Montery, Pacific Grove, and Carmel...Part III

After our first day around Monterey, Ty and I decided to DRIVE and not WALK to check out more of Pacific Grove and Carmel. This was a wise move on our part and our feet were grateful!

Ty in Pacific Grove - I love love all the Cypress trees that grow in this area, so pretty!


On our way to Carmel, along one of the many beach/scenic stops we made...


We had to learn how to re-master the self-taken portraits with our new camera, it took a little work and this wasn't the best, but they got better as the day went on:)


More of the view - look how gorgeous and blue the water is!


Along the drive are all these pro golf courses - this is where Pebble Peach is and I would learn to be better at golf if I could play here:)


This is the "Lone Cypress" that grew on this rock out in the ocean and is over 250 years old.


This is the home that overlooks that view above...can you imagine? This house was just RIDICULOUS, seriously one of the biggest homes I've ever seen.


Carmel Beach - you can see how the golf course literally goes right up to the ocean, love it!


More of the golf course and the pretty homes...


Ty and I soaking up the sun on the beach, which was probably one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to...perfection!


Waves...


One final pic before we started back on our scenic drive.


After leaving the beach we drove up into the hills, and this is what we saw:


More of the same...I was in love with the view here!


Alright - this ends Carmel! After our little excursion we headed back to Monterey where we spent the last day of our trip. I have a few final pics from the rest of our trip that I'll try and post later, but they aren't nearly as beautiful as this last bunch...but they're pretty comical! Stay tuned...

Montery, Pacific Grove, and Carmel...Part II

After getting settled into the hotel, sharing a nice glass of wine (or two)...We headed out to check out our new surroundings. Keeping in tradition with all our past vacations, Ty and I decided that we needed to check out everything there was to see within a 5 mile radius of our hotel...on foot. We do this every time and NEVER seem to learn our lesson. It's like we're over-excited children who get let loose in a candy-store and eat so much candy they get sick, except we make our feet sick! Anyhow - there was a LOT to check out, so we didn't mind our feet till the next morning:)

Our first trip was over to the wharf...


We sat down for a quick second in a little restaurant right on the wharf with great views for some photo-ops:


This guy literally came RIGHT up to where we were sitting, if there hadn't been glass between us, I could have caught him!


More boats, more ocean, more prettiness...


Ty and I got a little blown away trying to get our picture taken together on the wharf, but it still works...look at how blue that sky is!


We kept hearing all these sea lions but couldn't find them...till we circled round to the other end of the wharf and saw them all clumped together!


The sea lions and their synchronized swimming routine, it was so funny!


Look at this guy!


Cannery Row...which was made famous by Steinbeck's classic "Cannery Row," he was very clever that Steinbeck. Anyhow - so we went, it was nice... but very much like Old Town Scottsdale. Take Old Town and replace everything with the word Southwest, to Fish..voila...you have Cannery Row!


After Cannery Row we reached Pacific Grove, yes that's right...we walked from Monterey to Pacific Grove...we crossed a small town...like I said we like to walk our feet off the first day we get anywhere! So, after reaching PG, we decided to turn back and begin the long trek home. On our way we came across this building below, which is the VERY FIRST brick home built in Monterey, so it equaled a photo opportunity...Is anyone home??



Ty and I realized we've been really deprived of vegetation and flowers after we looked through our pictures on our way home, as this is just one of MANY with flowers..hahaha! In our defense we have a new camera that takes awesome pictures! I think we started to think we were shooting works of art with our little camera, behold the following pictures:


See, definitely a "framer" - right?


Flowers by Jelinek II:


Oh, we got creative here...JuliAnna with Flowers:


Back to single shots of the flowers!


Phew, we've almost made it home! This is the arch to the side entrance of our suite.


Still feeling photographically talented, I kept taking pictures of our hotel...I played with the tinting once I uploaded these next two and I think they look pretty!


Front of our hotel right before we called it a night, our feet were thankful!


Okay...end of DAY ONE! Like I said, we took lots of pictures:) Next up...Carmel!

Montery, Pacific Grove, and Carmel...Part I

Since Ty flew out to CA for the Gala, we figured that we'd plan a mini-vacation to take advantage of once the event was over...Knowing I'd need a break, Ty planned the entire vacation as a surprise to me, so even though I knew we were going on a vacation I had no idea where, till about an hour into our drive. He wound up taking me to Monterey, CA and the neighboring cities of Pacific Grove and Carmel. HANDS DOWN this is one of the prettiest places I've ever been! Scenic and so much to do all at the same time! Settle in for some major blog posts, cause there was some major picture taking going on:)

Ty starting out on the road:


Ahh...my favorite road-trip companion (beside Ty of course!) the large Diet Coke, courtesy of McDonald's:


I'm excited to hit the road, and suffering from crazy misplaced hair syndrome (a very real sickness) all at the same time:


On the road, I thought this was SO pretty:


Here's where I got clued in to where we were going:


Our GORGEOUS hotel, right in the heart of Historic Downtown Monterey:


Our private little patio right outside of our room - complete with chairs and wine:


Cheers! We finally made it:

My VERY FIRST Gala!!!

Hi, Everyone!!! Sorry for the long long absence from the blog, but as many of you know, I was in CA for nearly the last three weeks putting the final touches on my very first Gala for my work. I've helped out with plenty of events in the past, but this was my very first Gala that was 100% under my control...which was great...but that also meant it was 100% on my shoulders whether the event would be a huge success or a huge failure! AND I'm so happy to report it was a great success!! Here's a little play-by-play of the day-of:

Here's the St. Regis ballroom being prepped and set for the big night:


More prepping, this is the head table where honorees Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Andy Garcia were sat:


People starting to file into the general reception which was held under a beautiful tent on the terrace of the St. Regis overlooking the San Francisco sky:


The AMAZING latin/afro jazz band we had play during the reception...if you look closely there's a special guest with them on stage that many of you might recognize:


WOW...the tent packed with people towards the end of the reception:


The beautiful St. Regis ballroom, set and ready to go...the program starts:


Okay, so the next couple pics get a little fuzzy...when you're coordinating and running the event, you sit in the very back of the room so you can enter and exit as you please, which proves less distracting when you're seated in the back BUT equals poor photos! Here our President is handing off the award to Andy Garcia for his work in championing for the principles of freedom through his personally directed films about his homeland, Cuba. I can't even begin to tell you how AMAZING and MOVING Andy's speech was! I'll try and send a link once the video is up on our website of the event so you can all watch for yourselves because I can't even attempt to describe it and do it justice:


Next up was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is quite possibly the cutest and most sincere person I've ever met. He also gave an amazingly inspirational speech, so I'll definitely try to get a link to the video up soon!! Note how tiny he is behind the podium, he may be small but packs a mighty message:


All in all, it was truly a magical night - Thank you to everyone for all their encouragement over these last few months! I know I couldn't have done it without the prayers and notes of encouragement along the way:) Stay tuned for more blog posts...right after the event, Ty took me and my tired self to Monterey/Carmel, CA for some much needed R&R. We have a ton of pictures so I'll be sharing that soon!

Through the Storm

For all of you readers in the Valley, I'm sure you got to watch the amazing thunder storm last night, it was HUGE! I'm a big fan of lightning... let me rephrase, I'm a big fan of lightning from a safe distance and in the comfort of my own home:) But regardless, I was sitting upstairs on our bed watching the storm rip through the neighborhood while the sky seemed lit up from within and it suddenly dawned on me...Right now I feel like my life is a lot like that thunderstorm.

There's so much going on, a lot of thunderous "rumblings," if you will. But what's amazing is that as I was watching the storm, the lightning on display was just SO beautiful. The storm was ugly with wind and rain, but the light show was nearly awe inspiring with its magnificence. Then it struck me, God always has a way of making the nastiest storms beautiful, and I need to rest in the fact that my storms of the moment are making way for something beautiful and perhaps even awe-inspiring.

So readers, remember despite the wind and rain that always comes, find the beauty in your storm. Yes, I am a cheese-ball... But a very blessed Cheese-ball with so much to be thankful for!

The Hills Have NO Hills...

Okay...so I must digress - I hate The Hills. You know that show about those snot-wads in Beverly Hills? BUT that's not the point of this little blog post, the point is that while I was perusing Instyle.com, as a breather from the insanity that is currently my work, I saw that their "Pick of the Day" was dear LC. I find her rather boring really, but I nearly spit out my burrito when I got a closer look. When did it become the fashion to drown oneself in far too long of a garment AND much worse, make it appear as though one's chest is hanging as only a 90-year-old cheerleader who doesn't believe in wearing bras can??? It looks like they're nearly to her navel. CLEARLY the hills have NO hills! Not that we women don't understand LC's plight, but we have ways to help ourselves out, they're called bras.

Deep thoughts readers, deep thoughts...