home sweet home

Posted on September 1, 2008 by chloe elizabeth

I am from Walnut Creek. As I have had to introduce myself many, many, many times throughout the last two weeks, that has come up a lot. I haven’t lived there in over eight years, but that is home, for now. Maybe someday I will think of somewhere else as home, but not today. So, for posterity, a walk down memory lane (I visited this summer)…

The view as you drive into my hometown from San Francisco/Oakland (on the 24). That’s Mt. Diablo in the background (pronounced like a non-Spanish speaker would say it).

This is downtown…the sign in the middle says “The Ballet School”. This is where I took my first dance class.

Il Fornaio. A favorite. Along with the H&M on the left, that you can’t see and wasn’t there when I was growing up, but I think it makes a nice addition. The shopping and dining options in downtown Walnut Creek are fantastic.

The fountain at Broadway Plaza.
Yogurt Park…oh how I love thee.
One of my favorite little alleys in the world. It reminds me of Europe. Only cleaner.
My house…the one I grew up in from 0 – 18. The new owners have changed some things in front, but it’s still my house…with my favorite pomegranate tree. How lucky were we on the far right?

The backyard. It’s too bad the new owners ruined it with a fence. The pool, when you get there, was so pretty as the focal point. Now it’s surrounded by an ugly, wooden fence. Why not wrought iron, I ask you?

My high school. Doesn’t it kind of look like a prison? Well, the cement part?

The cemetery where my mom is buried. It’s absolutely beautiful. (Technically, I think it’s in Pleasant Hill.)

It was her birthday when I was there, so I took some flowers and a balloon.

And the big house my dad built after my mom died and we all moved in with him (well, during the summer anyway). It’s funny. It’s a beautiful house and has a great setup and yard for parties, but I would take the little thrasher house (trust me, it was at the time) I grew up in any day of the week.

And views of my city and the hills.

dale chihuly

Posted on July 14, 2008 by chloe elizabeth

San Francisco, in typical big city fashion, has a number of museums. When Sarah was in town, we went to the SFMOMA and I got to see the art of Frida Kahlo which was incredible. It was really fun with Sarah because she, as the artist type, knew the back story of the artist, making the art that much more interesting.

Well, there was another exhibit I really wanted to see at another museum that didn’t seem to make it into the “tourist” weekend, so on Friday, I had some time to kill in the city before dinner (Erika and I went to Boulevard…which should get its own post, but probably won’t, as my sister says I’m “not allowed” to take pictures in uber nice restaurants), so I decided to head over to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park to see Dale Chihuly’s temporary exhibit.

For those of you familiar with the Bellagio in Las Vegas, he is the artist who did all of the glass work on the ceilings. Amazing, but nothing compared to his chandeliers…holy cow! It was absolutely incredible. And sometimes it’s really nice to be at a museum on my own, so I can just sit and stare for as long as I want.

After I saw the exhibit, I watched a film about him that the museum had on a loop. Glass blowing is absolutely incredible. I would seriously love to see his team of glass blowers in person. I ended up buying the DVD because it was so amazing.

Here are some of my favorite pieces. (Sorry the pics aren’t great…low light, no tripod, not happy).

This last piece was for sale…$5000. Oh, to be rich. And totally without a conscience for what that money could do, besides purchase a piece of art. Maybe if I was rich enough to feed a ~~village~~ country in Africa for a year and purchase the piece? Maybe?

And (I think) this one is permanent…this is a view from the observation deck of the museum.

family reunion in photo form

Posted on July 8, 2008 by chloe elizabeth

Are you wondering what this picture is? If you look closely, you will see nail marks (as in “fingernail”) in both of our arms. This is what happens when sisters fight…they revert back to the most childish versions of themselves and dig nails into arms. And just to be clear…I was the mature one who started it.

A few pics are missing because I can’t get one of my disks to upload and I didn’t take any race pictures, so I have to wait for my sis-in-law to send them my way…sad!

family reunion – summary

Posted on July 7, 2008 by chloe elizabeth

This weekend was the second occasional (as opposed to annual) family reunion for my mom’s side of the fam. The last one we had was 12 years ago (we’re tight like that…actually, I really do see them all relatively regularly, just not all at the same time). Two of my cousins couldn’t make it as they are one missions for our church, and my uber pregnant wasn’t able to attend, but otherwise we were all there. I got back to P-town Sunday night and had a week full of fun and activities including Lagoon, model plane flying (I only observed), running, picnics, Seven Peaks, shooting, a talent show, and fireworks.

I have about 500 (literally) pictures to sift through, but for now, I’ll leave you with a few from my shooting experience with my two brothers. It was quite fun. I must say that I’m a fan of shooting…especially once I managed to finally pull the trigger.

I only shared this last one because we all got such a good laugh from it. Yes, both my eyes are totally closed. I tried to keep the one open, but only managed to on occasion. I’ll get better.

playing the tourist

Posted on July 3, 2008 by chloe elizabeth

I’m a little late in posting these, but better late than never. As I might have mentioned, I’ve been staying with my sister in California for a bit (I’m not there currently, but will be back on Sunday) playing personal assistant. Well, since Sarah had never been to “the city”, as any NorCal resident calls it, she decided that she would come visit me while I was there.

It was four whirlwind days of tourism, but really we got a lot accomplished. I got to revisit some of my favorite childhood places, spend lots of money at H&M (my favorite store ever) and a few other places, visit the SFMOMA (I’d never been there), actually eat in Chinatown (something I’ve always wanted to do), etc., etc. It was so fun to reconnect with my favorite city ever (yes, it beats New York, Chicago, Barcelona, Paris, Florence…all of them). I do hope I get to move back there someday. The ocean, the culture, the people, the food, the parks, the hills, the bridges…it really is the perfect city.

Anyway, here is a glimpse of our trip in photo form. Really, we got to see so much. I was kind of amazed, especially since we squeezed in a movie and spent a good chunk of time just chillin’ (like villains about to start killin’…I’ve been spending a little too much time with my 14-year-old nephew this week).

This first picture is actually not in SF, it’s in Oakland, but it is one of my favorite places. And the beautiful Rodin was actually at the Stanford Art Museum in Palo Alto. Otherwise, they are all in or of the city.