Half Moon Bay, Ca.

A visit to Half Moon Bay and Pescadero State Beach.

Antelope Canyon

A visit to the Oregon Coast

Flew into PDX and was instantly greeted by 90+ degree heat and loved every minute of it. Hopped onto the "MAX" for a 1.5 hour ride out to Hillsboro to catch another ride out to the Coast which ended up being a 2 hour drive. Not bad considering I've never done it before so it was great kicking back and enjoying the ride. I have to say riding the "MAX" is soooooo much more enjoyable than having to ride BART!

My first view of Cape Kiwanda, I kept imagining that Godzilla was sleeping in the ocean ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sunset view from the cabin we were staying at. Totally awesome place, you can see and hear the ocean.

Headed out to the beach during low tide hoping to find some clams. No luck with clams but scored on some awesome photo opportunities. The fog, mist and sunrise made for some beautiful photos. I often found myself starring out into the fog feeling as if I was on another planet.

Chester’s Thriftway was the spot! Once I found out they had beef sticks I had to stop by a couple times to stock up!

I don’t even remember how many times we stopped at Tillamook to get their Ice Cream. I don’t have a sweet tooth but I too fell victim to their Ice Cream. Oregon Hazelnut & Salted Caramel was the flavor I kept getting and it was gooooooood! If you ever stop by, do yourself a favor and get a kids scoop size. The regular one scoop they give you is huge! But of course I couldn’t resist and always got 1 scoop on a waffle cone, damn now I want one!
Their facility was real nice and the photographs they had hanging all over reminded me of “Strobist” photography. As for cheese my favorites were the “Coby” and the Pepper Jack.

Anderson’s viewpoint was pretty amazing, showed up late in the day so had the whole view to myself.

Low tide clamming at “Pier’s End” in Garibaldi. Good times with the family but make sure to head back in before the tide rises, we got the clue and head back in when the locals decided to call it a day. Cool vibes all around and a few of the locals even took the time to give us some tips.

Stopped by Kelly’s Marina for some lunch. Nothing like eating fresh seafood right out of the water while enjoying some awesome Oregon brews. We enjoyed it so much we came back a few days later to do it all over again.

Neskowin beach home of “Proposal Rock” and the “Ghost Forest.” When I walked out onto the beach and laid eyes on “Proposal Rock” I thought… “oh what the!” I was pretty surprised to see what I saw. Before coming out here, I did no research on what I would be seeing so that I’d be surprised at what I would be seeing and surprised I was!

From afar walking towards the “Ghost Forrest” it looked as if there were people standing on the beach. Once I finally got to the end I still didn’t know what I was looking at but it sure did look amazing. Basically a photographers dream!

Standing here looking at the view I almost thought I was in Hawaii.

Visiting the Oregon Coast was definitely an awesome experience. I can see myself coming back to spend more time taking landscape photos and visiting every Nike Outlet in town!

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Iceland #MyStopOver

This was my first time visiting Iceland and I can honestly say it was a pretty magical experience! Each day we had about 4 to 5 hours of daylight. The sun would rise around 10am and then start to set around 3pm. The weather was extreme, very very windy, cold, rain, sunshine, and even snow! I was prepared for the weather and besides it was all part of the adventure.
Yes... Food was a bit on the expensive side, maybe double to triple the price I would pay for a meal at home. (San Francisco) Iceland has been really working hard at promoting tourism and is now their #1 industry which is probably why you can find flights from San Francisco to Reykjavik for as low as $99 one way on WOW Airlines. We found a really great deal on Groupon flying with Iceland Air so decided to go with that. People were extremely friendly and we were able to get away with speaking English everywhere we went.
On our second to last night, the sky finally cleared up enough for us to go searching for the Northern Lights. After driving around for about 3hours we finally stopped by a light house at the end of the road. I went out to take a few long exposure photos to kill some time then ran back into the car to view the photos because it was freeeeeeezing! When looking at the photos I thought something was wrong with my camera because I noticed some green in the photo that I had not seen in the sky. It finally hit me that the Northern Lights were always there. I ran back out to photograph a few more photos to verify and sure enough "Lady Aurora" had made an appearance. I can't even describe what an amazing experience that was, especially when you're the only one out there experiencing it. The really cool thing was that for a few minutes I was able to finally see the Northern Lights with my own eyes. Lastly when I finally returned home, I received an email from Iceland Air that they saw a photo I had posted while on my trip and that they wanted to include it in their inflight magazine. Yep I'd definitely have to say that this was a very magical trip! Yet another one to cross off the bucket list!

Point Reyes

Out and about photo walking Point Reyes.