North Carolina

Anibal and I decided to drive down to North Carolina several weekends ago. The weather was still pretty rough in New York, so we took a nice long weekend down south.

On the drive down, we drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The highway soars high above the bay for several miles then plunges deep beneath the bay down a steep tunnel for another mile or so. The highway then rises out of the tunnel and again perches above the bay. My photos don't do the bridge/tunnel justice.

The further south we drove the greener our surroundings became.

We stayed with my grandparents and had the best time!

We drove out to the outer banks. Lots of sand and sun. The water was still too cold for swimming.

Our crabby friend.

We had to pull over for this one.

Spring Was Here!

I've gotten a little behind on posting...

March and April seemed to drag on forever! Just as it seemed to be getting warm it would then get cold and rain for 5 days. Green began to appear in small doses.

Snow!!

I woke up to quite a surprise yesterday. Over night there was wind and thunder snow! Here are some photos from my commute to work. Rye had 16 inches of snow and New York City got 19 inches.

Can you spot Ani's car?

Los Angeles

I was in LA to visit my family over the holidays. I flew in on the first night of a freak six day rain storm. On the sixth day I was finally greeted with some sunshine and a double rainbow.

Coming from the grey colorless East Coast, I was delighted by all the color exuding from Los Angeles. LA is damn colorful, especially when viewed after my Montreal post. Maybe being deprived of it made me hyper aware of every shade. Even the pavement in LA has a nice bluish hue to it. 

 Once the ground finally dried up my twin sister Courtney and I took to the hills and hit some trails. One of our favorites is in Griffith Park. We park above Ferndell on the Los Feliz side of Griffith Park. The trail head winds up a hill by the Observatory and then climbs to the top giving you a 360 degree view of all of Los Angeles.

The hike takes 2 to 3 hours depending on how fast you walk and how often you stop to take in the wild view.  On the way down, we took a detour through the observatory which I hadn't been to in ages!

We took Lauren and Jesse along a second time.

Citrus season was in full swing while I was home. All the farmer's markets had tables overflowing with oranges of all types... blood, navel, cara cara, not to mention all the tangelos, grapefruits, lemons, kumquats what ever variety you could find. It is also cherimoya season! It was nice to see fresh tomatoes and avocados for sale. I'm not going to lie,  butternut squash, apples and parsnips are getting a little tired for me at my local market. 

I had a great visit. I got to spend some much needed time with my family and catch up with old friends. I do love New York, but the winter kills me. Actually being able to feel the warmth of the sun is so nice. It was hard for me to leave that knowing I was coming back to two feet of snow and bleak grey.