Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Moments

There are some moments that are worth reliving. Sometimes being away from home is difficult, but there are also some great things about southern California life. I celebrated Thanksgiving with The Engineer early since I would be in Cali working for the real deal. We only worked a few hours in the morning doing the bare essentials and got the rest of the day off and had a big meal catered for us mid afternoon. Since I was off early (read - during daylight hours) I went for a run on the beach, something I haven't been able to do since the time changed making it dark when I get off work. Before I walked over to Thanksgiving dinner I took a stroll to the cliff to enjoy the beautiful day :)
 
 
And a panoramic picture to sum it all up. Despite the way the picture makes it look, the cliff is pretty straight. 
 
 
So pretty. Another thing that was awesome when I returned from time off was Christmas lights in my complex! Made me super happy :)
 
 
One common occurrence on the beach is photo sessions. Typically families or couples. When I could run on the beach each night I would easily see 3-4 professional photographers capturing a period in time in someones life. I'm guessing the one below was an engagement session or something similar given the heart they made with the kelp on the beach. Creative, I like it.
 

 
Also captured that night, the Liberty Island (the dredge that is currently paying my bills ;-)) digging at sunset in the borrow area visible from my kitchen. 
 
 
Final thought: carnivore dinner with co workers. 
 
 
Yea, they were awesome. 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Zoo and Mini Thanksgiving

I wanted to do something fun on my time off, and we happened to have free tickets to the zoo! Now I didn't have high expectations for the zoo, but they were exceeded so I consider that a success! The animals were pretty active. Some monkeys were displaying some impressive aerobatic skills and the tortoises were walking! We saw my favorite, the giraffes  :)
 
 
There was also a giraffe with black spots instead of brown ones. Something new every day! The elephants were pretty exciting too. This one was playing with a big barrel hanging from a tree, but the mean ol zoo keeper hung it inside the metal frame that is protecting the tree from being knocked over by the elephants, thus making it a little hard to play with! Nonetheless, the attempt at getting it out was probably just as entertaining as playing with the drum would be. Maybe even better since there was a challenge.
 
 
When were leaving the zoo we spotted someone with the most expensive camera lens I think I've ever seen. The funny part was that he was photographing some birds (I don't remember what they were but it was something like a duck or a pelican...nothing crazy) that weren't very far away, and I believe they were surrounded by Disney rock....so not too sure what he really needed his crazy expensive lens for. Whatever it was, I'm sure the picture was absolutely awesome!
 
 
I decided I wanted to cook an early Thanksgiving dinner for The Engineer and myself to enjoy together since I would be on rotation for the real thanksgiving. I didn't realize that I had never cooked a turkey before! (Ok I cheated, I cooked a turkey breast, but a whole turkey would have been overkill). We made our own cranberry sauce which turned out pretty good! I was glad we took the time to do it :) 
 

 
I then had my second Thanksgiving when I got to San Diego, while it was fun, the food was all catered, so you couldn't taste the love. It was still nice to get together. And since it was Thanksgiving and all, we only worked a few hours that day. So I went for a run on the beach thus getting in my turkey trot after all :-D Getting off work early is a big treat now that the sun sets so early out here...4:45 and its below the horizon! Yeeps! Not a big fan of daylight savings. I wish we could vote on it.