This past January, I made the spontaneous decision of flying to San Francisco two hours before my flight left.

Was I crazy? Probably.
Was it a little rash? Probably.
But was it an experience I’ll never forget? Most definitely.

I arrived in San Francisco late that Sunday night and was picked up by Dustin Bess who is currently photographing all the LDS Temples. We kicked off the night by driving to the Golden Gate bridge and photographing its majesty and glory. We were bombarded with heavy, chilly winds but I was having the time of my life. Spontaneity brings out my giggly, laughing, crazy side which sometimes doesn’t come out enough in ‘real life’.

The next morning, I woke up to this beautiful skyline of San Francisco. I was pumped and excited for a day full of adventures!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. I love the buildings, the angle, and the 2 birds flying above.

One thing I absolutely love about San Francisco is all the old architecture. This old theater was calling out to me with its bright red, dilapidated facade and big, bold letters.

Chess anyone?

The street we walked on was lined with murals and random artwork. So much character and eye candy to behold :)

Peace.

It was fun experimenting with ‘street photography’. Let’s just say, even though there was plenty of awesome subject matter to shoot, I am not very good at shooting from my waist ;)

This was a pier we found at the Point Reyes National Seashore. All the curvy, windy roads to get there got me a little motion sickness. Ok. A LOT of motion sickness. But once I was able to get out and run around the beautiful landscape, I forgot all about feeling queesy (until we got back in the car to go on the windy roads again…)

We wanted to walk down to this lighthouse but we arrived a minute before they closed off the stairs. Even though we were disappointed, we walked around to visit a beach of seals and found this old building on the dock.

The next day, we spent visiting SmugMug headquarters (a really incredible company I’m now working with) and Apple (located at 1 infinite loop, haha).

We came back into the city that night and walked around Fisherman’s Wharf. We loaded up a bag full of salt water taffy and miscellaneous treats, picked out an oyster which carried a beautiful silvery pearl, and enjoyed being goofy while walking around & window shopping. It was a new experience walking around the wharf in January because hardly anyone was around. All the other times I have been, it’s been overflowing with people. Fun times.

Then, we drove up to the top of one of San Fran’s steepest hills (at least we thought it seemed like one of the steepest) to photograph the Bay Bridge. I don’t think I mentioned this before, but I totally forgot my tripod. I guess that’s what happens when you pack for a trip in a half an hour… Luckily, Dustin had a ghetto video tripod I could use. It wasn’t quite strong enough to withstand the wind in most of my night shots….but I got a couple good ones…

For a couple nights, we stayed with the awesome photographer Robyn Kessler. We’d actually never met but my dear friend April had been wanting us to meet for years. We visited her studio, which was beautiful in so many ways. I loved how it was decorated: the photography on the walls was spectacular, her album samples were exquisite, and it was just great talking with Robyn about her successful photography studio. Robyn shares Verité Photography, which is boutique wedding photography, and she does Dog Photography as her niche.

Robyn and her hubby were kind enough to let Dustin and I stay with them, along with their gorgeous dogs. I know my pics don’t even come close to Robyn’s amazing skills as a dog photographer, but it was fun anyways ;)

As we headed out of the city, we made 2 important stops. One was Bob’s Donuts, which my friend Adam, who showed us around Apple, told us we didn’t want to miss out on. Boy was he right. Can you say sugar overload? Mmmm….

Then, we stopped by the Full House Street and photographed each other on the grassy hill overlooking the row of colorful houses.

Driving towards Sacramento, I saw this sign saying Maryland was 3,073 miles away. I was seriously tickled pink by it all. Dustin was kind enough to flip around, drive an extra mile and a half so that I could take a picture of it the second time around. Makes me chuckle :D

This shot was taken by the Sacramento LDS temple. I love the grove of bare, dead trees with the subtle colors of sunset drifting in the background.

And, driving through Tahoe, we encountered a heavy snow storm. That didn’t stop us. We pulled over at the ski resort (I can’t remember its name) and did some night shots of the gorgeous trees covered in snow. Too bad neither of us had snow boots…

I almost forgot to mention my adventure driving home in the middle-of-nowhere-Nevada.

After biting into a less than scrumptious apple which I was going to leave on the floor of Dustin’s car to throw away in a proper trash receptacle at a later time, he kindly suggested a better idea would be to throw it out the window. Apples biodegrade, right?

We had just passed a truck so I felt like I had to give the apple a little extra ‘umph’ while tossing it out the window. (I have no idea what I was thinking) The second it left my hand, I realized my spoon ring — which I actually got in San Francisco 7 years ago — flew out the window right alongside it. I looked over at Dustin and yelled “My ring!”

He was quick to react and pulled over immediately. Now, I’m no physics major. I have no idea how velocities and trajectories work with objects flying out of a vehicle going almost 80 mph. So…we started walking. We figured if we could find the apple, it would at least give us a starting point to find the ring. After searching for 40 minutes with no luck, I was starting to lose hope. I mean, should it really be this hard to find a shiny, red apple?

Dustin reversed the car to catch up with me. I was pretty determined to keep searching but he thought it would be a good idea for him to slowly drive on the shoulder while I looked out. No sign of the apple. I was feeling pretty glum.

After we had reached the point where we initially stopped (or so I though), I started to put my seat belt back on and said quietly, with my head hanging “Just go, just go.” I peeked out the window and what did I see?

The apple!

I jumped out of the car before it even stopped. I was thrilled. Only problem was, now my ‘haystack’ was just a little smaller. The ‘needle’ was still hidden.

My eyes were combing the ground, trying to scrutinize every piece of shiny metal that glistened in the sun. I was starting to get discouraged. Again.

About 30 feet away, I saw Dustin pick something up off the ground. I started towards him yelling “Did you find it? Did you find it?” Because of the wind blowing in my ears, I couldn’t hear him, only saw his head shaking. He came up to me and showed his finger. On it was my favorite spoon ring. It now boasted a few dings from its fall, but I was on cloud 9. I was blissful. Life was good.