My mother was in town at the end of March so we decided to head back to Filoli to see what had changed since we had been there with Jennifer’s mother at the beginning of the month. Some daffodils were still blooming, but the highlights of this trip were the wisteria and the tulips. By chance, we also ran into my cousin Don and his family who live nearby in Belmont. Filoli was just as photogenic as last time, though the atmosphere was slightly different with the different flowers in bloom. There were also more people wandering through the gardens, which made it much more challenging to take photographs of the grounds.

We spent the weekend of March 20th at Lake Tahoe with our friends Matt and Minette. It was a pretty relaxing trip that included a nice leisurely snowshoe excursion near Mt. Rose. The temperature was very warm – around 70 degrees Fahrenheit – so we all stripped down to our base layers shortly into the hike. Because the sun was so bright on the spring snow, photographs became fairly difficult. These are the few photographs that turned out well enough or were salvageable by adjusting brightness levels. The last photograph is from a short stroll we took along Donner Lake.

Sandy, Leon, Jennifer, Kaija and I had a great weekend away from the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area March 12-14 at the Point Arena Lighthouse, about 125 miles north along the coast from San Francisco. We stayed in the living quarters adjacent to the lighthouse. As it turns out, this location was used in the filming of the moving starring Mel Gibson called Forever Young. The gazebo seen in some of the photographs was built for the movie. The lighthouse beacon is not currently operational but should be by the end of the summer. The beach in the photographs is at Manchester State Park, located a few miles north of Point Arena. The funky building near the end of the album is the Sea Ranch Chapel, a non-denominational place of worship located along Highway 1 south of Point Arena.

While Jennifer’s mom was in town, we decided to do portions of the 49 Mile Drive through San Francisco. Even though we’ve been living in the Bay Area for nearly 5 years now, there are still portions of San Francisco we hadn’t seen.

While Jennifer’s mother was in town visiting Kaija… I mean us… we took a trip to Filoli Gardens since she enjoys going to formal gardens. It proved to be a fairly photogenic place, considering the majority of the flowers weren’t even in bloom yet.I’ve made a few changes to the photo album templates, most of them behind the scenes. Let me know if you have any problems.

Spending the majority of my life in Michigan, I still find it amazing how early spring hits in California. A number of trees were already in full bloom in mid-February. On my way to work one day I took a few photos of a dappled sunrise. Oh, and who can forget Valentine flowers.

Jennifer and I took a trip back to Michigan for a week in January to visit our familes. It was the first time we had been to Michigan with Kaija and the first time many had a chance to see Kaija since we did not go back for the holidays. The temperature was below freezing the whole time we were there so Kaija was able to get quite a bit of use out of her Marshmallow Peep outfit.