California, July 2007

California. Just saying the name makes me happy. I love the weather, I love the ocean, and I love that some of my family is out there. Also, I love that English is commonly spoken (well, in some areas).

When my mom asked me to come out to spend her days off with her, I jumped at the chance. I was ready for a break from Spain and I wanted to put my new camera to use by photographing my most photogenic subjects so far - the bulldogs Daisy and Otis. I literally came home with about 400 pictures of them. Here are some of my favorites:













Aside from following the dogs around, I also managed to do a lot of relaxing and some wedding stuff. Mostly it was just quality time together - which at times meant watching Bridezilla marathons...guilty pleasure. We also had a nightly pastime of watching two spiders spin gigantic webs in her front yard. I like spiders (as long as I don't find them in my bed) so it was fascinating to watch them build these things. I'm certain anyone that witnessed us watching them thought we were a bit nuts, but that's half the fun.

Cassidy also made it out for 3 nights before heading up to San Francisco for work. Most of his time was spent in the sun either swimming, reading, or grilling ( a much missed part of apartment living here in Madrid). Friends of ours happened to be in San Diego from NYC so we were also able to squeeze in some time with them!

At the end of the trip we were convinced that eventually we would like to live in California. Although we think we will be heading back to Chicago to live...our next might be CA...but who knows where life will lead us.