul-searching and gut-wrenching.  Not because you  plan it to be that way you just have this feeling that it will.

Sometimes you have to be a little crazy ;)

In my short life of 25 years, I have been blessed to have two to three soul-searching trips.  Trips that had an awing effect on me.  And that my friends is how my eleven day road trip started out.  I knew it was going to be great but about an hour into the drive with Faustino sleeping in the passenger seat and me thinking, I had this feeling that this was going to be a lot more than I had anticipated.  And I welcomed it.

On the road in Wyoming

Please continue to stop by my blog over the next few weeks as I will be adding photos (above is just a glimpse at what was taken), captions and stories from my wonderful adventure!