New Music Wendesday!

Since I’m such a huge music fan, I’m constantly listening for new tunes that are pleasing to my ears.  Since I’m going on a road trip this weekend, I’m usually inspired by the amount of time spent in the car to make a new playlist.  In case you need some new tunes, I’ve put a few new songs I’m digging on here today.

I just love music and it can make any situation that much better 🙂  I love music for the simple fact that it not only sounds good but it always brings back certain memories of certain times in your life.  I love when a song comes on and it takes me back to a feeling I had long ago.  It can really bring out the inner child in you sometimes.

Enjoy!

Colors in your hair

I’ve had so much to blog about but so little time lately.  I’m getting ready to head down to the X-games this weekend to shoot some photos and check out all of the amazing-ness that it ensues.  This week, I’ve been trying to get my zen back and just decompress a little bit.  I’ve been working on sleeping at least 8 hours each night and working out after work.  It feels good to take a week to focus on my health and sleeping patterns 🙂

Last week, I had been contemplating putting some fun colors in my hair.  I’ve been seeing them in people’s hair for a while now and never thought it’d go well in my hair but a co-worker/friend of mine had some great colors that she had in her hair.  After asking her about it, she explained the dye (Manic Panic) and how easy it was to put in.  I was curious and sold at this point so she let me borrow her blue and purple.  It will wash out in 10-20 washes so it’s not permanent.  Sounded like the perfect chance to try.  If you’re thinking about it, this is the perfect option because you don’t have to worry about it being stuck on there forever if you don’t like it.  I also intertwined it in the under pieces of my hair so that when I tuck it back, it’s only noticeable in the ends.

Travel Thursdays – Ocean Beach, San Francisco

Last Saturday, my friends and I decided to make the trek to the coast line.  I appeared to be making a weekend out of the beaches in Northern California.  The weather was just too good to pass up and I’d never been to Ocean Beach before.  This is shocking to many people from the Bay Area because it’s such an iconic beach.  Anyway, now that I’ve been there I can say it’s worth a visit.  It’s nothing like the scenic beaches I’ve posted about recently but it’s wide open and you can see parts of the city behind the sand stretches.  There’s also been surf contest held here so you can watch surfers depending on the swell and tides.  Ocean Beach hugs the South side of the Golden Gate Bridge on Hwy 1 and is easily accessible.

There were a lot of people frolicking in the water but don’t let this fool you, the water is FREEZING!

Brie, attempting to test the waters.  She was more brave than me.  I dipped my feet and then backed out.  It’s refreshing but the weather isn’t ever THAT hot at the beaches in Northern California.  It was probably around 70 degrees which was very nice to be soaking in.

Brie and Tuckey.  I love these two, they are the best.

Golden Gate Park is right behind one part of Ocean Beach.

The sand was so soft and warm.

Playing around with photoshop a bit.  I love this picture of these two!

Northern California really has so many treasures to explore.  The beaches just seem so different to me than the Southern California beaches although the weather is probably much warmer down south.  Ocean Beach is a cool place to see and when you’re done there, you could always wander to Golden Gate Park which I find to be extremely beautiful.  It’s lush and filled with meadows and ponds.  No matter where you are, there are always good places to explore.

The Mayonnaise Jar and the Two Beers

My co-worker shared this story with me recently and I really found it to be interesting so I thought I’d share it.  It’s a good reminder of the important things in life 🙂

The Mayonnaise Jar & the Two Beers

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the Mayonnaise Jar and the Two Beers.

A professor stood before his Philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty Mayonnaise Jar
and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar gently. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They again agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

He asked once more if the jar was full.

The students responded with a unanimous “Yes”.

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.”

“The golf balls are the important things ~ your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions ~ and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.”

“The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car.”

“The sand is everything else ~ the small stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.”

“The same goes for life.”

“If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are really important to you.”

“Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.”

“Spend time with your Children.”

“Spend time with your Parents.”

“Visit with Grandparents.”

“Take your Spouse out to dinner.”

“Play another 18 holes.”

“There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.”

“Take care of the golf balls first ~ the things that really matter.”

“Set your priorities.”

“The rest is just sand.”

“One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.”

The professor smiled and said, “I’m glad you asked.”

“The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.”

Father’s Day – Winding the Northern California Coastline

As a continuation from yesterday’s post about my amazing Father’s Day road trip with my dad, today’s a continuation of stops from our trip up the Northern California coast.  We snaked along the Russian River from Hwy101 to Hwy1 on the long, twisted, canopied roads and found treasures around every bend.  When we got to the coast, I’ve never seen it look so spectacular.  The colors were just like Hawaii and the sun was beaming down.  It was a perfect Sunday.

Jenner.

We pulled over at this small restaurant, River’s End, we would frequent all the time when I was younger but we were still full from our breakfast so we just stopped to breath in the ocean air.

The colors couldn’t have been any more outstanding.  You can sit out on this patio here and just take in the magnificent ocean colors.

This is where the river meets the ocean and it’s just beautiful.  Two calming (at times) forces coming together between tides.

The roads are all gently curving to hug the mountain making sure you get every view possible.

My dad enjoying the view.  You can see Goat Rock in the background.  We head there after this stop.

The span crossing over the river.  It’s one of the most scenic drives.  Such a great day road trip to take.

Winding down to Goat Rock beach.

Out beyond Goat Rock there is a large rock formation with a large carved out tunnel.  It’s really cool to see.

I like that on these trips my dad has no problem pulling over to explore and we laugh while snapping photos.  I don’t think he could be any more easy going, especially on such a nice road trip.

The marine layer peeled back even more and the sun soaked the coastline.

Then beyond our belief… A whale popped up!!!!  This was extraordinary.  I’ve never seen one this close to shore.  He/she must have accidentally come in to close and quickly made it’s way out to the deeper waters.  I didn’t get many photos of the whale though because we were just watching in awe.  I’ve never seen one this close before and it was moving with excellent grace.  It was mesmerizing.

Part of Hwy1 matching the coast line.  This stretch is right near the town of Jenner.  It’s a small adorable beach town with seafood shacks and saltwater taffy galore.  It’s about 2 hours North of SF but more than worth the trek.

You can climb on the large rocks.

The sand is pristine.

The curves that lead down to the water line.

Of course I always have my camera in tow 🙂

When I was young, my dad would take me to this beach so we could search the tide pools and look at all the interesting sea creatures.  I was always into the starfish and sometimes we’d even bring a bucket to fill with saltwater just so I could take one home.  I’ve always loved the water, whether it be oceans, rivers, lakes or pools.  I was always swimming in whatever waterway I could find.  Even when I’m not swimming I still enjoy being around water.  There’s something so tranquil and beautiful about it.

This was the perfect road trip and I highly recommend to anyone even if there are no memories attached to it.  It’s beautiful and the things you will find along the way may surprise you.  In one day we managed to see the Russian River, waterfalls, large spanned bridges, the river meeting the ocean, and of course the wonderful coastline.  I enjoyed a great Father’s Day with my dad and I hope you all did as well 😀

Now and Then on the Russian River

I truly feel lucky enough to say that I have two great father’s and mother’s.  Both parents have remarried and to two people that I just adore.  Each holiday I try to split with both sides of the family but since I celebrated last weekend with dinner with my step dad, this actual Father’s Day was spent bringing memories back with my dad.  As a kid, I remember us always just hopping in the car and going somewhere for the day.  Specifically, the Russian River or the beach.  This Father’s Day, I thought it’d be a great idea to head back to some of the places that we had gone to many times before.  This way we’d have time to catch up and also enjoy the beautiful weather.  It was such a great day.

We left around 7:45am on Sunday morning so our first stop was in Guerneville, CA for some coffee and breakfast.  It was so beautiful and right alongside the Russian River.

We fueled up and hit the road again.  Here’s my dad at stop number 1!

Our next stop is a place we used to frequent lots when I was younger.  My dad’s great uncle showed him this place and it’s somewhere we had always visited.  The Caz Sonoma Inn is an old estate that frequents typically a lot of musicians from the Berkeley Music School.  Located in the beautiful Redwood forest, it’s a quiet and serene place to be.

There were beautiful butterflies everywhere.  They seemed to have no fear either, they were fluttering all around us.

The rainbow trout pond.  We used to always come out here and feed their rainbow trout.  We used to fish a lot together when I was younger and I always liked that we could check out this beautiful area of the Russian River.

When you feed them, they start going crazy and fighting for the food.

There’s actually a large waterfall to the right of this shed.  You can’t see it, but it streamlines down from quite a ways up the hillside.  The sound is so soothing.

My dad feeding the fish.

The beautiful lodge.

The tall, beautiful trees!

The long walkways through the forest.

After a trip down memory lane here, we hit the long, windy, beautiful roads and headed towards the coast.  What we saw there was incredible.  I’ll share those photos tomorrow.  I hope everyone had a great weekend and spent time celebrating Father’s Day.

❤ B

You don’t need to explain if everything’s changed, just know I’m just like you

I’ve posted a few times about this band because I simply cannot get enough.  Grouplove has been on my musical radar ever since I’ve had the amazing pleasure of seeing them live over a year ago.  Since then, I’ve seen them three times and I can’t wait to see them again.  I was beyond thrilled when they were announced to take the stage at our beloved BFD this year.  Of course I was snapping photos and dancing at the same time.  They might not be technically the best photographs for the music world but I couldn’t resist rocking out to one of my favorites 🙂

Love this dress.  Supposedly, Hannah (pictured above) is from the bay area!

Live105 as always bringing the good stuff.

Happy Friday everybody and have a great weekend!  Make sure you tell your dad that you love them this weekend and celebrate Father’s Day if you can 🙂

Let the good times roll

I still have more BFD photos to share but I have so many files that I need to get organized before I can post the rest.  Until then, here’s another look into my insta-life.  Why is Instagram truly the best?!  I love seeing people’s photos of where they are and what they are doing.  Not to mention, the filters can make some photos spectacular.  Some of these photos however are just iPhone photos and not instagrammed.  Happy Wednesday!

Delicious coffees on Haight St.

The new guy I’m working with is adorable!

Thank god for daylight savings time.  I love evening walks when the weather is still nice like this.

Enjoying the MGM pool while I was in Vegas.

Weekend relaxing.

The barn.

When I ran into my brother and his wife in the Bellagio in Las Vegas!!!

San Francisco lunches.

Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s.

Pool evenings with Brie 🙂

Backstage view from the main stage at BFD.

crazy skies one night at the barn.

My dad came out to the barn to hang out with me one night.  It was so nice! 🙂

Driving over the Golden Gate to go sky diving.  It was the perfect day!

I lean against the wind, pretend that I am weightless and in this moment I am happy

Where to start with this one…  A few months ago I had a friend ask me if I wanted to go skydiving for her birthday.  This is something that I’ve always wanted to do but never really had anyone around me ready to pull the trigger on actually going (except my brother but he’s been all over the world and we haven’t had the chance to go together).  This time around my friend was asking me because there was a Groupon and when I “accidentally” missed the deadline on buying it a few months back, I instantly regretted not getting it.  Little did I know, this is peak season for skydiving and she couldn’t get her reservation until this past weekend.  On top of that, one of the girls had to bail because of a recent small medical issue.  This is where it all swings back to me.  I was offered her Groupon less than 24 hours before our “jump.”  For me, this wasn’t enough time for my mind to mentally prepare myself for what I was getting into but knowing that I had two friends going who were just as scared was a major relief.

Of course your mind floods with all of the terrible thoughts you can only think before you go defy death and that youtube of that poor 80 year old woman that slipped partially out of her harness replays over and over in your head but as soon as we got there, those thoughts all seem to become more and more distant.  The hardest part for me was that I would be jumping without my friends in the plane because they didn’t have room for all of us in their tiny planes.  They had a few different planes just hot lapping basically as the different jumping groups came throughout the day.  That was one of the most exciting parts, seeing the people landing and how happy they were.  I knew I had made the right decision.

With all of this being said, on this major adventure I had my guide jumper and a photographer with me on my journey.  I jumped at Nor Cal Sky Dive in Cloverdale, CA (pretty much Napa/wine country area).  We used a GoPro which as always are the best option for anything high speed.  All photos below were shot with a GoPro.  Enjoy!

I met my guide, Tyler, and he just told me to follow him.  At this point I didn’t realize we were about to take off.  No real instruction, just follow the man my life was in the hands of.

The photographer, Josh, did such a great job.  He was there every step of the way.

Tyler give me the low down.

This is when it started to get real.  He was explaining how we were going to have to climb out on the wing a bit…  Also, I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my friends!  I didn’t know we were actually leaving haha but that was probably for the best : )

Taking my instructions very seriously at this point.

There’s Josh, I don’t know how he stays so steady but he’s truly a bird of flight.

Loading up.

Just trying to talk it out while we take flight.

He was very reassuring, thank god!

Starting to climb above 9,000ft.

Telling me how it’s all going to happen.

Checking the altitude.

Getting connected to Tyler.  This was reassuring because I could feel the harness tightening which is exactly what you want to feel at this moment.  However, I’m looking out thinking holy $#@! this is really high but beautiful at the same time.

At this point, when the door opened I was terrified!  But also beyond curious.

This is what it looks like to be over 9,000 ft above the earth.

Pretty surreal.

Birds eye view.

Josh climbing out of the plane.

Realizing this is really happening.

Trying to stabilize in the winds up there is so hard!  You also have the heavy hum of the propellers in your ears.

At this point, I’m pretty sure I stopped breathing just a little bit.

Most people say the jump is the best part for all the views.  I just didn’t even want to see the moment I jumped.  I closed my eyes and let him gently guide me out of the plane.

Free fallin’

You know those dreams where you are falling?  That’s what the initial fall from the plane felt like and then as soon as our bodies stabilized, the feeling was indescribable.  One of the most amazing feelings I have ever experienced.  It was also incredibly quiet.  I couldn’t believe it.  I just had my eyes wide open and couldn’t help the HUGE smile on my face.

Above the world.  I don’t have to wonder what it would feel like to fly anymore 🙂

I don’t know how he did it but Josh caught up to us and as we were free falling we were just all sharing this moment of awesome-ness.

What it feels like to go 120 mph with no machinery.  All free fall.

Deploying the chute!

All of the sudden, you are just halted as the chute starts to expand to catch your weightless bodies.

At this point, you really start to enjoy the views as everything starts to slow down.

Another favorite part of this experience for me was turning once the chute has deployed.  It’s one of the coolest feelings to just be swooshed from side to side in the completely quiet skies.  It’s like you’re a feather flowing from side to side all the way back to earth.

Getting ready for landing.

And just like that, I was back on the ground again.  Like nothing had happened.  Except, everything had happened.

I literally could not stop laughing and smiling.  I couldn’t even fathom what had just happened.  I had just gotten one of the most amazing tours of Northern California a person could ever experience.

Feet on ground.

I can’t even explain what this felt like.  However, I can say that I would have been very sad had I not ever done this knowing now how amazing it is.

We also took a few iPhone photos of each other and I thought I’d share those as well 🙂  Below are personal photos.

Gearing up!

Candace gearing up!

Candace coming down!  Since I jumped first, I got to watch them come down 🙂

Both of them floating in.

Sam and her jumper.

Candace and her jumper.

The three of us bonding over this insane moment we shared.

Post jump lunch at one of the most amazing BBQ restaurants in Cloverdale.

Every kind of meat you could ever want.  I mean after all, we deserved it!

What a fun way to end a life changing adventure.  There was nothing notable from the rest of the weekend that could top my Saturday’s event so for the rest of the weekend I just relaxed and reveled in all my dare-devil glory.  After all, doing the scariest things often lead to the most satisfaction.  Not to mention, I never in a million years thought I’d ever say… I’d do it again 🙂

Happy Monday everybody!

Get happy. Outside!

I thought I’d switch it up a little since it’s Friday.  I’ve had a week full of horse riding and spending time outdoors which inspired me to get this outdoor set up.  I’m inside typically a good chunk of the day at work so on my lunches and after work, I love to be outside.  I have the perfect little stoop to relax on that’s shaded for the weekend mornings or cool evenings.  I wanted to be able to make a space I could enjoy so alas, here’s my new outdoor nook!  I have a few more ideas I want to put into make it this more of an actual outdoor “living” space if you will and I’ll share as I update.

It’s a simple wire set.

I have some greenery around as well 🙂

It’s a simple space that I hope to bring to life over the next couple of weeks so stay tuned!  Also, if you have any fun ideas or patios I’d love to hear/see.  It’s amazing what fresh air can do for you.  I always feel so much better just sitting outside with the sound of the birds and I actually have a very green back yard and side yard.  I’ll have to do a garden post soon.

Have a wonderful weekend!