Usually Thirsty Thursday is about pouring something yummy and making those weekend plans. This week I’m changing it up a little bit. Instead of weekend plans, this week’s post is about very early morning weekday plans that turned out pretty well.

A few weeks back I had to take Terry to SFO on a Friday morning for a ridiculously early flight. The problem with a flight out of San Francisco at 6:15 means that we have to leave home around 3:15 to get to the airport on time. That’s 3:15 with an A.M. after it, or 0315 for my military friends. That’s not even early…that’s middle of the night. I grudgingly rolled out of bed, fumbled around enough to somehow get coffee in my travel mug (thank goodness for automatic timers on coffee makers!), and put myself and my camera gear in the car to take my darling husband to the airport.

As I dropped T off at the airport, the sky was still dark and traffic was still light…plenty of time to get across the Golden Gate Bridge for sunrise. I could see stars which meant the problematic SF Bay fog wasn’t going to get in the way of a good sunrise. As I pulled into the first turnout on the Marin County side of the bridge, I was excited to see some clouds over Angel Island! Given my recent string of shooting sunrises with absolutely nothing in the sky, these clouds made me happy. Of course, as I headed over the little hill to get a good view of the bridge, my excitement quickly dropped…not a cloud in the sky around the bridge. Just clear, blue twilight. Since I was there, and for the first time ever there was no wind, I decided to play around with some different foreground compositions while optimistically hoping that the clouds further north would drift overhead. I gave up on the clouds over the bridge and went back to the clouds. So, yeah, I went to go shoot the Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise and it wasn’t everything I wanted it to be. But, I still saw an absolutely beautiful sunrise over the Bay. It was just a beautiful morning in general in every direction.
After all that beauty and a quick walk with Massey, I still made it to work just a few minutes late.

Get out there and watch a beautiful sunrise this weekend…or maybe even tomorrow morning!

Drink in Hand: 2009 Sonoma Hills Chardonnay

Sometimes you find yourself somewhere in between. In between jobs, in between decisions, in between vacations, in between dreams. And sometimes things seem to be over your head but underneath your feet. Maybe it’s a good thing to be in the in between, or maybe it’s not, or maybe, just maybe, it’s spectacular. Somewhere Switzerland floating in between the mountains below and the mountains above near Schilthorn. If you’re ever lucky enough to realize you are in an in between that’s spectacular, enjoy it, take it all in…and if you happen to have a camera, take a few shots so that you can share it with the rest of us! I’ll always remember this in between.

Drink in Hand: 2010 Handcraft Petite Sirah

I know I haven’t written a blog post in a while, but Beth has been carrying it. I still haven’t been through all my Switzerland photos and now I have about 1600 more photos to go through. But, after a little convincing from Beth, here are a few photos from the “Top of Europe”.

The views from the top are spectacular and I’m not sure the pictures do the view justice. And as for the buildings, who thinks to build structures in those places…only the Swiss.

Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Terry is headed off to Colorado this weekend, so I figured a few mountain scenes containing Terry were in order.

Have I mentioned on this blog that Switzerland was abso-freakin-lutely beautiful?! Even without the cute boy the scene is nice to look at.

Get out there and find your own pretty mountain scene this weekend!