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Thirsty Thursday: A Sunday Hike

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Trader Joe's Pomegranate Limeade

Thirsty Thursday here again...time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. I got busy doing MBA homework and didn't even get to a glass of wine tonight, but I did make time for a little photo editing. Maybe because I love scrolling through Instagram feeds, I was inspired to go square today. Enjoy a few photos from our recent hike up Gaviota Peak near Solvang. 

It was definitely a warm hike, but the cool ocean breeze at the top was worth it, along with the views. For our central California friends it looks to be a much needed wet weekend, but hopefully you find time to get out there and enjoy some outside time! 

Thirsty Thursday: Ft Ord Stroll

Rambler: BethDrink at Hand: 2005 Mission Trail Vineyards Friar's Reserve Garnacha (local Monterey County wine at its best!)

Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pour something yummy (we certainly did) and make those weekend plans. This week I recap a backyard adventure.

A few weeks back I ran the Salinas Valley half-marathon. After turning in a personal worst 1/2 marathon time, I decided that Sunday needed to be a recovery day. Unfortunately, Massey doesn't understand recovery days, so she still needed to go out for an activity. We are pretty spoiled to have the seemingly endless trails of Ft Ord Public Lands less than 5 minutes away, so its not too much effort to get the dog out for some quality exercise. Since I wasn't running, I grabbed the camera, slapped on the 180mm macro lens, and off we went!

Terry and I shoot most often with zoom lenses as they give us the most versatility when we are out and about. The only prime lens we own is the 180mm macro, but I wish we had a few more...I love the crispy sharp images and distinctive depth of field that you can only get with a prime. One of these days...

Get out and find your own adventure in your backyard this weekend!

Massey Monday: Watch Dog

Massey's poor little paws got a little beat up during our last backpacking trip in the Sierra. So while photographing the final sunrise of the trip, the dog who normally runs all over this place in a slightly ADD manner (bird, oooh chimpmunk, oooh pika, oooh there's that bird again, etc) was quite content to relax in the comfy soft dirt next to me. Of course, she was still on alert, just a more sedentary alert. She always has our backs.

Thirsty Thursday: On the Trail

Rambler: Beth
Drink at Hand: Yogi Ginger Tea...wine taper for a little race I'm running this weekend.

Thirsty Thursday here again. Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans! A few weeks back we went backpacking in the Desolation Wilderness. It was a tough journey as we decided to do roughly 2 miles of cross country travel to reach our final destination. I'll put it this way...hiking on established trails in the Sierra is fairly straightforward; backpacking over granite slabs with 42 lbs on my back, not so easy.

On the second day of our trip, we found our way back to some trails. I think I have a thing for singletrack. I spend more time hiking on singletrack these days than swooping along on a mountain bike, but I still love a tidy little dirt line cut neatly through a wildflower-choked meadow, snaking lazily through a deep forest, meandering around an alpine lake.

Get out there and find your own singletrack this weekend!

Thirsty Thursday: George Lake Trip

Rambler: Beth
Drink at Hand: Jekel Pinot Noir

Thirsty Thursday here again...time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. We headed up to the mountains a few weekends ago for a backpacking trip to George Lake in the Kaiser Wilderness. You may remember this as the intended destination of our snowed-out Memorial Day weekend trip.

The weather was gorgeous, bordering on hot for 8500' elevation. We didn't realize that all of the mosquitos in Sierra were also holding a reunion at George Lake the same weekend. Obscene! But we haven't contracted West Nile or malaria just yet, so I guess we survived. All in all, a fun weekend.

On the trail... Exploring around the lake. Sometimes its tiring. We did a little off-trail cross-country exploring and found a couple more lakes up higher. I think this was College Lake. Back at George Lake it was time to cool off, if only we'd had swimwear. Time for dinner. Then some waiting for the evening light to get nice. Then it was time for bed and a hike out in the morning. Terry loaned me these two images for tonight's post. Pretty nice!

We've got another backpack trip planned in a few weeks, so more mountain fun ahead for us! Yay! Love summer weekends spent in the high country. Get out there and discover a little high country yourself in the coming weeks!

Thirsty Thursday: Off to Interlaken

Rambler: Beth
Drink at Hand: Tolosa Rose de Grenache

Thirsty Thursday here again...time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans! We are still sorting through the Switzerland photos, but we are making progress. This week we share a few more.

Our first two days in Switzerland were spent in cities--Zurich, then Luzern. Both beautiful in their own right, especially Luzern, but I was ready to get on to the Alps! So in true Euro fashion, or perhaps true Welliver foreign travel fashion (we love public transportation in every country except the US...how can the rest of the world get it right?!), we hopped on a train and headed to Interlaken. Interlaken was our home base at the foot of the Alps for the next four days. I was incredibly excited for my first glimpses of the Alps, but of course it was a snowy, dreary day as our train lumbered down the tracks. Yet, still beautiful. When we arrived in Interlaken my outdoor fever got the best of me, so we quickly dropped the luggage at the hotel and started exploring the town. We found ourselves on a road headed out of town, and just kept walking down it, wanting to see what was around the next bend. Soon we found ourselves on a quiet country road leading up into the hills. A hiking trail popped up on our right...we took it. We climbed up a hill along a lovely, well-marked trail. Then again, I think every hiking trail in Switzerland is well-marked. Daylight was fading, a light mist was falling, but we didn't care. About a mile and a half later we came out at the top. Turns out a cog railway comes up the other side of the hill in summer. Tonight we had the hill top overlooking Interlaken all to ourselves. A great little afternoon adventure in the foothills before our big adventures in the Alps started the next day. Hope you can get out and enjoy a little adventure this weekend, too!

Massey Monday: Hike Patrol

One of the best parts of hiking with Massey is simply watching her. She's pretty funny...always has to be in front, goes into huntress mode all the time, and will suddenly dart off into the brush after birds or bunnies or who knows what. Those darts almost always start with the tilt of the head and a curious look.

Thirsty Thursday: Yosemite Views

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Boulevard Brewing Company Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale. Fitting since I'm sitting in a farmhouse. Very tasty!

Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Given that I'm sitting in a farmhouse drinking a farmhouse ale, I'm obviously in Iowa for Christmas. Since we spent the last holiday with my family, I figured it was time to post some more photos from our trip to Yosemite over Thanksgiving before another holiday piled more photos on the heep!

We tried to cram as much Yosemite into two days as possible. We had beautiful fall weather which made for some nice photo opportunities.

We hope that you enjoy a wonderful holiday weekend! Merry Christmas!

Thirsty Thursday: Color-Free Joshua Tree

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Fog Head Chardonnay...Monterey County makes some yummy chards!

Welcome back for another Thirsty Thursday! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. I found out today that I might head to the desert for work in a few weeks (who knew you could grow lettuce in the desert?!), which made me think back to my trip to Joshua Tree National Park last year. I had the privilege of having the park shown to me by a couple of incredible local photographers who just wanted shoot with some friends for a few days. It was a fun week.

I revisited the photos from that trip in the archives this week (mainly because the "archives" are getting much too large for our storage space) and found a few I didn't share yet. In that group were 3 images that I processed in Nik's Silver Efex. I'm in love with Silver Efex (now Silver Efex 2) for black and white processing. So enjoy a few rockscapes from Joshua Tree. Visiting there in winter is really nice. Just make sure to bring some pilars to get the cactus spins out of your shoes.

Get out there and do something fun this weekend!