Bicycling and Scrapbooking in Northern California

(yes, Linda, I'm wearing a helmet!)

Just a short little note to let you all know I'm home from Pacific Grove where I spent the better part of 4 days bonding with my laptop and creating over 50 pages of digital scrapbook layouts. It was fun, intense, rewarding, and fattening (we got fed a lot), and it was a great change of scenery for me as well as a chance to spend time with my scrapbooking buddies.

Speaking of the scenery, I took time out to enjoy it by getting out on my bike. From the Asilomar conference grounds it's an easy along-the-coast bike ride north to Monterey Bay, Fisherman's Wharf, the Aquarium, and Cannery Row (more photos tomorrow). I wore shorts and a t-shirt and I got sunburned so that tells you what the weather was like! Super-gorgeous for January in northern Cali! Amazing, really.

I will post more tomorrow; today I'm taking a bit of a break from my keyboard to do some sewing, reading, and, ok, I'll admit it, some napping!

My Eco-Friendly House and Car

I'm going to take a bit of a breather from the computer for the next two days. At least, that's the plan. Sometimes, even when I say that, I am drawn back by the need to just quickly check my e-mail, or read a few blogs, design just one thing, and pretty soon I've sat at my keyboard for most of a day.

So I'll leave you with just a few photos that I uploaded yesterday, and was going to upload a bunch more but got distracted by something .... hm, I think it was reading blogs first, then I designed a new piece of digital scrapbook paper (which you can see here), then Mike suggested a movie which I seldom pass up (we watched "21" as a Netflix instant play movie), then . . . I don't know, probably another movie and then I had new books from the library to delve into, well, you get the idea. I'm highly distractable (is that a word?) lately, and sometimes that just means I need a change of pace.

Thus, the breather from the computer. I'll spend time with a friend in Napa, outside taking photos of this sunny day in the midst of rainy ones, and in my craft room doing creative things with my hands that don't involve a keyboard.

Meanwhile, here are just a few photos from our recent driving tour of northern California (Redding, Eureka, Crescent City, etc.). I'll post more later. Maybe. Enjoy!
Here's my new eco-friendly house, LOL! Mike and I discovered this trio of "tree-houses" in Redding while we were visiting the Sundial Bridge and the nearby arboretum and gardens. Totally made of twisted vines and branches, they almost look like they grew there on their own.

Come on in!
Further north there were places to watch the wild elk.
Of course, they don't want you to get too close as they are highly unpredictable. I, of course, being a rebel, had to walk out past the sign warning me to stay back. (Mike takes pictures of such acts to have in case he ever needs "evidence.")
There was a huge puddle at one place that we drove through to get to the parking area. I saw a car barrel through there very fast with the water spraying up six feet high and thought, wow, that looks like fun! So my car, Pretty Penny (yes, my car has a name, all my cars have had names, don't yours?), and I decided to try it, too.
Who says a hybrid car can't also be daring? :-D

And a couple more photos to remind you to relax and take time to do the things you love:

The northern California coast.

A fly fisherman on the Sacrament River, Redding, CA.

Have a great weekend!