In early April I met my sister and her family in San Francisco.  Much of my time was spent babysitting, but we did get out and do a little sightseeing.  The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park was in bloom and so beautiful.

I went to Arizona twice this winter ~ once to visit with my college girlfriends and families and once to run the P.F. Chang’s half-marathon.  Both trips were a great escape from the cold.

I also returned to Colorado for a few ski trips this winter.  We got really lucky with snow conditions on both of my visits to Summit County!  I took the photo below with point-and-shoot camera.  Someday I’ll take the d700 with me on the slopes.

We parked our golf cart right next to this chicken that posed so nicely for me!

The boats in the harbor were so weathered and beautiful.

Our hotel was across that wooden bridge from the rest of the island. It was nice to have a sheltered area for swimming and fishing. That night was the last street festival of the season.  We ate some elote (corn) and these delicious marquesitas, which are like a rolled crepe.  Yum.

We spent the rest of the trip in a resort south of Playa del Carmen.  We made a couple trips into Playa for shopping (and photographing).  You just don’t find this color in Minnesota! 

I always have the hardest time deciding which camera lenses to bring on vacation.  I want to bring them all, but it’s just too much to pack (I only travel with a carry-on) and I worry about my equipment being stolen or damaged.  One lens that I played around with was a super cheap ($35!) Diana lens.  It’s a plastic toy lens that doesn’t really focus ~ and that’s the point!  It created some dreamy images like the ones above and below.  What a fun effect! 

I snapped so many photos of the textures.

We went on a sunset birdwatching tour through the Sian Ken biosphere reserve near Tulum.  We cruised around as the sunset and then waited for all of these birds to flock to one magical island.  It was incredible!    We saw so many different species: Roseated spoonbills, egrets (reddish, snowy, and great), herons (little blue, great blue, great white, boat bill, tri-colored and wurderman’s), anhingas, royal terns, frigatebirds, goldenfront woodpeckers, and as you can see in the photo above, an American crocodile (one of several we saw!).

Lots of blue, turquoise and yellow:

Merry Christmas

I’m going on vacation . . .

I’ll be back in 2009 with a New Year’s day family session!