10.17.13 : back down the washington coast.

I had to give myself the goal of completing my "up the coast" blog posts before the year's end because of my recent slacking tendencies. In my defense, my life is just about as busy and exhausting as I've ever known it to be right now, so the last thing I want to do when I come home from a long day of work is sit in front of my computer screen and edit photos. Alas, it's my day off and I've found myself with copious amounts of laundry needing to be done, so I'm forcing myself to edit while I finish that task.

We're picking up in Washington on day nine of my second half of the coastal trip. It was my second to last day and a very full one at that. I left the cozy town of North Bend to head west and back to the coast. Taking a ferry across seemed like my best option, and I caught one just north of Seattle. Again, I kept up with my tradition of stopping for anything that looked even a little bit interesting, which put me very behind schedule and found me getting into my camp destination just before the sun disappeared.

10.11.13 : shipwrecks and goonies.

Since I took so long to go up the Oregon coast, I was unable to hit my goal of making it into Washington in time to camp on the 10th of October. I wasn't bummed to stay overnight near Astoria, as there was plenty to explore the next morning before heading north.

After waking up to a giant slug on one of the trees used as my hammock anchor for the night, I made my way down to the beach nearby to check out a shipwreck I'd seen there about four years earlier. The morning sun was just glorious as it shined through the rusted out skeleton of the ship.

Astoria is also well-known for it's role in the movie The Goonies. I love that the house used in the movie has made a point to welcome visitors to politely come check it out from the outside. Sorry folks, but I didn't do the truffle shuffle, as I saw there were some people home and didn't want to scar them for life. 

9.4.13 : San Francisco Day 1.

San Francisco spanned multiple days and was a rare portion of the trip in which I stayed with friends and was able to enjoy some company throughout my explorations of the area.

David and Brooke Condolora are friends of mine from college and also happen to be former clients of mine (I shot their wedding). They're an incredible artistic couple (he works for Pixar and she works independently as an illustrator and designer) and as such, were a great inspiration to get to spend some quality time with on my travels. I highly recommend checking out some of their work:

Brooke's physical goodies shop: http://idlemouse.org

Brain & Brain (their husband and wife venture into game design): http://brain-and-brain.com

Brooke's personal site: http://www.brookecondolora.com

My first evening took me on a laid-back stroll around the island of Alameda, where they live, but the second day there was basically spent finding every angle of the Golden Gate Bridge to photograph.

Brooke and I happened upon a handful of interesting little finds throughout the day, including a creepy old bunker and a nude beach full of very active nudies (nudites?) climbing rocks and playing beach volleyball.

I couldn't have asked for better weather, as the city was not covered in the deep layer of fog I'd heard it often is. They must've known I was coming.

This was before I’d begun to tote my tripod around with me for self-portraits, so it was nice to have Brooke along for the day to get a photo or two of me as proof I’d been present.

And now, I shall inundate you with photos of the Golden Gate Bridge.