Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/40 sec, ISO3200 “Anniversary Card” Cedar Park
こんばんは！How’s it going?
Today is Mariko and my 20th Anniversary! I cannot believe that the time has gone by so quickly. It’s funny, but we don’t really celebrate our anniversaries so much, in fact one year we kind of forgot about it. Also, we’ve never really been 100% certain when we should celebrate it! What I mean is that we were officially married on December 16th (at the city hall in Osaka) but we had our ceremony on the 18th in Guam. We sort of eloped…
But yeah, I guess we’ve settled on the 18th since it gives us a couple more days to figure out where we want to go out to eat. 😜
Speaking of anniversary dinner, tomorrow we are flying to SoCal to spend the holidays at my parents’ house and we are going to have a nice anniversary dinner at a restaurant nearby. I can’t wait!
So, besides our anniversary, today was kind of busy taking care of things, like dropping off our dog at the sitter’s house, picking up Koa after he returned from Chicago, calling AAA to give me a jumpstart, doing laundry, packing, etc etc ettttcccc…. I guess we’re all ready for vacation. Maybe?
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/100 sec, ISO2500 “Concert Time” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！How’s it going?
Today our son’s band had their final concert before they head off to Chicago to perform at the Midwest Clinic. They sounded great! I am so proud of him.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/55 sec, ISO3200 “Concert Reception” Cedar Park, 2016
As you can see from today’s photos, Koa and I did a bit of holiday shopping. Specifically, we went out for Christmas hats that he and his percussion-mates will wear during their holiday concert in Chicago. 🎅
It seems that each section of the band is supposed to have matching hats so I took Koa to the party supply store to pick up hats for his section. It’s interesting (to me, at least) that Koa was able to take photos of the different hat choices, then share via group chat with his section-mates, and they all decided on the antlers and Rudolf nose in a matter of minutes. Kids and their technology!
I think it looks pretty good, and the nose actually lights up too. 😜
When I was growing up, my parents had one of these Kodak cameras with the flashcube. I remember being fascinated by how the cube looked when it was all spent. It had a blurry, bluish discoloration.
But my main memory regarding flash was from my 6th grade year in 1980, when I competed in a trivia quiz-show at the high school. After the competition was over, all the parents were taking photos of us kids, but my mom had run out of flashcube, so she tried to time her shot with another parent’s camera flash. I don’t know if it worked or not, but I’d have to say that the chances were pretty slim that she could nail the timing. 📸
Today was our full day at Big Bend National Park. Our family style for this vacation is to take it easy and not “maximize” our time here. What that means is basically:
Wake up at a reasonable hour, about 7:30 AM
Enjoy nice meals(eat well with good company)
Choose a few activities, but don’t stress out about completing them all. It’s not a quest!
Rest when we are tired
I honestly don’t know if this is the norm, or if we are more relaxed about it than most people, but for some reason I am used to trying to squeeze the most out of my vacation time by waking early, sticking to a schedule, seeing every sight possible, etc.
That being said, I like the relaxed itinerary! Rushing sucks. I like being able to drive at or below the speed limit and not worry about being late. In fact, if we don’t have a set schedule, there is nothing to be late for.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/85 sec, ISO3200 “Breakfast with a View” Big Bend, 2016
Anyways, today we woke up at 7-ish and then got ready for the day, then enjoyed a nice breakfast at the Chisos Mountains Lodge Restaurant. I had the Huevos Rancheros (sunny side up), both kids had breakfast burritos, and Mariko had the “Wagon Wheels”, which were two massively fluffy pancakes. All in all, we are pretty happy with the Chisos Lodge Restaurant, which offers pretty good food at reasonable prices, considering the next nearest restaurant is an hour away.
Our first stop was the Balanced Rock. You get to the Grapevine Hills Trail trailhead by traveling about 6 miles down Grapevine Road, which is a gravel-covered dirt road, with a little bit of washboard to rattle your bones, but not too hairy. Our Prius handled the road fine, as long as we kept our speed to about 14 MPH. While driving on the gravel, I kept imagining how great it would be to ride that road on my GS, or even my old Toyota 4×4… Perhaps some day!
From the trailhead, it was about an hour round-trip to the Balanced Rock which is very cool, but a little smaller than we imagined. There were a few other families on the trail, so when we made it to the Balanced Rock, there were many people to trade family photographer duties with.
The hike is pretty easy, with a slight uphill most of the way in, and then some moderately easy climbing for the last part. Not difficult at all! Balanced Rock was a fun hike and should be on your list of Big Bend activities.
Next, we headed to the west end of the park, to hike the Santa Elena Canyon Trail. This trail is also fairly easy, winding next to majestic canyon walls and a gently flowing Rio Grande river. The views are spectacular (make sure to look up!) and there are plenty of nice photo opportunities, the best of which are near the end of the trail. Stand on the rock outcroppings just before the end of the trail for the best shots.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/140 sec, ISO400 “Santa Elena Canyon” Big Bend, 2016
It takes about an hour to drive from Santa Elena Canyon back to the Chisos Mountains Lodge, so we arrived around sunset, and headed straight for the restaurant. One good thing about the restaurant is that they serve Big Bend Brewery beers on tap, so we got to enjoy delicious ice-cold beer to finish our day.
Our hiking day was pretty dang fun, even though we hiked two of the easiest trails in the park. They may have been cakewalks, but the views were amazing. We are definitely happy!
I can imagine hiking some longer and more strenuous trails in the future once the boys are a little bigger. We’ll see if they have interest in it, because if they do, I’m all for more hiking.
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving Eve!
おやすみなさい！ – B
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My camera & photos
I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
