Lots of news, Diana Mini film roll back, and oysters fresh from Tomales Bay!

It's been exactly two months since I last updated this blog - I believe it's the longest lapse I have ever had happen since starting this chronicle of daily randomness nearly two years ago. Sorry! In any case, a quick news update before all of the pics and other goodies...

Since my last update, Ian and I (well, admittedly, mainly Ian) have been engrossed in planning for a huge 2.5 month long trip to Europe! We've been saving a ton of money over the past year working here in San Francisco and with me planning to start my last medical school pre-requisite classes in the fall and with Ian starting nursing school in the fall as well (yayyy!!!), we figure there's no better time to disappear to the other side of the globe for a little while. Once school starts up for both of us, it may be quite some time before we can take such a lengthy, uninterrupted trip. While at heart both of us prefer a traveling style more in line with picking one place and really experiencing it as a local would, with two and a half months we figured we would do a little bit of hopping around this time to get a general survey of the continent for future trip planning :-p. We will fly into Madrid, spending a few days there before making our way down to the Andalucia region of southern Spain with its incredible Moorish influence (Cordoba, Grenada, Seville, etc), may or may not ferry over to Tangier, Morocco for a day, before continuing up the Mediterranean coast to Valencia for two nights and onward to Barcelona for 4 nights. From there, we take a quick flight (our only within-Europe flight) over to Budapest for a couple of nights, train to Vienna for a night, and then train to Prague for a few nights. Berlin for nearly a week to visit friends is next, and Bryan will be flying in to join us! Per Bryan's request, we will then head to Hamburg for a bit before taking the train over to Amsterdam, and then making our way to Cologne. We have yet to decide if we will take a river ferry from Cologne down to the Frankfurt area, but we will eventually head to Strasbourg, and end at the apartment we are renting in Paris for the entire month of August. Bryan will spend his birthday in Paris with us :)

Ian and I will be packing only one backpack each (I have a 38-liter Deuter backpacking pack) ... I hate seeing people travel pulling their entire apartment in suitcases behind them, so we will keep it simple. Rather than doing hotels, we opted to use Airbnb.com to find rooms in people's homes or even entire apartments for short-term rent ... our average spent on lodging per night is well under $100/night, and we will have the added benefit of being able to interact with local hosts in each place we stay (one host claims she makes the best potato omelette in all of Spain!). We thought of the idea of hosteling our way through Europe, but with two people even a night in the hostel can be just as expensive as the private apartments we are renting through Airbnb. Anyhow, more details about the trip to come later in a separate post.

Memorial day weekend at the end of last month was spent in Richmond, Virginia for Ian's sister's wedding. I played violin before the ceremony while everybody was arriving, and then during the ceremony as well. While I am very well aware of the glaring mistakes I made here and there, nobody really seemed to notice and I received many compliments on the music (even trending on twitter and facebook immediately! haha). Rather than traditional stuffy wedding music, Katie opted for pop songs. I had never done anything like that before (playing along with a background instrumental track and improvising some parts), so it was a great way to expand my musical horizons beyond the classical world I trained in.

Now for some pictures ... I've been playing around with my cheap plastic toy camera (Diana Mini) lately, and threw a roll of expired Kodak T-max 400 (black&white) into it. What I love about this camera is that it is so basic (i.e. you have to simply guess your focusing distance and turn a nob that has some very vague focusing suggestions) that I have to relinquish all control. It really emphasizes the element of surprise when you get the photos back - half of the roll was pretty much no good, but some of the photos came out and I was pleased especially considering it was my first time ever using such a camera. In a world where perfectly exposed, perfectly focused digital pictures are the norm now, it's fun to get back to the real "raw" side of film photos

my super small and lightweight Diana mini 

Shooting half-frames (camera has a choice between two half-frame shots in one frame, or one full square frame)

Shooting in full square-frame mode

The garden shed at Ian's mom & stepdad's house in Richmond, VA. At first the fogginess of this photo being underexposed (i can't control the aperture or shutter speed) bothered me, but I slowly started falling in love with how it makes this photo look so creepy. While it was actually a beautiful warm morning with birds chirping, the shed surrounded by dark forest and the fogginess of underexposure totally change the mood to the complete opposite.

 At the historic Mankin Mansion in Richmond where the wedding took place. Ian and I playing real life chess - me as a human pawn!

At the Maymont Estate in Richmond

I threw in a roll of Kodak ultramax 400 (color negative 35mm) so I will compare how the camera shoots color vs black and white. So far I love the lack of control and the soft focus of the plastic lens. Supposedly with color film the cheap plastic lens will give nice color saturation and a soft "dreamy" photo look (like old family photos) so I will see once I finish off the current roll.

In other news, the other day Ian and I were itching for a day trip so we drove up north across the Golden Gate bridge to check out the Point Reyes National Shoreline area and Tomales Bay where some of the best oysters are farmed naturally ...

On the highway 1 just past tamalpais valley on the way through the Marin Headlands to the coast, a huge construction truck broke its axle and was turned totally sideways blocking both directions so traffic was backed up on the little road ... we waited patiently at standstill for over 45 mins

 Making our way up Highway 1 along the coast

First stop - Drake's Oyster Farm. Situated in a completely different estuary (Drake's Bay) than the other oyster farms (Tomales Bay), we stopped by here on our way to see the Point Reyes lighthouse. This family-run oyster farm supplies over 60% of all oysters in California and is one of the nation's only natural shellfish hatcheries (yes, from seed!). They primarily grow Pacific oysters (also known as Sweetwater oysters) which are originally from Miyagi, Japan. The sweetwater oyster tasted quite briney initially, but after chewing through it a little longer, surprisingly tasted exactly like cucumber

So the point reyes lighthouse was actually closed this day, but we did enjoy some hikes along the cliffs. Unique among lighthouses, the pt. reyes lighthouse is one of the few that is actually located lower, rather than higher, up on a cliff to increase visibility. This is due to the dense fog that blankets northern California - descending 300 feet from the cliff to reach the lighthouse allows the beam of light to actually pass under the fog layer rather than through it.

Made our way to Tomales Bay for the other oyster farms, most notably...... 

 Hog Island Oyster co! They are famously located in the San Francisco ferry plaza building as well, but their farm is located out here. Hog Island is the only farm in the area that also grows Kumamoto oysters (the little creamy ones) in addition to the common Pacifics that the others grow.

Grabbed a picnic bench next to the water, some chorizo, crackers, and local Cowgirl Creamery cheese (located nearby), and a dozen Kumamoto oysters to shuck ourselves 

Ian's lazy shucking

My first beautifully shucked kumamoto! So cleanly done ... I am an expert!

 

Nothing could beat this beautiful sunny day, shucking our own oysters right next to the water

 Love the tiny size of kumamotos along with their clean, creamy taste. I actually enjoyed these best completely plain with nothing added.

We eventually made our way through Petaluma on our way home and randomly stopped by this part of old town called the Water Street area ... trains used to pull up alongside the river and water mill

inside the water mill building

of course I can't pass through Sonoma farm country without grabbing something from a roadside farm stand! A pint of the freshest, most ripe red strawberries for home!