Aloe polyphlla, commonly called Spiral Aloe

• Jonathan and I discussed this article all last weekend,  How the Internet Killed the Middle Class by Jason Lanier
• Feeling bored with Facebook and want to Tweet more?  Some inspiration: How Twitter Is Reshaping The Future Of Storytelling
• Hilarious, Childhood photos recreated
• Multitasking much? A study say it takes office workers 25 minutes to return to task after an interruption. Brain, Interrupted
• Interior designer, Emily Henderson, shows us how to create a gallery wall in this new video
• Your guide to Hand Powered Mowers
• Are vertical “Pink Houses” the wave of the future? I’m ahead of my time — the 2nd floor of my office glows pink most of the time
• Are you charging enough for your services? Probably not.
• Traveling this summer? Airbnb has fabulous neighborhood guides to cities around the world, helpful even if you are not airbnb-ing it
• More inspiration: How To Be Hilarious On Twitter

Time for BBQ’s, margaritas and working in the test garden.
What are you doing this long holiday weekend?

3 Years Ago Today…

Jonathan and I eloped and got married in a private ceremony in Ubud, Bali (Indonesia). We had a traditional Balinese blessing ceremony (Hindu) in the garden at the Indus Restaurant. The ceremony, the food, the decorations – everything was stunning!

Long Distance Planning

We planned the whole wedding online and I really didn’t know what to expect. I kept telling myself to have low expectations so I wouldn’t be disappointed. Our photographer Tonny Trisnawan was really fabulous and stepped in and arranged our wardrobe, hired a make-up/hair stylist and drove to and from the ceremony. The team at Indus Restaurant blew us away with the elaborate decorations, their beautiful terraced garden and the amazing food! It all came together and far exceeded our expectations!

Big Hair

What you don’t realize when you look at these pictures is that I am straining to hold my head up! The 75+ hair picks (ornaments) that together composed my headdress weighed more than a laptop (like maybe 8-9 lbs)! It was crazy heavy and created a lot of neck strain. I would take breaks every few minutes and use my hands to hold up my head. Luckily I only had to have in on for a few hours.  I can’t complain though, because it was fabulous and totally worth the pain.

More Indonesia

Three years ago, when we were on our wedding trip, we promised that we would return to Bali for our tenth anniversary. We want to travel to Jakarta and some of the other islands and do some more snorkeling. It once seemed really far off, but I just realized it is only seven years away now! We are going to get Ethiopian food this weekend to celebrate.

Photo Credit
www.TonnyTrisnawan.com

Have you been to Bali?
How do you celebrate your anniversary?

Saguaro cacti
Fourquieria splendens (with the orange flowers) commonly called ocotillos
Photo by Lon & Queta

• How to Propagate Cacti and Succulents. I have been meaning to write this post but Apartment Therapy got there first!
• Mind racing? Mine does in the AM. How to Stop Worrying. I love the tip about scheduling time daily to worry.
• How to Say Yes to the Unknown by the EveryGirl
• Want to start a vegetable garden but now sure where to start? How to: Plant a Vegetable Garden by Our Best Bites
• It is BBQ season again. We need to review this before we fire up the grill: 8 Grilling Mistakes You are (Still) Making
• Natalie Massenet, who started Net-A-Porter, made her Instagram feed into a life story/biography. Maybe people will start making visual resumes on Insatgram…
• Need time to blog or keep up with social media? We ALL struggle with this!. 7 Tips by ProBlogger. I love the suggestion to batch tasks.
• 3 Reasons Not to be So Hard on Yourself by Kandee Johnson
• Gala shared: 10 Magical Indoor Plants to Attract Love, Joy and Prosperity!
  

What are your favorite blogs to read?

One of my earliest memories is driving around in a big station wagon with my Grandma Ginna as we sang this song:

-Al Jolson (click for audio recording)

It was a show tune from the 1920′s and I’m pretty sure we sang it 1/2 a million times. The funny thing was that we were not in California; we were in Bloomington, Illinois. I had never been to California. But the song made me dream about California and big trees.

Mariposa Grove

Pining for Yosemite

So I grew up and I moved to California. Actually I moved to California twice. The first time I moved to Berkeley for a year but then I decided to go back East for grad school. Four years later I moved to Los Angeles. At this point I have been in California for almost 12 years.

In all those years I never made it out to Yosemite. Maybe I wasn’t ready. It was a mythical place. I imagined that Yosemite was the beating heart of California and that I hadn’t really arrived in California if I hadn’t entered Yosemite. I didn’t really know what Yosemite looked like exactly. But I knew it was where I would eventually need to go in order to become a Californian.

To further complicate the issue, I felt like I needed to go to the Grand Canyon before I visited Yosemite — you know, I have to work my way west. So in 2011 Jonathan and I used some free tickets that we got when we were bumped off a flight and we flew to Flagstaff, Arizona. From there we rented a car and drive to the Grand Canyon. It was big and impressive. We mostly stood at the rim and took selfies with our SLR and pondered the scale.

Now I was ready to go to Yosemite.

Jonathan drinking water out of the river in Yosemite Valley.
There are signs everywhere telling you NOT to do this.

Yosemite Here I Come Came

Finally, last month, Jonathan and I took our long anticipated road trip to Death Valley and Yosemite. Jonathan had been to these places as a child with his dad. But for me it was all new. One of my friends recently got his Green Card. I feel like I got my California Card. I have driven all the way around the Sierras. I stood at the lowest point in Death Valley. I climbed snowy trails. I hiked in ancient forests. I feel like I am a Californian. The wilds of California are not terra incognita to me anymore.

The tops of the pine trees look like a green shag rug blanketing the valley.

Yosemite Valley is a Cathedral

We primarily stayed in Yosemite Valley on this trip. It only accounts for 1% of the park, but it is the main attraction for most visitors.  The Valley is smaller than I expected, about 7 miles long and surrounded by 3000′ tall granite cliffs. It is about a mile wide. And there are a bunch of huge water falls come crashing  down into the valley. It is one of the few places in the world that lives up to the hype.

I have been to big epic landscapes before, like the Death Valley, Grand Canyon and Patagonia. They are amazing and impressive. But I kind of think of Yosemite Valley as a garden scale version of those big landscapes. It is epic but it is somehow on the upper limits of human scale. I am able to comprehend Yosemite Valley in a way that I can’t understand or see those other places. The valley walls create a huge room like space that felt architectural to me, like a huge cathedral. I woke up in the middle of the night in the dark and realized that I was in Yosemite Valley and I could almost sense the stone walls of the valley around me.  It was both intense and comforting.

Native Manzanitas in the foreground

A Beginning

For a long time I had been thinking about Yosemite was a destination at the end of a road for me. It was symbolic of my move out west, my desire to travel and inventing a new life for myself.  But when I got there, that all seemed unimportant. What I found was this crazy, amazing landscape and I fell in love. It is one of my most favorite places in the world. I’m really excited about going back again (and again) and dragging along friends and family. We are already planning the next trip…

Have you been to Yosemite? What are you favorite hikes?
What should we do on our NEXT trip to Yosemite?

• On the Ted Blog: Does documenting your life online prevent you from actually living it?
• DIY garden bling: designlovefest shows how to paint rocks gold to use as bookends but I think the idea would work even better as garden sculpture
• OK, there are about 10 of these things I don’t have. 50 Things Every Woman Must Own
• Want a vertical garden the easy way? Gardens on Shelves: The New Vertical Garden trend? + You can show off your gold rock collection!
• Some great inspiration for DIY Outdoor Sectionals (you know… couches) from Apartment Therapy. We need something like this in our backyard.
• 5 Ways to Feel Confident in under 5 Minutes by Lifehacker
• Creepy or Cool? Portraits Derived from DNA from hair and gum found in public places.
• Bryan Morse shares his thoughts on living the good life: 22 Things Happy People do Differently
• Want to know how to use Coconut Oil and why it is SO amazing? Read this.

+ Happy Mother’s Day!