Photodyssey: Buildings and Boys

I'm in the middle of figuring out my new DSLR camera and the best way to do it just to shoot. But how many photos of my dishes can I take? So we drove to the picturesque town of Solvang, just north of Santa Barbara, to discuss aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

Not that I learned anything. I just took pictures and yelled at John, "Why is it so light?!"

And, "Why is it so dark?!"

Then we had a snack. A raspberry buttercream snack.

Then more yelling to John, who used to have an SLR camera back in the 80's, (which is when Hartwell thinks everything old is from), so he knows a lot about photography.

Baby steps. 

Back to boys. Much easier...

Night shooting? I'll give it a whirl.

The boys were as patient as boys can be, so we went back to the hotel and played Life. Which is so much more depressing to play as an adult. And, of course, Beckett won. Even though he barely played and mostly skipped around the room like a little squirrel. Maybe we can learn from that? Which would be, it's okay, my mom is playing for me!

The next morning, we woke up early for pancakes. Hartwell likes to do the pose from the Nintendo DS commercials. Everywhere.

After breakfast, I forced the boys to walk around and let me take pictures of them. It was cold. And the boys were uncooperative. Luckily, this bakery was amenable.

Pretty sure I yelled at them to get this photo.

And then it all fell apart. Too cold!

Back to buildings.

I was waiting for this place to open. Jule Hus, Christmas all year round! I needed candles for my german pyramid advent thing. And I can only find them online and I can never tell if they are the right size. Found some for $5. Yay, me!

More photos.

I think the first thing to do to feel like a fancy photographer is to set your camera to sepia. Fancy.

Bye to Solvang, and now back home. John wanted a photo of this crazy log cabin farm house and barn. But we were driving. So I had to continuous shoot out the window. Which made the foreground blurry. Which made it look miniature. Adorable!

Just keep shooting...

And finally back to the park where Beckett finally decided to try the zip line. He went once and swore it off. Then went one more time.

It's sort of a weird thing, a photo vacation. I still know very little about my camera, but I am also less likely to keep it on auto now. Mostly I like taking photos of the boys. Which was nearly impossible with their not sit stillableness. Always on the move. Always with great faces that get blurred.

Always saying, "Mom...stop taking my picture!"

Photodyssey: Sepia and Zipline

It finally stopped raining in Altadena and I could finally go outside and take some photos/mess around with my camera. Very exciting! And then John goes and surprises me, literally, with a mini trip to Solvang, a tiny Danish-esque village on the Central Coast.

Our first stop, was a park near the Ventura Marina that beheld a zipline! We packed a picnic lunch and while we ate, Hartwell explained his many plans for the zipline. He was pretty sure there was no height requirement and was positive it was free.

He's six going on fourteen.

Beckett with his self-inflicted haircut.

And...zipline! What's better than a seaside zipline?!

We spent a couple hours at the park, Hartwell zipping, John and Beckett exploring. Then back in the car. Where I messed with my camera some more.

Sepia? Yes, please.

They just wanted to get to the hotel. They LOVE a hotel.

They didn't want to leave the tiny room with the bad art. But I promised Aebelskiver.

Everybody loves Aebelskiver.

YOU need a craze-cation!

For John's birthday we went on a crazy, last-minute vacation. We drove up to Refugio Beach, which is north of Santa Barbara, for a crazy picnic and some fishing. 

Waaay before kids John and I would take Barkley up to Malibu really early in the morning. He would kayak, (John not Barkley. Basset hounds can't swim!) and I would sit on the beach and read terrible magazines. Then he'd come back and we'd cook out sausages and eat homemade pasta salads and cake. Pineapple upside-down cake, to be specific. 

Usually, because we were so early, it was overcast and sometimes drizzling. So it became Crazy Picnic. Because anyone else would just stay home.

Back to the latest Crazy Picnic, we arrived at the beach around 9 and it was capital "c" Cold! Some kind of freak storm must've been pushing through because it's early September and we were freezing!

To warm up, John helped the boys build a river from the stream to the ocean:

Then he went fishing for a while and we sat at the picnic table and had snacks and shivered.

Bee was the coldest:

After sausages and chocolate cake, we drove to our hotel. The only available room in the area was in Lompoc. What to say about Lompoc? There are a lot of murals. Their downtown area is probably pretty nice when things are open. John coined it Radiator Springs. I think it needs a little love.

We ate at the China Bowl, which has been around since 1946.

It was pretty amazing. Food not too shabby for the middle of nowhere. We actually over ordered and still paid under $40. Mostly I liked the decor and colors. Here is a fountain-ie shrine deal with a giant cherry tree:

Orange curved wall with pink rook tiles? Thank you.

Our most favorite thing was the jukebox. It had Patsy Cline, Rod Stewart and Sisco. Because nothing says "Chinese food," like the Thong Song. Hartwell had fun picking songs and even found fifty cents in the coin return! Yay for free songs! 

I know you want to know how you get $7 of free food. If you spend $40, you get eggroll. We fell for it. Deliciously.

We returned to the hotel and the boys swan while I nearly passed out in the amazing bed while watching Tom Hanks chase Ewan McGregor. That thing was like mama bear's bed. A little too soft, but also just right.

The next morning we went to breakfast in Solvang. Danish pancakes and sausages. 

I went to a Christmas store and bought some Russian ornaments, hung out in a used bookstore, and found a delicious craft store full of dreams!

Oh, and this happened:

and this:

 

"Would you like a glitter tattoo?"

"Yes."

"What would you like? A skull?"

"Yes! Wait. A rose! A rose!"

"What colors do you like?"

"Pink and purple. And red!"

The lady never asked us. We just sort of sat while the kids were made beautiful.  It made them so happy. 

After that, lunch and aebelskiver. I went native and had a crazy danish open faced sandwich, which I knew would be the thing my Norwegian dad would have ordered.

Then we drove home. Hartwell kept saying stuff like, "Next time we stay at that hotel..."
I think Lompoc is a one time town, sorry Hartwell. But it did remind me of how much fun we would have if we vacationed up the coast with a little trailer. All the awesome California towns with crazy restaurants waiting for spider man and Lydia, the tattooed Hartwell.