Los Angeles Inversin Update
Hey fellow family members and friends! It's been a long time since there was a significant posting from Southern California. Now that we're back from vacation, we've got lots of pictures to share, and lots of news to tell!
Over the past half year I've been working at Digital Domain, here in Venice, California, on Pirates of the Caribbean III: At Worlds End. I also finished up three films prior, Clint Eastwoods Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, and Disney's Meet the Robinsons 3D. Another film that I completed at Tippett Studio, Charlotte's Web, was released in theatres in December as well. At Worlds End was completed at the beginning of May, right before my month long vacation. I had a great time creating some of the visual effects for the show, so be sure and stay in the theatre when the credits roll, to see my name in the Digital Domain compositors section, smack dab in the middle of the screen.
Read on to see where we visiting during our time together!
At the completion of Pirates 3 on May 1st, I took a much deserved five weeks vacation, which is just wrapping up! Lisa and I did a bunch of sightseeing and touring, as well as spending some necessary time together, especially after my 16 hour days, six day weeks during the last month of Pirates 3. Our first trip took us up to Yosemite National Park, where we spent the night in Curry Village, where tented accomodations for cheap allowed us to get pretty close with nature, as well as get pretty cold in the evening! We had a great time, and did a quick day hike the day after we arrived up to Vernal Fall. The image to the left shows the view of Half Dome, Vernal Fall, and Nevada Fall, and the images below show us at Vernal Fall and at the entrance to Yosemite Valley. You can see El Capitan to the left, with Half Dome in the center, and Bridalveil Fall to the right. This was the first time that Lisa had ever been to Yosemite, and it's an impressive place to be.
It was also the first time that we had a digital SLR, with various lenses and filters, so we shot some interesting and clear pictures of Yosemite Falls and some interesting moss.
Right after our Yosemite visit, we did some local sightseeing in the LA area, going up to Santa Barbara and down to San Diego. We also visited a local chapel made of glass, known as the Wayfarers Chapel, in Rancho Palos Verdes, south of where we live. Below is the Wayfarer Chapel from its entrance, and a Bird of Paradise flower, shot with LIsa's dSLR with macro.
On our quick day trip to Santa Barbara we shot more pictures, but this time with my point and shoot Canon S30, which is about six years old now. On the left is the Mission of Santa Barbara, and on the right is the Rose Garden which lies across the street from it. Santa Barbara is a beautiful city with spectacular views and well manicured areas. One wonders where the poverty is! I think it's the surrounding cities. The view out onto the ocean is nice, but it is dotted with oiling platforms here and there.
We went down to San Diego for a day to visit my uncle and his fiance, and in doing so we went sightseeing in San Diego Historic Town Park, as well as Seaport Village, a collection of small shops and tourist traps to spend your hard earned cash. San Deigo is in the midst of a downtown revitalisation, where scores and scores of condos are being built, for whom, I don't know.
Upon return from San Diego, Lisa and I had some time to relax before we headed off again for Phoenix, to visit my brother, for the Memorial Day weekend. Panya now has four dogs, with a litter of pups on the way! We had a good time catching up, and we ended up hiking up Camelback mountain, one of the peaks in Phoenix. A couple years earlier we hiked up Squaw Peak which was a breeze compared to this one! Clockwise from the top left, Lisa (in the red) coming down one of the steep 70 degree drops after we reached the top. Notice the handrails! The top of the peak, looking down at Phoenix and the trail below. Panya in the foreground with Rachelle in the background. A little (well, a foot long) lizard we spotted on our way down.
Coming back from Phoenix, my little MINI Cooper S hit 50000 miles! Now I'm officially out of warranty. I've been doing my due diligence and feeding it the appropriate oil and fluids for the past four years, so it's been good back to me. After our Phoenix trip we headed back out to Maryland, to visit my folks, with a slight detour up to New York to visit my grandmother. It's been a while since we've been back, and not a lot has changed since 2005. We did some sightseeing while there, visiting the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum near Dulles Airport, as well as going to the top of the Empire State building and hitting the National Mall again with trips to the Natural History Museum and the Smithsonian Castle.. While in New York we went to Sleepy Hollow and its cemetary, as well as visiting a coworker from Tippett Studio who's now at Blue Sky in White Plains. While in Maryland we also saw Scott and Cynthia with their baby boy in Columbia!
From left to right, top to bottom. Lisa and I at the top of Empire State Building on the 86th floor observatory. Myself, Scott, and his son, Brennan. Lisa and I at the National Mall at the reflecting pool. Lisa standing in front of the SR71 Blackbird at the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum. This particular SR71 flew from LA to Dulles in one hour and four minutes and twenty seconds! Mom's in the corner! Two pictures of the Sleepy Hollow cemetary. This cemetary and environs dates back to the 1640s!
Lisa and I are going through the rest of our pictures, and will be uploading them to our flickr account, so be sure to check back periodically for those! Lisa's also going to be dividing up our photos and putting up individual entries on each of the locations we've been to so far.
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