Tuesdays are for Traveling: getaway girl

I'm headed to Fredericksburg, Texas on Friday for a ladies' weekend.  On our itinerary:  hiking, drinking, lots and lots of sausage and beer (it's a German town!), hair braiding, you name it.  How I wish that Caroline over at greedy girl could design the perfect getaway outfit for me.  Have you seen her recurring post "getaway girl"?  Genius.  The best ones?  Taos, Memphis, and Marfa.

She did this one for Portland, but maybe it would work for Fredericksburg?  Of course, I'm not the expert...

Tuesdays are for Traveling: Macchu Picchu

I can't wait to go here some day.

Canto XII from The Heights of Macchu Picchu

Arise to birth with me, my brother.
Give me your hand out of the depths
sown by your sorrows.
You will not return from these stone fastnesses.
You will not emerge from subterranean time.
Your rasping voice will not come back,
nor your pierced eyes rise from their sockets.
Look at me from the depths of the earth,
tiller of fields, weaver, reticent shepherd,
groom of totemic guanacos,
mason high on your treacherous scaffolding,
iceman of Andean tears,
jeweler with crushed fingers,
farmer anxious among his seedlings,
potter wasted among his clays--
bring to the cup of this new life
your ancient buried sorrows.
Show me your blood and your furrow;
say to me: here I was scourged
because a gem was dull or because the earth
failed to give up in time its tithe of corn or stone.
Point out to me the rock on which you stumbled,
the wood they used to crucify your body.
Strike the old flints
to kindle ancient lamps, light up the whips
glued to your wounds throughout the centuries
and light the axes gleaming with your blood.
I come to speak for your dead mouths.
Throughout the earth
let dead lips congregate,
out of the depths spin this long night to me
as if I rode at anchor here with you.
And tell me everything, tell chain by chain,
and link by link, and step by step;
sharpen the knives you kept hidden away,
thrust them into my breast, into my hands,
like a torrent of sunbursts,
an Amazon of buried jaguars,
and leave me cry: hours, days and years,
blind ages, stellar centuries.

And give me silence, give me water, hope.

Give me the struggle, the iron, the volcanoes.

Let bodies cling like magnets to my body.

Come quickly to my veins and to my mouth.

Speak through my speech, and through my blood.

                                                  ~ Pablo Neruda

Tuesdays are for Traveling: Airport outfits

What do you wear when you travel?  I like to look reasonably put together while staying comfortable.  So, my go-to outfit is a silk maxi dress with flip flops and a cardigan. 

If you want to see how the stars travel, you can check out this website, devoted entirely to celebrity airport stylings.

Miranda Kerr looks just adorable:

I love Cameron Diaz' white luggage:

I'm not sure what exactly John Mayer's trying to do with that hat:

And, finally, just your basic traveling outfit:

Tuesdays are for Traveling: If your friend is the one doing the traveling...

...perhaps you should send her one of these adorable bon voyage postcards as a send off.

Each one is hand-painted! 

Tuesdays are for Traveling: Prefab Houses

I'm so into the modern prefab craze.  I've never actually been in one of these, but the wee houses look awesome:

If they're actually as cool as they look online, I'd love to have one installed on our property.  We have six acres here so we could put it down a pathway and use it as a little guest house or Beau's writing den.  Cool, right?

I wouldn't want to order one sight unseen, though.  So I was excited to stumble upon this rental wee house on the Oregon coast:

Looks like it's time for a road trip!

Tuesdays are for Traveling: Big Sur Edition

Big Sur may be my favorite place in the world.  It's absolutely magical!  Perfect for a trip with someone lovely or with some friends (who hopefully are lovely as well).  If you haven't seen it, plan your trip now.  

Both times we've been, we flew to the Bay Area (once to SFO and the other time to SJC).  Then you have to drive south for about three hours.  You can also fly into LA and drive north.  

If you fly into the San Francisco area, stop in Carmel on your way down.  There's a great art gallery, Photography West, that you should duck into.  Last time we were there, we found these amazing photographs by Alexey Titarenko.  I'm dying to go back and buy this one:

Isn't it gorgeous?

We first went to Big Sur for Beau's 30th birthday back in 2008.  We stayed at the breathtaking Post Ranch Inn.  It consists of a bunch of bungalows sitting on a wooded ridge between the mountains and the ocean.  Incredible.

With very cool architecture:

And beautiful Pacific views from the rooms we couldn't afford.  :)  

 But I guess the view from the restaurant is OK, too:

If you're looking for something romantic, this is it.

 

We just went back last October for our babymoon.  (Did you know about those?  Such a great idea!)  This time, we stayed at the Ventana Inn and Spa, which I'd also highly recommend.  It was definitely one of my favorite hotel rooms:

I took tons of photos for inspiration when I finally get around to renovating our house.  Plus, how can you argue with your own hot tub outside?  It was chilly and rainy, so we ordered hot chocolate and sat by the fire and listened to All Songs Considered podcasts every night.

On the one sunny day, we drove down to the Hearst Castle.  What a trip.  There may indeed be such a thing as having too much money.  But check out this pool:

I could get into that.

On our way back up, we stopped to see the elephant seals, who lay around on some beach right off the highway.  While Beau made some serious fun of me for wanting to stop, we both found those suckers totally hilarious and strangely cute.  

But watch out!

Yikes!

So there's your tour.  Get there as fast as you can.  And if I still haven't convinced you, here: