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La Purisima Mission
Visiting a mission is like taking a tiny trip back in time. The dirt floors. The red, adobe walls. The clay tiled roofs and tiny chapels, decorated in gold leaf. Something about the past seems to linger there … drifting, perhaps, like dust caught in motes of sunlight. According to the Mission website, La Purisima Mission was founded in 1787 by Father Presidente Fermin de Lasuén. In those first few years, several thousand Chumash Indians were baptized into the Catholic faith and lived as a community on the 470 square miles of Mission land. Today, La Purisima is the “most extensively restored mission in the state [of California],” and hosts over 200,000…
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Jalama Beach
Drive 20 minutes or so down a narrow, winding highway, and you will find yourself at Jalama Beach. It is not your typical California beach—laden with sun bathers and umbrellas. Instead, it offers a small respite, relatively isolated and steeped in rugged solitude. The skies were grey when we arrived, but the weather was not altogether unpleasant. Clark was napping in the car, so my aunt opted to stay behind and watch him while the rest of us headed out to dip our toes in the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean. The beach itself is long and quiet—soundless almost—except for the rush of waves and the cry of gulls.…
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Dog Show and a Trip to Snohomish, WA
Last weekend, my mom and I traveled to Snohomish, Washington to show Flash in his first dog show. I was originally hoping to travel there with Brian, but unfortunately he had to work. That left me without a traveling companion or a car, so I was incredibly grateful when my mom offered to drive up with me. As I was already at my mom’s place in Montana, we left from there. Altogether, that made for an eight hour and three minute drive, according to Google Maps. The trip itself ended up being a little longer of course, since we stopped at several rest stops along the way, as well as a brief…
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A Photo Tour of a Montana Ranch
I’ve been spending a lot of time at my parents’ house this summer, helping train horses and working on the ranch. I figured, since I spend so much time there, it would be fun to give you a quick photo tour of my childhood home. This crane’s name is Stanley. My mom bought him last summer before my wedding (which was held in their backyard). Since then, he’s been knocked down by the wind a million times, no matter how hard we try to tether him to the ground, but doesn’t seem any worse for wear. He’s a trooper! These bottles are wedding decorations that I just recently cut down…
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Anniversary at Newport Beach
A few weeks ago, Brian and I traveled down to Newport Beach, CA for our one year wedding anniversary. The trip was a blast and I, of course, took lots of pictures! I thought it might be fun to share a few here on the blog. During our trip we stayed at the Hyatt Regency. We found a great deal online (which is why we were able to afford it), and while our room was average, the hotel itself was the fanciest thing I have ever seen. Like, there was a giant chess set. And three pools. And a golf course! We definitely spent a full day of our vacation doing…
