Sombrio Beach
Sadness of sadness: I accidentally deleted all of my photos! Yep, all of them. My whole iPhoto library completely gone. Luckily, I have been on Facebook for a long long time and so some of my photos are still preserved. Below are pictures I took at Sombrio Beach on Vancouver Island with my dear friend Rachel. While they are no longer in quality format, at least you can get a peak at our adventure in the temperate rain forests of the west coast!
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Tattoo Lady
I was scrolling through Jezebel a few days ago when I came upon this rad post about Britain’s first professional tattoo artist, Jessie Knight. Below are photos of Knight and some of the women she tattooed during World War II.
One client of hers said, “Before she did my eagle on my chest in 1965 she lit a match and showed my the flame and I asked her why she was doing this and she told me I do this to show you that I have a steady hand even at my age. She never used a plastic format like they did in Canada because the [tattoo] on my chest was done free hand which is quite amazing.”
Incredible!
♥ Kylin
Source: Jezebel
Picasso at the De Young
Growing up my parents had several Picasso paintings hanging in our home. Blue Nude, The Doves, and a still life of fruit and flowers exchanged places on our dining room, hall, and living room walls. I was raised alongside these works and they are so familiar to me.
While I knew that Picasso was supposedly dyslexic (he thought 7′s looked like noses) and one of my parents favorite artists (not dependent on the man’s dyslexia) I didn’t know much else. Well, that’s not totally true. I did have some knowledge about his super-famous work Guernica thanks to the watching of either Reading Rainbow or Mr. Rogers some years back, but aside from this I really didn’t know much else about him.
On Wednesday we went to see the Picasso exhibit at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and all that non-knowledge changed. While I am by no means now fluent on Picasso’s works I have learned a great deal more about the artist. He went through a “blue” and “rose” period, painted in many different styles, co-founded cubism, and had several children with several different women.
The Picasso paintings hanging in my parent’s home are rather impressionistic. Though I recognize that Guernica was painted in a different manner than The Doves, this museum trip really opened my eyes to the many different styles Picasso studied and used in his lifetime. The works below are my favorites from the exhibition and clearly demonstrate Picasso’s mastery of different artistic styles.
Though the exhibit’s audio tour paints you as a bit of a douche, Picasso, I bet you were pretty cool. Your art is, anyway.
♥ Kylin
Secret Street Garden
Mom and I walked down to the storm drain a few weeks ago. Below are some images of the beautiful flowers we saw along the way!
♥ Kylin
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Camping on the Big Sur River
It looks like I promoted our family to luxury camping status a wee bit prematurely. While we do camp quite comfortably we do not bring along an RV camper with Direct TV.
Is RV camping really camping? There are no tents involved, you don’t get cold at night, you can do the dishes inside, and you have a private bathroom.
Although freezing my bum off at night (dependent on camping location), washing dishes at the watering hole (usually a shared spigot), and peeing in the woods (which can actually be a rather freeing activity), are not my favorite aspects of the camping experience, they are a part of the experience. And I would not give them up for the world! (That last sentence should be read with a weepy British accent.)
Our campsite was located at the far end of the campground and was completely shaded by trees. While it would have been great for 75+ degree days, the incredible shade proved to be a little too chilly for our stay. Every morning and afternoon we followed the sun with our chairs, chasing dapples of light and trying not to freeze in the dark.
Despite the sun hustle we did do some major relaxing. I’m currently reading the Tom Robbin’s book Skinny Legs and All and was able to give it some quality attention during our trip (more on that book later). Additionally, I did some old man chair snoozing by the river. Lovely.
In my book, the best part about comfort camping with my family is the food we eat. Dad usually BBQs skirt steak and baby back ribs, delicacies we normally don’t have at home. This year (mostly thanks to Mom) in addition to the meaty goodness (grass fed and hormone free) we made some mean mashed potatoes and yummy salads. Every night was a feast.
Though we generally get our relaxation on by sitting for prolonged periods of time, my family also enjoys walking and mild physical sport. After reading books and soaking our feet in the river for most of the first day we decided to shake a leg and head out to Pfeiffer beach. Dad, Jay, and I threw around the Frisbee and scared Mom and sitting strangers by often sending it their way. “Heads!” was shouted repeatedly. Thanks to the wind, Jay and I were forced to conduct several Frisbee rescue missions up in the cliff walls which turned out to be a lot of fun.
To celebrate Mom’s July 1st birthday we ate a delicious breakfast (sausage, eggs, and toast) and left the river for the coast. Our main stop was at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park where we hiked the short but fricken sweet McWay waterfall trail.
The Big Sur coastline boasts one spectacular view after another. From the Park we departed for Nepenthe Restaurant where we ate a delicious birthday lunch from this vantage point.
All in all the trip was grand. Never mind the freezing bums, peeing outdoors, and cool shade. We relaxed, we had fun, and we ate well. We saw turquoise water and we celebrated Mom. And we liked the campground so much that I’m sure we’ll be back next year! However, next time we’ll check the weather before we book our site. We don’t want to have to chase the sun!
