The Gurly Life

Sunset from Haleakala

Here's the slideshow. We were here.

 

 

Morro Bay

Almost two weeks later, the final central coast post. If you want to see really good pictures, then you should go to Michelle's blog and check out her posts: Day One: Breathe; Day Two, Hearst Castle; Day Two, San Simeon and the Elephant Seals (NOT about Maliboo Kitty, thankyouverymuch); Day Three, the Mission and the Rock.

If you missed my other posts, you can read them (or just look at the pretty pictures) by clicking: Some Natural Beauty; Our Photo Safari; Elephant Seals (again, I don't mean Maliboo Kitty); Hanging Out With Michelle; and Hearst Castle.

On Sunday morning, our third day, Michelle and I made our way to San Luis Obispo for breakfast. For once, I could easily have gone most of the day without eating (because we had eaten our weight in yummy food Friday and part of Saturday, so much so that we weren't able to have dinner Saturday evening), but Michelle was ravenous, so off we went. You have to understand, usually in the mornings I'm one of those people who has to eat within 30 minutes of getting up, otherwise people start looking like ham and eggs to me, and they risk life and limb.

We had breakfast at a delicious and popular breakfast place in San Luis Obispo, Louisa's Place. Completely delicious and fun and friendly service, though they did misspell "premier" on their web page. Eh hem. No matter, the food was still good. But I emailed them about it. I mean, I emailed them to tell them how much we enjoyed our brunch there, but I added a PS about the typo. I know it's a little OCD, but if there was a typo on my website, I would want to know about it, wouldn't you? Anywayyy...

I didn't take many pictures, except for one of a beautiful parrot in a tree, but if you click through to Michelle's Day Three post (see link above), you can see some very nice pictures of San Luis Obispo. Incidentally, SLO appears to be overly populated by rather gorgeous people. At first I thought maybe I had been buried with my nose in my camera for two days and that I was appreciating people like a starving person might unexpectedly enjoy liver. However, Michelle noticed it too. I don't know how I feel about that. It occurred to me that my odds of finding a boyfriend would probably drop. Meh. Whatevs.

So blahdy blahdy blah, we walk around, we peruse a couple of shops but not too many because you know how I get and Michelle had mercy on me, and then we head back towards Cambria, with an eye towards checking out Morro Bay Rock. Because we had lots of cold and windy weather, I layered with my silk longjohns (what?!?). On the drive to Morro Bay I depantsed so I could take off the longjohns. Thankfully, I wasn't driving at the time. Don't get me wrong, I have depanstsed and repantsed while driving, but it's much easier when I'm the passenger, I find. Way less veering and erratic driving, no honking, screaming of obscenities or giving of the finger (at me, of course, I can't give someone the finger if I'm trying to drive *and* change my pants, now can I? Silly!).

Anywayyy...

At this point, it's far too late to introduce a few photos with a platitude such as "without further ado" or "let's get right to it, folks!" so I will just say that after all that prattle, you should just be grateful that now I will shut up and you get to see some pretty pictures.

Psyche! Instead of pretty pictures, a picture of smoke stacks. I think this is a power plant, sitting right across the way from Morro Bay Rock. It's so obnoxious that it's almost artistic, isn't it?

A sailboat. Hanging out. I love the blueness of the water and the sun's reflection on it.

Sorting the fish.

Flowers and the row boat.

Morro Bay Rock.

Backlit sailboat. Really a tiny sailboat.

A fishing boat. Again, I really like the sun's reflection on the water.

The water here was completely calm, quite the contrast from the crazy waves we photographed down the street from our little rental. That brings me to the end of Michelle's and my photo safari. I got to relive it a few times by writing about it, but now it is time to turn to the next trip. And there is a next trip on the horizon.

Next: my new year's resolution. Which is not the next trip, but is related to the next trip. Sort of.

Some natural beauty

while you wait for the photos and posts from my fun weekend on the central coast with my friend Michelle. Michelle is a real photographer, so hopefully there will be an upload of her amazing shots that I can link to here as well.

Fancy girl stuff

On Saturday evening, Martita and I got to have dinner and hang out and catch up. As a girl treat, we decided to get mani-pedis. But not just any mani-pedi. On our hands, we got this new thing which is some kind of gel nail polish that requires a UV light drying machine thingy, and which is supposed to last 2-3 weeks and then you have to go back to the nail place to have it removed. I am not likely to do this again after this, as my nails need very little encouragement to get brittle and thin, but I decided to go for it this once, just to see what happens. If it works, it's a good thing to do, I think, for special occasions like weddings and other things, where you will get your nail polish chipped within an hour of getting it done.

I got red nails and sparkly blue toenails, and Martita got a milder pink color on her hands and neon pink on her toesies.

 

Another night photography jaunt

Thursday evening I again went out with my Meetup group to practice night photography in downtown LA. If you'd like to see the entire set on Flickr, there are only 20 photos. Here are a few.

Some night photography experiments

On Sunday evening, I trekked out to the Lincoln Memorial again to play with my camera and take night shots. I learned a few things, and took some pics I actually liked. Probably not the most original pics you've seen of this monument, but also not the most boring. Here are three, and you can see the rest here (there are not a lot). The third one is looking out towards the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial.

Concerning photographs

You have already had a glimpse of some of the photos I took – at least, I hope you did go see them, but if not, here’s another opportunity. I have also added links to all the sets from DC at the end of this post. So even if you don’t read it, scroll down to the links. I love comments on my photos, by the way, so feel free.

DC is a very photogenic city. Basically, all you do is point your camera at things, and POP! -- great photo. In other words, a monkey can take good photos in DC. I really got to take in some sights this weekend. I did not get to it all, not by a long shot. There are A LOT of Smithsonians I did not even walk into, I didn’t get to see the White House, or Arlington Cemetery, or the Pentagon (hello, Secret Service or NSA or some other military intelligence, if you happened to come upon this blog).  Oh stop your gasping, I did not have time for everything, so don’t be giving me that look.

Here’s what I did visit: the National Mall, the Washington Monument, the WW II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial (and this one, I went back for seconds on Sunday evening for night shots), the National Archives and the National Air and Space Museum. I was in the Museum of the American Indian for lunch but as it is not the at the top of my museum wish-list, I passed on it in favor of the Air and Space Museum.

As to most of these, I will let the pictures speak for themselves. The Washington DC set includes the Mall, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, WW II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Archives. The Air and Space Museum gets its own set, there were lots of rockets and planes to photograph and I thought some folks would like those. I also have a short set for the Lincoln Memorial at night. I will say a few words about some of these, however.

I have already mentioned the WW II Memorial. It is really grand, but it was a world war, and one of the few wars where the good and the evil were clearly defined: it is evil to kidnap people, tear their families apart, take all their belongings and pull out their gold teeth, and destroy them on masse because of some perceived ethnic flaw, or because they’re gay (yeah, he did that too). There is no choice but to stand up to such evil, and that’s what the world did. It was a war on two massive fronts: the Allies (Great Britain, Russia and the US) fought the Axis (Germany, Japan and Italy) in the Pacific and in the Atlantic.

These two fronts are represented by the sculptures at the two ends of the Memorial. It was the war where 6 million innocent Jews were slaughtered, an estimated 20 million people died, dozens of countries fought, and two atomic bombs were dropped, each of which killed 100,000 people or so (a questionable move, at best, I would agree – even the good make terrible mistakes). It was the war of Pearl Harbor.

A war like that doesn’t just get a subtle, artistic memorial, it gets a fucking awesome memorial because all the millions of people who died and all the millions of people who fought and survived deserve it. So for anyone who might have a thought that the memorial is kitsch or vulgar or too ostentatious, I recommend looking into the eyes of the remaining veterans who visit and telling them that their war does not deserve such recognition. And that’s all I have to say about that.

While I was there, I was able to mingle with and photograph some WW II veterans who were there on a bus tour. They are all pretty old, some in wheelchairs, and were accompanied by guardians. One guardian asked if I would take a photo of her with her two veterans by one of the sculptures, which I happily did. I also took this photo with my camera, and emailed it to one of them.

This is the email response I received from him.

Dear Elena,

 

Thanks for taking the time to take a picture of a couple of old Veterans and their assigned "Guardian". The group that took us from Harrisburg, PA to Washington was called "Honor Bus". Among other things a local middle school raised to money for the trip for about 60 WW II Vets. Other groups flew in on "Honor Flights' from around the U.S. Having that many people care about saying "Thank you" gave us a warm and fuzzy feeling about the future of the country.

 

Thanks again for being considerate to a couple of total strangers.

 

Bill Kelley  

"Bill" as a WW II Merchant Marine Officer when he wasn't so old

Is this the best thing ever? Yes!

The Vietnam War Memorial is just as moving as the WW II Memorial, but in a quiet way that initially underwhelms you but then creeps up on you and suddenly you’re in it, in all the sadness and the death. It was a smaller war that WW II, and the loss for the US was more individual: a lot of young men died (I think 60,000) for a war that turned out to be pointless, and they are missed to this day. The Memorial is made up of two long marble walls that meet at an angle. It rises out of the ground with a few names and then grows and grows until it is much taller than any man, and then grows smaller again and disappears once more into the ground with the last name.

There are thousands upon thousands of names. When you go, you cannot help but cry and touch the names and say a prayer for them whether you pray to God or Buddha or just the universe. You say a prayer for them and for the ones left behind, and for their friends who come to the wall to find their names and trace them on a piece of paper so they can have something of them to take away.

All this in one morning – I needn’t tell you that I was a wreck after that. My heavens!

And finally, a few words about the National Archives. Really, only a few. This is where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution live. And I tell you what, when I got in front of that Constitution and saw it up close and personal, and saw all those signatures beginning with G. Washington, I cried. Again. I’m out of tissues.

All the monuments and historic buildings and collections, the National Mall, and the Smithsonians are all free to visit. Free. Not a penny do you have to pay to look at these things. I of course dropped money in every donation box I could find, and I joined The Smithsonian to support it, their museums really are remarkable. In addition, donations can be made to the The Trust For The National Mall, which is tasked with the maintenance of the Mall. It could use a little more upkeep, I think, so I will be making a donation to them, also.

I write this on the plane. As we took off, I thought of the 1903 Wright Flyer, which I saw at the National Air and Space Museum.

Washington, DC

I am in Washington, DC, for Deirdre's wedding. Deirdre and John got married tonight, it was a lovely ceremony. But more of that later. Earlier in the day, I took a quick tour of the National Mall, catching the National Monument, WW II Memorial, Vietnam War Veteran Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. It was a beautiful day.

I got to see a man on the subway who wore a bowler hat and had a mustache, and wondered whether it was Hercule Poirot. On my way back to the Metro I encoutered three Tibetan monks. One gave me an open loving smile, and I bowed namaste to him. A few minutes later I was able to stop by the Metro station and enjoy an amazing trumpet player strut his stuff for passers-by. Once I stopped, a whole crowd of people stopped too, and everyone gave him change. I was the last to leave. He asked me if I am a musician.

The National Monument.

Detail of the WW II Memorial. The inscription: HERE WE MARK THE PRICE OF FREEDOM. Each of those little things is a star, presumably for a life lost. This Memorial is majestic and moving, and today it was overflowing with WW II veterans. I cried the entire time I was there.

Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool. Which needs to be cleaned.

A man traces the name of a lost friend at the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial. Obviously.

The incredibly long escalator ride at the Bethesda Metro station. Ok, less historic, but still pretty impressive, I think.

I have pictures from my National Mall tour on Flickr. I apologize in advance for the many pictures I took of the WW II Memorial, it really was incredible and there was A TON of stuff to see. I did not take pictures of everything there, believe it or not, but there were writings, sculptures, fountains, bas reliefs, and lots of veterans just waiting to be immortalized. The veterans will not with us for much longer. If you can get past those, you'll see the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam War Veterans Memorial pics. I hope you like them, it was a joy to take them.

Volcano!

[PHOTO OF THE MONTH by Alain Barbezat, My Shot, from the National Parks Wallpaper Gallery]

Nails

Recently I decided that I want to paint my nails more. I don't really like getting a manicure, it's time consuming and I'm not that motivated. So I got myself some nail polish and am doing it myself. To be honest, the manicures I've gotten have not been noticeably better than what I can do myself.

So, without further ado, I give you a rather playful pink hand. Fun, right?

And yes, I have scraped my knuckle. I scratched it against one of the edges of the storage units downstairs. Ouchy.