Drink at Hand: Fog Head Pinot Noir…going nicely with my grilled tri-tip (thanks Grilla T!)

Hey there Welliver Photography fans…Thirsty Thursday here once again, so pour something yummy and make those weekend plans! Last weekend was a pretty good here at WP. In true “get out there and do something” fashion, we explored a trail I didn’t even know existed until last Friday. It was one heck of a beautiful Sunday morning. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

The trail is the Juan Bautista de Anza Trail, which we picked up at the very end of Old Stage Road northeast of Salinas. This chunk of road is the actual stagecoach road that connected the Salinas Valley to San Juan Bautista, or for those familiar with local landmarks, the route that connected the Soledad Mission to the mission in San Juan Bautista…but I’ll save the full history lesson for another day, or go here to read more. The trail itself is 4 miles one way with a decent elevation gain, but the views are worth it!

As Lt Col Juan Bautista de Anza would say: ¨¡Vayan subiendo!¨ Roughly translated, “Mount up everybody!” Or, as we say around here, get out there and do something this weekend!

Drink at Hand: 2008 Ventana Tempranillo

Good Thirsty Thursday evening to you! Tonight we’re just pouring something yummy and talking about how we need to clean the house and wash the cars this weekend. Really exciting stuff (though I think we will sneak out to the coast for a sunset or two). But even when life is a little boring, there’s still sample a little bit of the goodness that comes out of the local Monterey County wineries.

Get out there and do something fun this weekend!

Drink at Hand: 2007 Crianza Old Vine Tempranillo

Not going to lie, this Thirsty Thursday snuck up on us here at Welliver Photography. So while I did pour something yummy (that tempranillo is good!), I haven’t had much of a chance to put together this week’s entry. We are working on something good for next week, but this week I only have one photo to share.

While this week’s post is just a single photo, it pretty much hit the spirit of what we want Thirsty Thursday to be. These posts are supposed to be about getting out there and seeing or doing something different, interesting, exciting, etc. I doubt any reader will know where to find this road. We truly were in the middle of nowhere on a road that doesn’t really go anywhere. We didn’t see another car for hours (if I don’t count the guy and his dog on the 4-wheeler with the shotgun tied to the back). But, oh what an adventure we had this day, and that’s what its all about!

Go find a new place to explore this weekend!

Drink at Hand: North Coast Brewing Company PranQster Belgian Ale (Belgian because its cyclocross season!)

Welcome to the first Thirsty Thursday of 2012! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. This past weekend was a busy one for Welliver Photography, shooting a beautiful New Year’s Eve wedding in Big Sur on Saturday, dinner with friends on Sunday, and the most ridiculously absurd photo-exploration adventure on Monday…one that is sure to be a Thirsty Thursday in the coming weeks.

With 1800+ images to go through from the wedding between the two of us, today’s post is a quickie break from editing before I get back to my levels and curves. I snuck in a few of “non-wedding” photos during the day on Saturday. Did I mention that the sunset was unbelievable?!

No matter what you’re up to this weekend, hopefully you can sneak in a capture or two of some beautiful scenery as well!

Drink at Hand: Dolce Vita Prosecco (no idea, I walk in the door and the hubby hands me a glass…not complaining!)

Hello friends – it’s Thirsty Thursday! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. A few weeks back I found myself in Yuma, AZ with a little time to kill. And the desert didn’t disappoint!

The back story to these images in a little entertaining. I had to fly down to Yuma for a business trip. Remember when LA had all that damage from the Santa Ana winds? Yeah, I was flying into LAX during all that windiness. My drink wouldn’t even stay on my tray table. So I finally get to Yuma that evening and go to get my rental car, only to have the rental car counter girl tell me they don’t have any cars left so I get a Suburban. Uh, okay. So I roll myself out the the rental car space and there it was, an all-black Suburban with shiny wheels. I felt like gangsta-g in the Secret Service…or something.

Fast forward to the next afternoon. I’d spent the day driving all over creation in Yuma looking at lettuce fields, broccoli fields, cauliflower fields, romaine fields, spinach fields, Cabbage Patch Kids fields (okay, maybe not those), but you get the idea. Late in the afternoon, after I’d finally seen every last acre of growing green produce in the Yuma Valley, I went to the local coffee shop to catch up on email. The clouds were trying to spit rain outside, but there weren’t enough. The sun kept peaking through. Golden light, dark clouds, nearby mountains. Finally at 3:52 I decided I was done with the checking of the email. I ran to my Secret Service-mobile, brought up the map on my phone and headed out of Yuma into the desert.

Since I’d seen the entire valley during my tour earlier in the day, I remembered seeing a couple of cool landscapes and headed that general direction. I thought I’d found the money road…but it turned to gravel and then ended. Back I went. Sunset was at 5:12 and I had to be back in Yuma to catch a flight at 6:30. Time was of the essence. I referenced my iPhone map. I found a different road. It was the perfect road to take me exactly where I wanted to go. Except that it ended at the gate to the Yuma Proving Grounds. Crap. Now its 4:40ish.

I found another road. It turned to gravel. Then to rough rock. It cut through a chunk of the Yuma Proving Ground too. There were government “Do Not Enter” signs all along the road, but the road was public access. So I sped along in my Secret Service Suburban, far exceeding the speed limit on some random back road in some military shooting range. The light was fading, I was about to give up. Finally I found an acceptable spot. I jammed the SSS in park and hopped out. It was 5:02. There was a random blimp tethered nearby, its white body and incessantly annoying buzzing motor floating a few hundred feet above the ground. It was all a little weird–strange military training site in the middle of nowhere Arizona, fading light, buzzing blimp, me in my black Suburban–but I didn’t have time to dwell on the weird. After driving for over an hour, I literally had minutes to get something decent and then bolt back to Yuma. Here’s what I got…

The gusty winds and local mountains made for some lovely orographic clouds.

And then suddenly the sun had enough and called it a day. The light was gone. Time to head back to town to catch my flight.

Ironically, after well over an hour of hurtling down back roads in the black SSS, the drive back to town only took 35 minutes of very pedestrian driving on a nice highway. If only I’d known!

So that’s it. Another Thirsty Thursday down. Go out and get yourself lost on some random back roads this weekend! And have a Happy New Year while you’re at it!