Landscape Art Print on Society6

I had some requests, so I finally got some of my travel landscapes up on Society6. As far as frame + print goes, the price cant be beat. Most of these are from last summer when I put almost 6000 miles on my car(s), stretched my vagabond muscle, got real intimate with cruise control.

My brother came to visit, and I gave him the grand tour of California including Yosemite, Big Sur and the Californian coast. Then my friend Mie and I drove from Virginia to back to California mapping a ton of locales I'd always wanted to see, including Colorado, New Orleans, and Utah.

These landscape squares would look super chic in your bathroom!

Ladies take to the Hills

“We are now in the mountains
and they are in us,
kindling enthusiasm,
filling every pore and cell of us.”               
        - John Muir

“Mountains are not Stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve,
they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.”             
       - Anatoli Boukreev

Under the shadow of the high sierras at home in the mountains. Here are a few photos from our recent trip into the playground that is Alabama Hills at the feet of some of the tallest mountains in the 48. Mount Williamson and Whitney loomed over our campground like sleeping buffalo. We actually had wild buffalo outside of our camp in Africa which was not quite as pleasant or comforting. I couldn't sleep, imagining all night a stampede charging my tent. Fortunately this weekend, we had Darwin the terrier to take care of any hostile threats.

Girl climbing weekend was a solid idea. We were preceded by a fresh snow in the hills that stayed only long enough to dust the mountains. By the time we got there, things were warming up. Even though it was chilly, we got away with pretty ideal camping weather. My camp mates might argue with me, but forties are not bad when camping in spring. I've stayed in this area and had frozen water by morning, so we got off easy this time.

Being the legitimate campers that we are, we performed the staples of outdoor living: fire, smores and esoteric stories of ghost, aliens, and coincidences. Stories must be told. And mountains must be climbed.

This is the Shark's Fin. It looks tiny from the road, but it is actually somewhere between 40 and 50 feet.. and look at the backdrop. Never gets old.

My first solo rappel.

Second climbing locale, still easy one pitch but from the top the view was outstanding. Then we got burnt, or at least I did.

one half of the view, looking east

Darwin; Ruthie took good care of him in the back seat. He was a pretty fierce guard dog, but has some emotional issues; I'll leave it at that. Leang's first time camping; and she's still alive.

 

Nupur drinks beer for breakfast. That's how she sends. And Leang eats 16 egg whites.

 

Signature stuffed pepper, not camping without them.

Darwin and his tongue. 

drawings and photos from yosemite

I got these flowers for my birthday and I didn't want to leave them at home, so I brought them along in a take-out cup. They smelled up the car nicely, but didn't like the cold much. I felt bad for toting them along after that.

We camped in the valley with all of the climbers. I was envious, except of their pre-dawn wake up call. J made fast friends with a nice Hungarian guy who was telling us about a guy at one of the national parks in California who left honey in his (yellow) car. Kind of like wearing a meat suit in shark invested waters. Obviously a bear broke into his car to feast. It was such a jackpot that bears were breaking into every yellow cars in the area for a while after that. Such smart animals.

It rained and made everything muddy and grey. We were determined to mountain bike no matter what, so the poncho did what it could. By the end of it, we were completely filthy and wet. So much fun.

Yosemite really is one of the most magical places on the planet.

Summer means camping..

.. we camp in spring and fall too, but it's nice not to be hanging out in Arctic gear.

Pictures of Shibat and I during our camping trip in April taken by Dennis Ho, 
who is an excellent photographer as you can see. 

There's nothing better than warm summer nights around the campfire singing, making smores, telling ghost stories, star gazing, and discussing the meaning of life.

We took off to La Jolla Indian Campground north from San Diego. The campground is on the La Jolla land of the Luiseño Indians. We met a guy a while back in the area who was part of the tribe and said that the La Jolla Res was the only Native American reservation established on land that was already occupied by the tribe. Every other tribe was displaced. Imagine how different the US would be today,  if settlers had worked with the Native Americans, instead of against them. Would the style of governing be much different? Would the continent be more ecologically sound? Certainly the American culture would have a stronger bond to the land.

  Our New Yorker and Parisian had never camped before, 

so we did our best to be ambassadors of the Great Outdoors.

 I only took pictures down by the creek, so here we have some wild flora and fauna:

 I love the little futuristic-space-craft shadows that the water spiders make.

 Walking on water. Impressive little guy, impressive.

What the heck are you? Answer: Damsel Nymph. This is kind of a let down being that you are neither nymph-y or damsel-y. But my wild research definitely uncovered the scope of human hobbies. I found this species name on a professor's blog who studies Central Virginian aquatic insects in his spare time. I really appreciate that. Everyone's got their thing. The weirder the better. I had a professor of illustration in college who was really interested in snail reproduction.

Do you have any unusual hobby or interest? Feel free to share...