[travel] San Diego

Was in San Diego last week for a conference. It was a great week- lots to learn, lots of coworkers that I only get to see a couple times a year, lots to see and do. The only hard part is the long flight to get all the way over there.



I joined Audible months ago so I have been downloading an unabridged book from A Song of Ice and Fire with each credit. I got through a decent chunk of A Game of Thrones during this flight but I couldn't be more relieved when we arrived.



Then it was a week of sun and palm trees.





We went to a vendor party on the USS Midway one night. So cool to tour the aircraft carrier and check out all the decommissioned planes and helicopters.





The big event party was Thursday night at Balboa Park:



It was good, just very very crowded. Went through the natural history museum quickly but spent most of my time at the fine art museum checking out a series of quilts on loan from the Boston Museum of Fine Art.









Makes me want to get into quilting. I've only made one very simple, very random, large square quilt. And I love it. My sister is giving me a sewing machine and now I want to start digging through old clothes for fabric I can recycle into a quilt.

And then it was time to leave:



The flight back was a little crazy. My original flight to JFK was delayed and I was going to miss my connection to Burlington, so I took a flight to Boston instead and made a reservation for a rental car. It was the roughest plane ride I've ever had- I was all the way in the last row, so maybe it felt worse but I was trying not to get sick the entire time. Then more delays when we landed because of lightning- couldn't deplane, couldn't get bags, etc. The shuttle to the rental cars was literally overflowing with people and people were yelling at each other. I was so relieved to jump in a car and start driving home. I was in the front door by 2am. Then slept for 48 hours (after returning the rental car the next day to Burlington airport and retrieving my car).

All in all, a good trip. Looking forward to next year!

[travel] Joshua Tree National Park

Because I was going to be so close to Joshua Tree National Park, I rented a car to drive over and check it out. I went in the south Cottonwood entrance from I-10:

I stopped by the visitor center to pick up some souvenirs and a national parks passport book. Joshua Tree was my first stamp!

I stopped at the cholla cactus garden:

This lizard was very nice and posed for pictures for me:

I think it's a desert side-blotched lizard.

Eventually I made it far enough north in the park to start seeing Joshua Trees:

Not sure what kind of cactus this is:

This is a mojave yucca. These were everywhere:

Mounds of smooth rock outcrops were near the road. People were climbing all over these:

More trees.

The tips of the green poofs are needle sharp.

Here's a crow on a young Joshua Tree:

I stopped at Barker Dam to walk a quick 1 mile loop around. 

Since I didn't have much time, I was power walking as fast as possible. I started a little white-tailed antelope squirrel:

 I stopped and it came a bit closer:

So cute. 

Finally a couple panoramic shots. This is from the Cottonwood area of the park, where the view was more flat and expansive:

This is from the north-western area of the park, where there were more rocky areas and Joshua Trees.

I loved this park. It wasn't crowded and it was really beautiful. I saw plants and animals I've never seen before. The passport book for national parks and places will be fun to fill with stamps. It's not only for the big parks- there are a couple places close to me where I can get stamps (Billings Farm, Saint-Gaudens).

[travel] Palm Springs Art Museum

The Palm Springs Art Museum was not far from my hotel downtown. I walked over to check it out one evening:

They had a really great collection of western art- paintings, sculptures, artifacts.

The museum is also known for it's glass collection. I took a picture of this because it so soo soooo creepy.

Their contemporary art was really thought-provoking. Like this painting:

Doesn't that make you think of the color grey? It really makes me think of the color grey. Mind blowing.

Now look at this garbage:

Literally. Black trash bags. How... avant garde? This is funny to me. It could be commentary on the state of art or consumption- but what this is really doing is making people look down at bags of garbage and say things like, "All art... it is garbage, no? You look at this trash... Is it art? It is art in that it is meaningless. The artist is so brave- to put it in our faces like this." That's funny.

Anyway, my favorite piece was this huge collage made from ripped magazine pages:

Close-up:

Walking back to the hotel, I saw a huge Marilyn Monroe statue:

I had to walk around to get another picture:

Biggest granny panties ever!

[travel] Hard Rock Hotel

My hotel arrangements were made late enough so that I wasn't able to get a room in the actual hotel attached to the convention center but early enough so that I didn't have to stay 20 miles away. I stayed the week in a Hard Rock Hotel and it was awesome.

Everything about it was super cool and hip, with lots of artifacts all over the walls.

This is the wall paper inside the elevators:

My room was great. I had my own balcony:

I wanted to steal the duvet cover on the bed so bad. It looks like some regular pattern but when you look closer:

HOW COOL IS THAT? \m/ (I just checked and the duvet cover is for sale online at the Hard Rock shop.)

The floor lamp was shaped like a drum and you turned it on my stepping on a little button on the floor:

Coolest hotel I've ever stayed in. 

[travel] Palm Springs, CA

Last week I was lucky enough to be able to attend a conference in Palm Springs, CA. I knew it was going to be 80 - 100 degrees warmer than here, so I was expecting to melt/die, but the weather was phenomenal. Warm, sunny, dry- perfect. Everyday was like the most perfect summer day in Vermont.

[crafts] Scrapbooking mess

Working on a scrapbook for my mom for Christmas:

I ordered prints of pictures from our California trip this past summer. I never realized how tedious and time consuming (and glue-consuming) making a scrapbook is. But all the pages are done- I just need to add final embellishments and text to the pages. 

[travel] San Francisco

Our first evening in San Francisco, we went to Chinatown for an awesome dinner and then rode a cable car back to the hotel:

The cable car pics are blurry. I was sitting on the outside seats and it was scary! I was like, "OMG WHERE'S MY SEATBELT?!" We weren't cruising down the hill at 60 mph or anything but still... I don't know how people jump on in tv commercials and just hang on to a pole while standing on one of the outside steps. 

The Australian woman sitting next to me kept saying what a treat it was being able to ride a cable car. I giggled on the inside and hummed "Rice-a-roni... the San Francisco Treat!" Oh man, I haven't heard that commercial since I was a kid but I was able to recall it in an instant.