Nicci Photography, San Francisco, Travel

Fisherman’s Wharf and views of San Francisco from a speeding car

We enjoyed a gorgeous day in San Francisco on Friday. I used to live there, but I didn’t feel like doing local things. I wanted to be near the wharf and I was longing for a loaf of San Francisco sourdough bread. We found a funky restaurant upstairs at Pier 39 with an outdoor area that was one long narrow table along the porch. We had garlic fries and onion rings, beer and lemon drops (respectively), and people watched. As an aside, it was a total junk food day for me but I managed to keep it vegetarian! Breakfast was an asiago cheddar pretzel at Starbucks. Lunch was fries, rings and lemon drops, and dinner was sourdough and butter.

We were allowed to sit as long as we wanted, no pressure. I was amazed to find this spot at such a tourist trap area. My hubby spotted it. It was called The Eagle Cafe. Here are views from our table:

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We thought this seagull wanted a ride out to where the fish are, but once the ferry pulled out of the marina, he left his post and found another high spot. He just wanted to be up high.

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Here’s the view from the entry to the cafe:

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The sunset over the city was gorgeous as we drove out. It’s hard to get photos from a speeding car, but I did my best for you:

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Nicci California, Photography, Travel

San Luis Obispo California

This really cute, central California coast town has an historic mission:

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The mission is quite actively part of the community of San Luis Obispo, with a large, well attended church. They host lots of fun, family events in the gorgeous courtyard area between the mission and the river that runs through the town.

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The town has these really nice street lamps:

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along the river walk.

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Bubble Gum Alley is a tourist attraction. No, I did not add any chewed gum to the effort.

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I loved the library.

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The museum is also really cute and modern.

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This hangs on the outside of the museum, visible as you approach from the main street.

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There are lots of places to eat downtown. The SLO Brewery has great food:

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and, of course, beer.

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I don’t know if we would call this covered passageway an “arcade” like they do in Australia, but we should. It’s good to have a word for it.

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If you walk through the arcade you end up at one of the restaurants overhanging the creek.

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I love how you can see small mountains from the town. It reminds me of Townsville, Australia.

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Also like Townsville, I think the town commissioned some street art to cover a utility box.

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Nicci Local, Photography, Travel

A Santa Cruz afternoon

My sister, a very good photographer who doesn’t set her camera on auto like me, but who has stopped taking photos because she’s not a blogger (my theory!), proved to be an excellent guide. I visited her and she took me out to shoot. What a great day.

Funny story – brought my new tripod and monopod. Really didn’t need them!

Looking back toward Santa Cruz, up the inlet.

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I just loved all the photography happening here. I was trying not to get faces but the seated pair were preparing to play music.

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Nicci Netherlands, Travel

Hydrangeas

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These showed up on my husband’s wallpaper and we were trying to remember where I took them. They were in the conservatory in the Keukenhof Gardens last May. It’s very hot and muggy inside the building and heavily scented with lilies because of these lily arches:

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Nicci Australia, Travel

The stock exchange at Charters Towers Australia

This arcade in Charters Towers is the site of the stock exchange that was created here during the gold rush.

The arcade

The stock exchange

Charters Towers does an amazing job preserving and presenting the historical places in the town. Everything is in pristine condition and the visitor’s office has volunteers there seven days a week.

Stock Exchange explanation

The Stock Exchange Moves In

“It was a grand moment when the ‘change’ moved into the Arcade. The courtyard was the pulse of “The World’ — the most important place in town.”

Ghost of Joe Millican, Stock Exchange Secretary.

Before the Stock Exchange opened, all wheeling and dealing was done by mining agents scattered throughout the town. By the mid 1880s, agents had combined into an exchange on Mosman Street, where smartly dressed kerbside brokers bustled about drumming up business. Agents peddled shares in dubious mines and secretaries often fled town with the takings. To keep control over what had become a wild and speculative market, a Stock Exchange was formed in May 1890 and shifted into the impressive Royal Arcade.

Scams

Scams, rorts and skulduggery

“Some of the mines floated had no hope of success — the promoters could not have expected to strike a reef if they penetrated the earth to its centre.”

Ghost of Warden Selheim, mining official who lobbied for a Stock Exchange to curb growing corruption.

Such a chaotic and speculative market attracted many rogue promoters and opportunists. People eager to share a slice of the Towers’ riches often found they had snapped up shares of worthless claims or ‘wild cats’ as they were called. Money invesed to develop mines frequently lined shareholder pockets rather than flowing into capital improvement. The Stock Exchange floor was a place of high jubilation for many, but also a place of crippling disappointment.

Nicci Local, Travel

Soft sky

I am amazed how much of the U.S. is under deep freeze right now. Many of the bloggers I follow are doing a great job finding the beauty or just chronicling the phenomenon of the polar vortex. Here are a couple, in case they aren’t in your WordPress Reader:

http://sethsnap.com/2014/01/06/cold-close-up/

http://herladypinkrose.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/a-few-hours-later/

http://herladypinkrose.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/north-pole-vortex/

Meanwhile in California, we’re having a warm, dry winter. Here are shots from my evening walk:

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I just had my phone with me. Sorry… the DSLR and even the compact camera are better. But at least I could get these shots. That’s the saving grace of a phone.

I’m blogging every other day this year so I have more time to visit other blogs.

Nicci Travel

Capitola, California

Life was conspiring against me completing my one year of daily blogging. (Today is the last day.) I had hoped to take new photos today but had forgotten to take all my cameras including my phone. But today, Capitola looked much like it did in June when I posted this picture (except for the cute seal we saw today, *heart pang*) so I decided to go back and do a painting rendition of that photo.

On that day I also didn’t have my camera so the phone saved the day.

One of these days I’ll get to the beach with my DSLR. Maybe on a stormy day…
I think that long dark streak is seaweed.
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Nicci Australia, Travel

A rusty wheel… and thoughts on the new year

Tomorrow is the last day of one full year of blogging every day. And today I was dry! I almost blew my streak!

After my triumph with the Australia, interpreted post yesterday (thank you all for the kudos!), I found it impossible to get something else unique. I tried more putting together different photos using layers and textures, but nothing worked out. I thought I was going to miss a day.

Well, I was just looking through my photos and I spotted this one that I hadn’t shared yet. I like it just as it is, just a plain old snapshot.

From Ravenswood in Queensland Australia
From Ravenswood in Queensland Australia

I have to check my WordPress Reader to see how people are doing, but I’ll offer a thought before I do that. Do you feel like we ended the year with a big hurrah and high expectations for the new year? And maybe a lot of goals and resolutions?

The start of a new year coincides with the end of the holidays and can feel anti-climactic. After all, we’re faced with the reality of going back to work. The slog of all these resolutions.

Well, here’s what I learned from last year. I was afraid to check my goals because I knew I couldn’t have done what I set out to do, because I completely changed what I was working on. But I checked them and they were good goals. The specifics of writing x number of short stories and y number of novels, no, that didn’t happened, not in that configuration, but I set a goal to write an average of 500 words a day or 150,000 words total and I exceeded that. I had a goal to blog every day and grow my Twitter followers. Those ones I did. I think it works to have somewhat general goals and leave a lot of freedom to allow things we never thought of to happen.

My advice is to set some goals and then set them aside. Check them next year. They can set a direction for you and the process of checking them at the end of the year is a chance to reflect on what you did do. I didn’t do this, but I did that. I was amazed how much I did, both on my goals and otherwise.

The other advice I have, and really all this advice is mostly for myself, is don’t worry about the big events, the successes, the struggles… those things happen. Mostly life is built on doing a little every day and on showing up. If you just do that, you’ll have a great year.