The spider’s web revealed by drops of dew

The final week of the year is always a good one because it often begins with Nik’s Birthday and ends with Christmas and days off of work. This year was unique because we chose to stay in San Francisco for the holidays and celebrate on our own for the first time. It was hard not to be with our larger families, but perfect because we got to spend so much time together.

Monday afternoon, Nik’s birthday, we took a walk along Land’s End to check out the rock labyrinth before beginning the process of building a Lego VW Bus. Nik has been talking about both the bus and the Mini for a few months, so it was only appropriate that he receive one of them for his 35th birthday! The bus is easily the most complex set he has yet, and it took well over 3 hours to complete with both of us working on it. We did have dinner reservations at Aziza, so we had to take a break to refuel.

Half way to 70

The coast line

On Tuesday, we rented a car and drove up to Tahoe to stay at Sorensen’s. It is a little slice of heaven near South Lake Tahoe in Hope Valley that we have been going to for the past 3 years. Each year we have rented a different cabin, and this year’s, Creekside, was the best. It is a single room log cabin with a small kitchenette and a cast iron wood burning stove. We had a hard time regulating the temperature because it got so hot and we could not resist throwing another log on.

Creekside

We spent two full days (Christmas Eve & Christmas Day) and three nights in Hope Valley. We played cards, cooked dinner, went skiing/snowboarding, put together puzzles, listened to throw-back CDs from my high school years, built sled runs, watched the snow fall, read books, failed at getting chains for the rental car and had a blast. It was the perfect winter getaway, and one of the best parts is that we came back on Friday and still have a whole weekend before going back to work.

The small one among giants

Whaler’s Bay in Pt Lobos State Park

Since I last posted I have mostly been working, but I have also had a few spare days here and there to wander around California, skip over to South Carolina to surf the waves with my family, hang out at the ranch in Montana with the whole Johnke clan, see a couple friends get hitched in Malaysia, pass along a handmade to two of the coolest people I know, and even made an origami star for our home made christmas tree.

I have also been without a camera of my own for a little over two years now since my Canon G9 decided to quit, and that just changed. An Olympus D-10 now happily resides in my purse whenever we take long walks or hop on planes. I’m excited because the image quality is definitely better…but the photographer is a little rusty. I’m making rookie mistakes of using the wrong ISO, forgetting about white balance, composing frames awkwardly, and generally taking crappy photos. My goal is to carry it around more often…so we’ll see!

In the meantime, here are a few photos from the past year or so.

Buffalo in Yellowstone

The spectators at Old Faithful – June 2013

At the top of Heavenly – February 2014

The Pacific

Katie & Gregg – Christmas Eve 2013 (Photo by Nik)

N – June 2013

This place