For various reasons, 2012 turned into a waiting game. We got involved in refinancing the house, and instead of closing out in August as expected, it dragged on into December, a truly painful process that finally broke free just before christmas. I’m not joking when I say we signed papers and funds hit the various places on a Friday, I went and traded in the Subaru on a Saturday, and on Sunday, we loaded up the car and drove to LA to spend christmas with the family.
First time I have ever gone on a vacation with a car I literally hadn’t even filled up with gas yet. But we had a nice visit in LA, a few nice days in Morro Bay relaxing, and then home, where I took another week off from work and spent the time catching up on stuff or wandering around the local area.
But now I’m starting to make plans for 2013, with some hope of actually pulling them off. At least, I hope so. I ended up not tripping anywhere further than Merced NWR for a day trip or two last year. This year will hopefully be a bit less restricted.
Right now, a couple of trips are on the horizon — in a week or so, I’m headed back down to Morro Bay for a long weekend where I plan on shooting the Elephant Seals at Piedras Blancas, and hopefully explore Carrizo a bit. And in February I’ll head down to LA to see family for a few days, then again back up the Morro Area (again!) for a workshop.
The Light Workshop people are doing a class on printing, and when I started experimenting with my R2880, I wasn’t happy with the results so I put it on the back burner until I could really focus some time on the problem. I’d been planning to do a short trip out into the desert after visiting mom, but when I realized those days matched up with this workshop, it was a no-brainer. I took a class or two from Hal Schmitt at one of the early Morro Photo Expos and was impressed, so I expect this will help get me over the hump of trying to turn out top notch prints instead of decent ones.
After that, I’ve decided to get to Yosemite for the dogwood this year, but the dates depend on when spring hits the valley and whether my schedule will really allow it. Still up in the air, but I’m hopeful. And Laurie and I are talking about Yellowstone after labor day for a week or so, or perhaps up the Oregon Coast. That’ll probably be my “longer than day trip” photo work for the year. Maybe something in the fall, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to swing both a Yellowstone trip and a fall foliage romp into the same season…
But before that, I gotta rebuild my emergency kit for the new car and get some stuff ready for travelling… (glares at calendar…)
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