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Life is a bit stressful at the moment…and it helps to think about the good stuff…the pretty, shiny things that make a gray day brighter.

On Sunday, as Jeff and I wrapped up a gray weekend in Seattle, we took in some of the local color. Most important…our lunch at Two Bells, where I introduced my Jeff to the pleasures of a yummy burger. This one is my usual…the blue burger. Wow.

We also visited the wondrous Seattle Public Library, with many amazing architectural features. Jeff took a bunch of great photos, so I will leave you to his blog for those. But here are a couple that I took of some glowing, all-red hallways.

And finally, a shot I snapped at the SAM sculpture garden. I just love how the red white and green pop in this shot.

Jeff and I were in Seattle this weekend to participate in a fantastic community service event. (Major kudos to our brave organizer, Josh!) Alas, this is where I twisted my ankle (just a bit) on some rain-soaked rocks…but I did get an action scene in the news story of our project. Here is the clip from Seattle’s KING 5. I’m at about the 54-second mark. (Jeff makes an appearance in the crowd scene near the end.)

For those of you keeping track, it has been nearly 30 years since I was last on TV. Yes, my first major flash of stardom…with my middle school chorus…singing Barry Manilow tunes on local morning television.

Thank goodness THAT clip is lost to time in the pre-VCR days.

Saturday morning, Jeff and I ventured into the fog-covered Marina to take a figure drawing class over at Fort Mason (where I take my regular photography classes). We had a blast…although I will tell you that I will not be abandoning my photography anytime soon. Here is the result of one of my “gesture” exercises. Hopefully, you can recognize this as a human model 🙂

Jeff did a really nice full-figure drawing, but we left it in class to serve as a “before” sample for comparison. My “before” picture is…uh…less impressive.

Sometimes, words just get in the way 🙂

Over the past few weeks, I’ve backed up with some fun photos just screaming out for a witty story to frame them. Well, rather than get further behind, I thought I would just let them speak for themselves. These are shots from two parts of the Golden Gate National Park.

First up are some shots from along Crissy Field in the City. The highlight of the day was a colorful art installation piece sponsored by the National Park Service, called Cool Globes.

Next up, some shots from our visit to the Fort Baker portion of the Golden Gate National Park. This is a little-visited portion of the park adjacent to the Marin Headlands. Recently, the Park Service opened a new hotel/conference center in Fort Baker, in an effort to re-use the historic buildings of the Fort. The result is the Cavallo Point Lodge, with its charming restaurant, Murray Circle…certainly becoming a local brunch spot. Along the way, we spotted a coyote and checked out famous wire art.

Oh yes, and here is a shot of one our yummy, homemade goat cheese, bacon, and spinach omelettes. YUM!!

Over the past two weeks, I’ve hopped from hotel to hotel in my recent string of business trips. The most recent stop was in Seattle…back at the Westin…but on this visit, a very nice view of Lake Union and a sliver of a peek at the Space Needle.

The prior week, I was in Southern California, checking out several hotels for an upcoming meeting. I spent one comfy night at the Four Seasons Aviara…a fantastic room with over-the-top service. The second night was at the Ritz Carlton in Orange County…the hotel perched high on the seaside cliffs of Dana Point. Both hotels were quite nice, of course, but really more hotel than I need…or no what to do with.

Well, I wouldn’t mind if every hotel laid out free supplies for an evening margarita 🙂 The Four Seasons certainly treated me right.