jamie d photography

Day Ten: flying home. It was time to say goodbye to sunny California. We flew out of John Wayne airport which was about 15 minutes from my cousins home. The airport was quiet and small. Checking in was a breeze! I loved how everything worked out from opening wet luggage, exploring cliffs,  walking to Lombard Street, staying with now called friends, running bare feet in a vineyard, hiking in Yosemite National Park, hugging seeing Giant Sequoias and playing on the beach in October!! My husband did an amazing job planning all of this so that I did not have to think about a thing! I truly love my family and LOVE making memories with them!!! I treasure each new experience we get to make together.

At this point in the trip I will confess I begin thinking about what is waiting at home for me. The do list is growing by the minute. Beginning with download images and figuring out a way to find my lost images! Myla again did an amazing job flying and loves the window seat. She slept on this flight home too! Both of parents picked us up at the airport even with a Ravens Jets Sunday night football. Thank you Dad and Mom! My cousin who loves the Jets and my dad had a bet going depending on the outcome of the game!

I love a break from the everyday and yet love retuning home to routine. It makes these trips a pocket of time where everything else is on hold and we get to enjoy the three of us! I will share even on the flight home my mind wanders to think about where could we go for our next adventure together. I love exploring the world and the amazing sights that God has created with the two people I love the most!

We love flying southwest and ALL our bags flew for FREE!

Day nine: Huntington Beach. In the morning we went to my cousin’s son soccer game. Watching Jack played brought back so many memories for me when I played soccer at his age. However, his team stayed in positions and their passing was impressive. On the other hand, our soccer games got called magnetic ball. Obviously everyone wanted the ball and staying in positions was optional.

After his game we went to the beach In OCTOBER!! Yes, it was October 1st and we were at the beach. The pictures look like it is the perfect beach day; however it still is October and it was chilly!! I was reminded that the Pacific water is heated by the Arctic so it is always freezing! I guess this might be the only thing that the east has on the west. Since we lasted about an hour max at the beach we headed back to their home and opted to go swimming in their pool and hot tub! The water temperature was much better! For dinner we head south to visit my Aunt (my mom’s sister) who I had not seen since my our wedding and who never knew met Myla. We had a wonderful visit and I loved hearing stories about her and my mom growing up together.

So here are a few photographers that I like to follow and most of them seem to live here in CA. Other then Katelyn James!

This could be a whole other blog post but here are a few. . .

Jasmine Star, Jose Villa, Wildflowers Photography, Tara Whitney, The Youngrens, Jill Thomas, and Mom*Tog.

maybe next time (I like to dream) I will plan to have a family photo session with one of these photographers!

Only for this picture I took the towel that I had wrapped around me off. It was October but in my mind I thought is should feel like August!

 

Day 8: Leave Yosemite and Drove to Huntington Beach. Before we packed up and left Myla requested several picture of herself on the bunk beds. She loved this bear room that was hers for the last three nights. We said goodbye to Yosemite National Park as we headed south to the Mariposa Grove to see the  huge Sequoia Trees. We opted to stop here instead of driving another four hours for the actual Sequoia National Park. We stopped and took a quick hike up to the Sequoia called the Grizzly Giant. If we had taken our time and looked at a map we would had known that 50 more yards we could have seen the California Tunnel tree. However this was a quick walk to see the tree and back in the car to start the four hour drive to Huntington beach. We knew that our expectations for arriving in four hours depended on how long we sat in LA traffic. We would hit Los Angeles right at rush hour and on a Friday! The 10 lane highways out here even come to a stand still. We finally arrived to Huntington Beach where my cousin and his wife live with their two kids. We were so excited to finally see their home and spend time with them for the last two days of our trip!

One of the many helpful tips Katelyn James at her workshop shared was to use only I light source when possible.

This room was already painted in a pea green color and add some overhead lights. . .the white balance was awful.

I wished I would have turned off the over head lights and let the camera work; mainly lower my aperture and increasing my iso.

Mariposa Grove of the Giant Sequoias

While waiting a couple of minutes as they were working on the trail we took a picture of the two of us.

Above is another favorite of Lyndon and Myla.

One day she will out grow the ergo. And right now if I could I would keep her from growing!

We hiked the less then a mile in to see the Grizzly Giant.

Though impressive in size and that I have been called a tree hugger;

we were thankful with the decision to come to this small grove here instead of spending a whole day looking at trees.

It is so hard to capture the massive size of these tree.

One of the Grizzly Giant limbs is 7 feet in diameter. I do not know the size of it’s base.

On the left is a seedling of the Giant Sequoias.This time we all ate an In and Out burger with a side of fries and a chocolate shake to share!

I envisioned farm fruit stands on every corner in California. Maybe we were a little ate as summer was over.

This was the closest I came and I took this picture from my car.

Day 7: Yosemite National Park. We decided that two days was not enough, so we extended our stay for one more day and night. Being in the park has been so peaceful and refreshing. There was no real cell phone coverage, no internet at the home, and so we were left with a whole national park to explore and see. On our way down to catch the shuttle bus we stopped at Tunnel View as it was cloudy and overcast! I was excited to see the clouds as I was hoping for a day like this so that I could get our picture with even light. The sun is always out even behind the clouds; however the foreground and background were mostly even compared to harsh shadows earlier two days. So after a quick family photo to show that we all were here, we parked our car down at Yosemite Village and rode the shuttle bus to the trail head. The shuttle bus was the highlight of Myla’s day, just like the gondola was the other day.

We arrived at the trail head and started walking on the flat trail. It quickly became all uphill. I had the backpack on and Myla quickly wanted a ride on Lyndon’s back. Thank goodness for the ergo. Our goal was to reach the Lower part of the falls about a mile up. Once we reached the Lower Falls we decided to hike another mile to get to top of Vernal Falls. I had never been to the top of a waterfall and thought we should go for it. By the time we reached the top I was exhausted, my legs felt the burn despite running for the past 7 months, and the edges of the trail made me nervous. Remember I do not like heights; however it was worth the hike to enjoy lunch at the top instead of below. Coming down is so much easier and faster.

After reaching our car, we drove the 30 minutes from the Valley to our “home”. Again it was naps for everyone this afternoon. Then dinner and back down to the Valley floor to relax on Cathedral Beach. The beach was empty and the sun would set soon. For me, it is relaxing to take pictures and capture the moments of myla playing in the water. Plus the lighting was beautiful. I wait all day for light like this. It is hard when you are on vacation and you can not always wait for the Golden hour for the sun to set to start taking pictures. This trip it challenged me to work with the light we had and to see the available options. We stayed until the park ranger informed us the beach was officially closed for the day. The sun had set.

 

A family picture to show that we all were at tunnel view.

El Capitan of left and on the right is Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge.

Midst Trail to Vernal Falls. The ergo was perfect to travel with!

We reach the Lower Falls and opted to go another 1 mile up to the top!

The steps were SOOO steep! and to the left of the railing was a complete drop off!!!

i do not recommend hiking this trail in flip flops. . .

the trail of steps is off to the right in the picture above. . .

Made it to the top!On the way back down. No shoes needed for Myla.Above is a another favorite of Lyndon and myla together.

Trader Joe’s hummus and crackers for snack and dinner outside.

We had Cathedral Beach basically to ourselves with a view of El Capitan.
You could see some climbers up on El Capitan.
We learned most of them climb at night when the sun goes down as the rock is not hot.

We could have played here all day. . .everywhere you look was beautiful!

my clark flip flops. . .

Myla loves to play in the water, no matter how chilly the temperature.

I love being outdoors so this time at Cathedral beach made it a wonderful evening together. We left when the sun went down.

I forgot to mention the stars here are beyond amazing.  You can see millions!