Exploring Georgetown

Last weekend we took a day trip up into the mountains to the Victorian mining town of Georgetown. Every year Georgetown hosts a Victorian Christmas Fair, and we had a fun day exploring the small historic town. Here are some pictures from our day:

 In front of the historic Hamil House

 Hamil House

After the fair, we drove up Guanella Pass into Arapahoe National Forest

Sketch a State: Maryland/DC

While staying in Maryland, we spend an afternoon in DC. Sean, Laurel and I went to the Smithsonian Botanical Gardens together and then had lunch. After we ate, we split up: Laurel went to the Museum of Natural History; Sean went to the Air and Space Museum; and I went to the National Gallery.

I love being in art museums alone. It gives me time to decompress and appreciate the things I find beautiful. I spent a bit of time sketching different paintings I loved, and then I sketched a woman who was copying one of the paintings.

Sketch a State: Pennsylvania

We left New York joined by my sister Laurel, and drove down to the DC area to visit my great-uncle and great-aunt. We only stopped in Pennsylvania to eat lunch and get gas, and didn't even leave the toll road to do that, so I was only able to get a sketch of some of the scenery:

Sketch a State Bonus: Niagra Falls

While in New York visiting family, we took a day trip up to Niagra Falls. It was Sean's first time there! While waiting to meet up with my aunts and cousins, I did this quick sketch of the falls from the American side:

The whole family did the Maid of the Mist boat tour (I got incredibly sea sick) and then we had Indian food for lunch. After lunch some of us walked across the bridge to the Canadian side of the falls, while the others took the trolley around the American side. We finished off the day with Dinosaur BBQ in Buffalo, and on the drive back Grandma pointed out different places of family history.

Sketch a State: New York

One of our big stops along our road trip was in Westfield, New York, where my mom's family lives. We had a wonderful visit, and I loved showing Sean around as he experienced western New York for the first time.

Because so much of our time was spent with family, I didn't get my Westfield sketch in until we were getting gas on our way out of town:

Sketch a State: Ohio

Ohio was another state we passed through, but didn't get to really stop and experience. So, another day of sketching while Sean drove:

Sketch a State: Indiana

In Indiana we stayed very close to the Notre Dame campus. We had dinner at Legends, the sports bar near their stadium, and then took a nice walk around campus. It's very beautiful, and we saw a lot of bunnies, ducks and fireflies. I sat and sketched a building that intrigued me: it had a Renaissance revival dome on top, but the bulk of the building itself looked like a typical Victorian Gothic revival brick classroom building. The mix-up of styles, plus batting away mosquitoes, made it hard to get the right proportions in the ribbed dome but I think it still captures my mental image of the building.

Sketch a State: Illinois

After leaving Iowa, we drove through Illinois. We didn't have time for a long stop, so I experimented with sketching while Sean drove.

Sketching while moving past the scenery at highway speeds is not easy, but you can get a feel for some of the barns we drove past that day. And of course, since Sean was mostly stationary, I sketched a quick profile of him.

Sketch a State: Nebraska

It's been a few weeks since I've posted on the blog, but I'm back to my state sketches from our July road trip. Today: Nebraska.

We drove through the entire state of Nebraska in one day, waking up in Cheyenne, Wyoming and going to bed in Des Moines, Iowa. It was a very long day of driving, but we took a nice break at Mormon Island Recreation Area to walk, sketch, swing and see chipmunks.

Sketch a State: Wyoming

After leaving Salt Lake City, we drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming. We had a delicious steak dinner, since Wyoming is beef country. Then we went to the Cheyenne Botanical Gardens to walk around and spend some time in nature after all those hours in the car.

While sitting and trying to sketch the geese (animals are a constant challenge for me because they move so much!) we met a woman and her two year old daughter. We started chatting, and the little girl wanted to help me draw. At first I tried to get her to draw on the blank back of the page before this goose, but naturally the pencil wandered. I figured it wasn't a very good goose anyway, and the memory that this page brings is better than if she hadn't helped!

Sketch a State: Utah

Our second stop on our road trip was Salt Lake City, Utah.

We stayed with cousins for two nights, and spent a full day exploring Salt Lake City on our own. We walked around Temple Square, and took tours of the Beehive House, 26th floor observation deck of the LDS office building and of the LDS Conference Center. We had lunch in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and I sat and sketched in the (air conditioned) lobby while Sean took care of some calls.

Sketch a State: Nevada

These past few weeks, Sean and I have been on an amazing cross country road trip! Over the next few weeks I'll be blogging about some of the different parts of this trip.

One of my goals for this trip was to stop and take a moment to sketch in every state we visited. It's all part of our all-in-one travel journal, which I'll explain in a bit more detail in another post. Today, I want to start off what I'm calling my "Sketch a State" series with our first stop, Nevada!

The first night of our trip, we stayed in a little ghost town called Unionville. A sweet old lady and her son run a bed and breakfast there, and it was a fun adventure to start off our cross country trip. We took my Civic up a tiny gravel and dust road (poor car was so dusty, you could barely see that it's blue!) and had a wonderful night away from modern civilization.

The sketch above is from our first cabin, overlooking the empty desert valley. Not long after I did this sketch, the well pump bound up and we weren't able to get water in the cabin anymore. We moved to a guest room in the owner's sister's house, and had a different but wonderful evening. The B&B really was astounding in its hospitality.

Bay Bridge Lights

Have you heard about the light installation on the Bay Bridge? Artist Leo Villareal designed this light sculpture on the east span of the bridge. It's best seen from near Pier 14 in San Francisco. It opened March 5, and will run through 2015.

On Friday, we went with my cousins-in-law and sister-in-law to see the lights. We especially wanted my "nieces" (cousin's kids) to see the lights -- and it was the 2-year-old's first trip into the city too! She was up way past her bed time, but what a trooper! Despite the cold she smiled and pointed at the moving lights the whole time.

My older "niece" -- hard for kids to stay still for long exposure photos!

My camera doesn't quite capture the beauty of the different patterns, but I got some nice pictures anyway. I definitely recommend checking out the installation yourself if you're in the SF Bay!