Weekend Getaway: Santa Cruz

I had a wonderful time in Santa Cruz with some friends this past weekend. Though the weather was not as balmy as expected, a bunch of the crew enjoyed surfing (bottom images; those aren't seals!!) and I got some great cafe/reading time in, as well as a nice walk on the beach. I also got a chance to try some new iPhone apps; in the image above I used Photo Frame Maker to create the collage and Phonto to add the text. Pretty fun! The finale to the weekend was a concert by the Shins, one of my all time fave bands. It was great to finally see them live!

29 years

I was so fortunate to grow up with three great friends, from the very beginning of my life. We were all born within a month of one another...I spent a lonely first month of life before they followed, and since our parents knew each other we were friends from the start! After high school we have scattered around the country, but try to catch up when we can. A few weeks ago we spent a long weekend together in Steamboat Springs, CO, enjoying good food, local art, tubing down the Yampa river, and even the grand tasting at the Steamboat wine festival!

H & H celebrated their birthday yesterday, and A will tomorrow, so I thought a happy birthday post right in the middle would be appropriate.  Thanks, you three, for 29 years of friendship!

Cabin Getaway

Last weekend, I flew to Minnesota to join my college friends for a weekend away at a cabin in Wisconsin. We had the best time! When I arrived, the girls in the first car had decorated the cabin and set up a complete surprise party for my birthday.  I was totally surprised! From there, the weekend included lot of swimming, sun-bathing, cocktail sipping, nail painting, boating, reading, game-playing, and just plain quality time with some of my favorite people (who I don't see often enough!). 

I feel so fortunate to have the means to travel, and to have so many amazing ladies in my life. 

Hope we can do it again next year!

Life moves so...

Doesn't it??? Until you are forced to slow down, that is-- I'm sitting at the airport waiting for a delayed flight, and noticing that I finally feel I can take a breath and just SIT for a minute. I'm so excited to be slowing down for the next few days, in fact; I'm taking a long weekend with my siblings in Austin! Look for a trip-photo post soon!

Van Scoy Kids Retreat

For the last few years my siblings and I have made a point to get together for some quality time, usually near where one of us lives. This year we met up on the Oregon coast!  We stayed in a lovely house near the beach, played cards, explored, and caught up on life.  So much fun. Now I'm in the airport getting geared up for homework...so sad the weekend of fun is over!  

Self-timer on the beach!

What views!!
I didn't take too many more photos, because much of the rest of the time was spent cooking in our wonderful house, playing phase ten, calling Grandma, and other fun things.  We DID visit the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory, but we'll have to wait for sister to share her photos before I can show you that wonder!

Guatemala: Man-Made Beauty

For my last Guatemala post, I had to complement all the natural photos of my last post with some of the other wonders I saw on my trip. 

The ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Tikal-- phenomenal!

Here we are in the ruins of a cathedral back in Antigua.  

In the small village of San Marco (right on Lake Atitlan), there was this wonderful wall made of soda bottles, filled with trash.  This was part of an effort the town made to reduce litter.  I love the concept!  I also saw a sauna made of wine bottles cemented together in a beautiful pattern.  The idea of reusing things to make even our houses is very interesting to me. 

This one isn't so beautiful.  And it represents both natural and man-made I guess!  Its one of many roads that were wrecked by the torrential rains that came along with Hurricane Agatha.  This little disaster made a 2 hour drive to the lake 4 hours: here we were just ten minutes from San Marcos, but since we couldn't pass we had to turn around and go ALL THE WAY around the lake to get there, adding another 2 hours to the trip!  

But, it was worth it!  San Marco was beautiful.  This is the view from the honeymoon suite of a place where we ate brunch. 

The whole hotel was decorated with ornate mosaics that a French artists had done.  This is the bathroom in that same suite.  One thing you should know about me is that I love love love mosaic.  This was my dream spot.

Guatemala: Natural Beauty

One thing I loved about Guatemala was all of the natural beauty.

The foliage was a little like Berkeley, but even more lush and tropical!

You might have noticed from my brussel sprouts post that I love seeing plants as they grow, especially those I've never seen before.  These pineapples were awesome.

Huge bunches of bananas, and look at that bud!

Hanging out with our host and some of her friends by the famous Lake Atitlan.  Though the view was a little foggy that day, a lake surrounded by volcanoes can't be beat. 

Well, this one might not be beautiful in the traditional sense, but it was AMAZING.  We went to a cave at dusk and saw thousands and thousands of bats exiting for the night. Pretty incredible.

Have you ever seen a transparent butterfly?

This is Semuc Champey, a limestone "bridge" of gorgeous green pools that is actually over a huge river. We climbed up for the view, then went down to lounge in the water.  So great. 

Guatemala Part 2: Volcanoes and Beyond

The day that Michelle and I booked our tickets to Guatemala in May, we were SO excited about our upcoming trip!  Little did we know that a volcano was erupting that very day not far from the very touristy Antigua! And that's not all, then the country was hit by Hurricane Agatha, which made cleaning up all the ash that had come raining down very difficult (and as we later learned when trying to reach Lake Atitlan, it also caused lots of landslides that closed many roads).  Its good we didn't know about these catastrophes before we booked the flight, because that way we didn't have to reconsider--we just went and I'm glad we did!

Here we are on 21-day old lava that not long before then was flowing out of the Pacaya volcano!  It was cool enough to walk on, and felt a little like a pumice stone.  It was a little hot in some spots; behind us in this photo is a lot of steamy, stinky sulfur.  In other spots our guide dug into the lava a little and found the glowing red you think of...and it started his walking stick on fire!

The river of volcano charged right through a pineapple field, destroying the crop, except for some plants that were left untouched.  Our guide chopped off the outside so we could enjoy some freshly picked fruit! YUM. 

 

After a few days in Antigua, we left for the Atlantic Coastal town of Livingston, which has a more Caribbean feel. 

 

This amazing hammock hut was on the dock at our hotel; pretty sweet!

 And I was always happy waking up in the morning to a breakfast of fresh fruit, panqueqeus, and Guatemalan coffee all served with the gorgeous colorful traditional fabric for napkins.  What a life. 

Guatemala: Antigua

So, I'm back from Guatemela!  I've been back for a few days but too busy to blog.  Also, it was such a great trip and I have so many wonderful photos, that I've been a little hesitant to even post about it because there is so much to say!  I think I'll post in chunks of time/place.  What better place to start than the lovely colonial city of Antigua!  About 45 min. from Guatemala City (where I hear there isn't much of interest to tourists), Antigua is so charming with cobblestone streets and colorful buildings.

This is the amazing facade of one of the churches there!  

This is a chicken bus!  Apparently, all broken down school buses from America are sent to Guatemala, repainted in bright colors with crazy patterns (also notice the women silhouettes!), and used for public transport.  Though we liked to look at them and marvel about how many people they fit both inside and on top, we did not like the thick black smoke the spat on us as they drove by!

We were so lucky to have had some amazing hosts.  Michelle (my travel partner) met Stephanie (below on the left), and she and her family gave us the royal treatment! The photo above is from the room we stayed in at Stephanie's sister's house, which had this amazing courtyard full of flowers and even a fountain.  It was gorgeous! 

And of course, I can't NOT mention the mojitos at a bar called La Sala.  They were the best I've ever had!