Arriving in Cabo, the beautiful desert mountains at dusk immediately set a nice mood for a short but sweet taxi ride to Cabo Azul in San Jose del Cabo.

Cabo Azul is a beautiful place with a series of plush horizon pools that terrace down to it’s beach front. While the pools are nice, my little man and I began our morning with a hike up the beach to explore for sea shells.

One of my favorite parts of a warm climate are the lush tropical plants and flowers that bring pleasing visuals and smells to go along with the sand in your toes and salt water in the air.

The sharp contrast of king palms and Baja shade make for a great silhouette as the sun goes down over Palmilla beach from Javier’s restaurant. That along with my beautiful date, silly 4 year old clone and a plate of Camarones a la Diabla… and this night was perfection

Warm lights and cool shadows dance along the rocks leading up to the Archs monument during an evening dinner cruise.

Just around the bend – it is easy to see what makes this spot such a favorite for whales, surfers and post card photographers!~

This shot that my wife took sums up what I loved about my time on this adventure… simply soaking it all in with a warm sun on my face and cool pacific breeze in my hair.

After cruising up the coast a bit – We turned around at this point and enjoyed this backdrop while a small pod of humpback whales led our boat back into the bay for dinner. While they did not fully breach, they did come up for deep breaths revealing their backs and big splash with their immense tails.

While the expression suggests that one stop to smell the roses, I stand by my belief that that a hibiscus will do just fine. It smells just as sweet and it’s leaves are softer, prettier and it has no thorns.

With a nice tan and a fresh perspective we wait outside in the warm sun to board our chariot home.  Like the flight, the get away was quick… but the slow pace and beautiful colors of Baja were just what this pixel man needed to cool my jets and recharge my imagination.

Why make something custom?

I have never been good about updating a photo stream on Flickr and Facebook’s shifting position on my privacy really creeps me out. In the meantime, my friends always joked about how many photo’s I take using my iPhone.  There are over 1600 photo’s on it right now – So it seemed only fitting to make use of the life stream that was taking shape with a device that I already take with me everywhere.

I love the power and simplicity of WordPress and have used it as a platform to create numerous custom site designs & blogs themes over the years. However, this project was the first time that I took advantage of the mobile publishing aspect of the iPhone App. This is what makes this such a powerful way for a proud dad to share. I already use my phone as a means to capture events, it is only a few quick steps to write down a few words that provide some context to the photo.

The one thing you must do from the desktop admin is to turn on the remote publishing blogging client found in the “Writing” section in your settings widget. Next, simply download & install the free WordPress App on to your iPhone or Android device. Once you have installed the app – you simply enter the same log-in you already use to access the desktop wp-Admin into the log-in prompt from your smart phone.

Once it is loaded up, you can see and manage all of your existing posts / comment, or write a new ones. From the Post view, it is quite easy to take a photo or choose from an existing one in your photo library making it simple and quick to document and publish in real time.

A fun component to Brandon’s site is the ability to use the GPS function that is integrated into the iPhone. My dear friend and colleague Brice Lechatellier created a nifty little wp plug-in that allows you to ad and style a Geo location map to each post. He created this to document his whereabouts on a 6 months around the world trip that he recently embarked upon. I find that it adds an interesting bit of context and flavor to the ongoing story of my adventures / life stream.

So there you have it! The design itself is really quite simple – nothing complex or worthy of explanation. However, the straightforward process to both create and consume make it a very pleasurable utility!

In the late afternoon, I wanted to test out my new “Vans”, and couldn’t think of any better way then on my skateboard.  Since Brandon has the same sneakers, he wanted to come along for the ride… and I mean literally! Mom thought it was pretty cool, so of course she took out he camera and both filmed and shot some pics!

Brandon loved it – which as you can imagine, will mean that he can expect a hip new helmet for Christmas! A little iMovie… and presto – you can all share in the start to our vacation at home! Nothing quite like an aging surfer and his up and coming daredevil! We followed this up with the most appropriate dinner dad could think of after a day burning energy outside… What else…. – a Hawaiian pizza!

My grandma is an amazing woman. The truth is that meeting her, you would probably never guess her actual age. She has been a mother, a wife, a dance instructor, an author, a painter and so much more. She was born in Cincinnati Ohio but as a young girl moved to San Francisco then Oakland California where she later married my grandfather and raised my father and uncle by Lake Merit. Today you often hear folks talking about all the new things that we have, enjoy and can somehow not live without – the web, email, instant messaging, iPods or even Twitter – but Alma was raised in an era when the inventions were things like the automobile, commercial flight, the television, movies hell even indoor plumbing! She has seen the world change before her very eyes.

Growing up she used to take me to see the latest Disney movies and it was a toss up as to who was more wide eyed at the animation. Alma is a dreamer who encouraged me to be creative and to be at home within my own imagination. She would show up to babysit my sister and I with her box of paints and brushes so that we could spend the afternoon painting clay frogs and pumpkins!

At 36, I am very fortunate to still have Alma in my life – She is a beautiful woman, and a hell of a lady with loads crazy stories to tell. Some are crazy cause they are just out there… and others are just crazy given how much history goes into them. So Grandma, Happy Birthday – I love you and will toast a drink with you tomorrow night!

]]> http://marcsdesign.com/blog/my-grandma-turns-100-yes-100/feed/ 5 http://marcsdesign.com/blog/a-monday-at-the-oakland-zoo/ http://marcsdesign.com/blog/a-monday-at-the-oakland-zoo/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:53:18 +0000 marc http://marcsdesign.com/blog/?p=15 Yesterday Lourdes, Brandon & I went to the Oakland Zoo. I must admit that at first, I was not too excited by the idea. I have always found zoos and animal amusement parks to be a bit sad and often disturbing. While I do think it is awesome for kids to be able to see such exotic animals in person, I usually find myself feeling sad for animals that seem so out of place in such small concrete enclosures. Take for example the orca whales at marine world living in glorified big swimming pools – or polar bears at the San Diego zoo, living in feux ice and cement enclosures.

However, yesterday’s visit turned out to be a really fantastic treat. The Oakland zoo is tucked along the hillside above 580 in the Oakland hills. It is over 525 acres spread along an expansive area well removed from the chaos in the city below. The grounds are covered with all sorts lush landscape. This part of the bay area is a Mediterranean climate zone which means that all sorts of seemingly tropical plants thrive among the more expected manzanita bush and oak tree forest.

Rather then small cages and dusty concrete boxes, groups of animals are given entire hillside atmospheres to roam and enjoy their local habitat. A group of lions had nearly 3 acres of to cruise around – either lounge in the sun or hang out in a shaded creek. A couple black bears have a similar home on an opposing side that is not only spacious, but really mimic a natural environment. Clearly, it is not the same as being in the wild – but the park like feeling is a far more enjoyable experience then other far more well renown zoos. (IE – San Diego) The grounds were not ultra manicured (more park like)  but felt very natural, and all the enclosures struck me as not only large, but also incredibly kept and clean.

I have to tip my hat to the folks at the Oakland zoo, who have done an awesome job to not only provide a cool day for a local family, but to also do their best to do right by all the animals there for us to enjoy. All said, we had an great time – and found a truley unexpected treasure in an equally unexpected location.