Day Trip and a New App

We haven't had much rain around here this season. So when we had a storm move through here earlier this week, I was a bit excited that one of my favorite day trip locations might actually have received a bit of snow. I was hoping there was enough snow to be able to take my iPhone and my DSLR along to capture some incredible photos.

So with a couple of friends and their children, we made the drive to Yosemite yesterday. We took along layers of clothing, expecting it to be a bit on the chilly side and possibly see some snow on the valley floor.

Unfortunately, the snow that fell on Tuesday had no chance of lasting with our warm spring temperatures. Even though we didn't see any snow in Yosemite Valley, the tops of the towering granite mountains had enough snow to add just a bit of a reminder that it really is still early spring.

On our way out of the park, we did stop at one of my favorite spots to take a photo:

Before photo, straight from my iPhone with no edits and no filters

Once I arrived back home, I took a bit of time to edit this photo with a new photo editing app:

After photo, edit done with Enlight

What app did I use? I have been experimenting with Enlight. Not sure how I found out about this app, but I am loving all of the features of this app. Now, I am not usually one to pay for an app, but because I love photography, I decided the price was worth it.

On the Enlight blog and their Facebook page, they are starting to share some tutorials on how to use some of the features contained in the app to help you create some incredible images.

If you give Enlight a shot, be sure to tag me in one of your photos on Instagram. I would love to see what you create!

17 Mile Drive

Do you have a least favorite season? Mine is winter.

Contrary to popular belief, the sun is not always shining in California. Especially in the Central California Valley in winter.

We have quite a few foggy days here, and sometimes a week can go by without us seeing blue skies and sunshine.

Because I love getting a healthy dose of natural vitamin D (aka. sunshine!) on a regular basis, I knew, after a week of hardly seeing any sunshine, I needed to find some, somewhere!

So last weekend, my gracious husband decided to put some projects on hold and treat me to a day out on the California coast. We decided to try to find a deli (we found an amazing one!), pick up some sandwiches for lunch, and head over to 17 Mile Drive along the Pacific coastline.

It was an incredibly gorgeous day!

Once we finished driving (and stopping at many spots!) along 17 Mile Drive, we headed down to Point Lobos to do a little walking around before dinner.

It truly amazes me how many beautiful spots there are in California! 

Where do you like to go for day trips in your area?

An Unplanned Summer Day Trip

My husband decided to take the day off today, so we got Kelsey up a little earlier than usual and made our way to this location:

No, we didn’t travel to Philadelphia. We went to the Jelly Belly Factory! We have been there quite a few times, but it is still a fun destination with a free tour and a free bag of Jelly Bellys at the end of the tour.

Then we headed here for lunch:

We don’t have a Chick-fil-a very close to our home, so we made sure to stop here for lunch today. Their chicken sandwiches are so good and I just love their fries.

Before heading home we stopped here (Barnes & Nobles):

The closest book store to us is over 30 minutes away. My one big unrealistic dream would be to have a room with floor to ceiling bookshelves completely filled with books. Maybe one day! The only thing we bought here was a Sherlock Holmes book for Kelsey. If I had unlimited funds, I would have bought a lot of books today!

Question for you: Where do you like to go on day trips?

Is it summer yet?

Canoeing on Lake Merritt in Oakland, July 2010

Sure is hard to believe it was three years ago that I drove my kids nuts! During the summer of 2010, I took my kids on some surprise day trips through the summer because I knew they were getting older and we wouldn’t always have the opportunity to do some of these things together. Now that Matthew has graduated and is working full time, I am thankful we took the time to spend together on these trips.

So this upcoming summer will be the first time that Kelsey and I will spend the whole summer together, just the two of us. Now it is not that we haven’t spent the whole school together, because we have. But during the school year, there are schedules to keep and definitely things that need to be done. For summer though, my youngest child would probably prefer to stay home just about every day, reading, or creating, or hanging out (literally!) in a tree in our backyard. She is definitely my homebody child.

To combat the homebody syndrome and to help her spend some fun time with a few of her friends, I decided we needed to come up with a plan. We sat down the other day and wrote down some ideas of day trips to go on this summer. Here is the list we came up with:

1. Tubing/rafting in Yosemite http://www.yosemitepark.com/rafting.aspx

2. Exploratorium http://www.exploratorium.edu/

3. Bowling

4. Rafting by Knight's Ferry http://raftadventure.com/

5. Jelly Belly Factory http://www.jellybelly.com/visit_jelly_belly/california_factory_tours.aspx

6. Cable Car Museum and ride Cable Cars http://www.cablecarmuseum.org/

7. Slumber Party

The fun part about this list is for each day trip, she gets to invite one of her friends along each time. I think this will be fun way for us to spend our summer and I am looking forward to sharing our adventures with you!

What plans do you have for your summer? I would love to hear about them!