San Francisco

We weren't going to go. It was one of those things where we nixed the notion of going on our family vacation immediately after the Big Bomb was dropped on us. We had been planning this thing for several weeks now, it was hard to throw all that preparation away. After a few days it was decided that maybe we can do a truncated version of our trip, maybe stay there for three days instead of a whole week. Yes, that's what we needed. A chance to get away.

And then, as luck would have it, one of Andrea's friends offered a place for us to stay for the entire week. So generous of Lesile and Riley to open up their home. So thankful to have good friends like them.

And you know, a week STILL didn't seem like enough time to get the full experience of San Francisco. We'll be back. That's a definite.

Below you'll find a few more of my shots of our trip, although Andrea does a much better job at capturing the soul of the City by the Bay. By all means check her on-going photoset. Beautiful images. You'll be thanking me.


On the road trip, we passed by the beautiful Mt. Shasta in northern California.


You know she fell asleep like this: with her finger on the button. I guess she's a true photographer now.

For our first big day, I didn't bring my camera, so I don't have anything to show for that day. But here's a shot of me with Harley Jessup at Pixar. Oh, yes. We visited the Emeryville studio and had lunch there. What a great treat.


Harley, as you might recall, was the art director for Twice Upon a Time. He was the production designer for Ratatouille as well as for Presto, the new short film currently playing in front of Wall-E. To quote a fellow Pixarian, Harley's a class act. And he's absolutely right.

Oh, hey -- big ups to Sanjay, Erik, and the few others I had the great fortune of talking with during our visit to Pixar. What a remarkable place, guys. Thanks for the time.

On Tuesday, we took the ferry into the city:


Ezra doing what he does best: making his big sister laugh.


Your typical shot of the Golden Gate Bridge. And a boat.


Sure he's cute, but tough as nails if you try and take his cupcake.




How cool is that? Vintage streetcars. This one was originally from Kansas City, and was in service from 1948 to 1988.

On Wednesday, we walked around the Mission District. So colorful. A couple of Andrea's friends (the very talented Mati and Kelly Rae) showed us a few hidden alleyways that boasted some amazing murals.


Ava looked at this mural for a long time.


Cool doorway.

I'm still in the process of uploading more photos from our trip. I'll post more of them here later on.

The trip was definitely a shot in the arm for us. We had such a great time that we vowed to come back right away. I really mean that.

There are more photos to see in my SF photoset and in Andrea's SF photoset. Enjoy!

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I've been working on my portfolio website lately. Finally registered my domain name and will hopefully have the thing up and running soon. Things have been so-so with the new job hunt. Some slivers of opportunity here and there, but nothing's really solidified. I've done a few illustrations for Jib Jab, which was a lot of fun, and have done another illustration for the next Von Glitschka book (due out in early '09) -- but really, putting together a portfolio from scratch has proven to be incredibly time consuming and frustrating. I've been constantly changing the thing after each meeting or interview, which makes it even more time consuming.

I'm remaining optimistic, though. No sour grapes here, I promise. It's all a matter of finding the right opportunity at the right time. That's what I've always told people when I'd talk about the biz, and here I have to remind myself of this very thing. So, yeah. Need some storyboards done? How about some character designs? I'm here to help. I'll treat ya right. (How's that for some shameless promotion?)

More SF pics soon....