All in a Day's Work

Well, not really a day...more like a month. And not really all work either.

I did some calculating today, and in the month of June I've visited 5 cities. In 4 time zones. Shuffled through 7 airports. Stayed in 5 hotels. Stayed in 3 homes of friends/family. And spent 18 nights somewhere other than my own home sweet home.

(That's a lot.)

Almost all of that was for work, but I did my best to fit some play in there, too. My last trip started in Boulder for the first leg and then on to Southern California for a stop in Santa Ana and then San Diego. There are, obviously, worse places they could ask me to go slave away for the job. I completely fell in love with Boulder--it makes my top five places in the US list. It rocks. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I got home last night, and while I'm completely pooped today I can't help but reflect on what an amazing place our crazy little world is. Mountains. Oceans. Climate swings of 30-ish degrees. (Seriously--it was something like 71 degrees when I left San Diego 24 hours ago and is currently 102 in Austin. Hello heat!)

I'm so grateful that I get to see little pieces of the planet here and there. Even better when I get to see (and make) friends along the way. This time around I even got to make some pizza. That story is going to have to wait, but here are some shots of the nature-licious sites I got to enjoy last week.

Hiking (more like sprinting because I had so little time) in The Flatirons in Boulder early Saturday morning before rushing off to the airport. At the beginning of the trail:

Where I stopped--these are rocks at the base of one of the climbing areas. I would have LOVED to scramble around up here!

The view looking down from where I stopped:

All done.
Juana rockin' the super cool car we had (mind the sarcasm).

I flew from Boulder to Orange County and had to spend some time at my most favorite place: the beach!

The cliffs of Corona del Mar:

Blue sky and blue ocean make me one happy moose.

There is simply no better way to spend an afternoon than this:

When I left Santa Ana I drove down to San Diego for a meeting. Here's the sunset at Carlsbad.

Oh, SoCal. I have a S.E.R.I.O.U.S crush on you!