A week in California is never enough. But when I found out I was going to a conference in Anaheim around my birthday, my immediate thought was: perfect excuse for M. and me to drive from LA to San Fran in a convertible (with shades and a scarf and a sketchbook, of course)!

Kicked off this coastal crawl with a mini Urban Sketchers reunion: Chris and Shiho met me at Downtown Disney in Anaheim (I was staying at the Grand Californian Hotel). We had dinner at Tortilla Jo's while we drew.







The conference ended on Monday night -- so Tuesday morning M. and I picked up our ride -- a black Mustang convertible -- and set off on Highway 1.

In Malibu, I found that I really like watching people surf, or at least attempt to surf.





We lunched in Santa Barbara, and I sat in the shadeless part of the park to sketch the Mission:



And then ... the fog rolled in. It pretty much sat on us for the rest of the trip. We never saw the top of Morro Rock (though we did kayak out to see the sea lions and the pelicans up close).



We spent most of Wednesday chasing gaps in the fog all the way from Morro Bay to Carmel. Don't get me wrong - Big Sur was still beautiful in its misty coyness. And it lifted enough for us to take the requisite souvenir photos of McWay Falls and the Bixby Bridge. But mostly we'd look to the left and see ... gauzy whiteness. So? We'll just have to go back another time.

Thursday was: Carmel-Monterey-Golden Gate Bridge-Sausalito-lunch in Napa-back to San Francisco for dinner-drop off car at SFO-get on redeye. All this with the Bay Bridge closed for the completion of the new eastern span!

But still, time for one last sketch to kiss California goodbye, from Bridgeway in Sausalito.



As Arnold says, "I'll be back."

On three days in the summer, New York opens up Park Avenue/Lafayette Street to pedestrians and bikes and rollerbladers. This was the scene last weekend at Lafayette near 4th St.

Driving to New Hampshire took way too long on Friday afternoon (>3 hours to Hartford?!). But once we arrived in Peterborough, all the getting-there-annoyance melted away. Peterborough has enough around it to keep us busy (shopping, lakes for kayaking, bikeable country roads) but is small enough not to attract hordes of tourists. Our base was the ever-delightful Little River Bed & Breakfast. Saturday evening, after kayaking, a trip to Eastern Mountain Sports, lunch with area friends and downtown shopping, we parked our folding chairs at Depot Square Park for the Actors' Circle Theatre production of "Two Gentlemen of Verona."



Not the most accomplished of the bard's plays (most likely his first, apparently), but this version was set in the Roaring Twenties, so it was fun to see (and sketch) the flappertastic costumes and props. Remembering what I learned at the USK Symposium in Barcelona, I took along stencils, colored pencils, a glue stick, that Strathmore toned gray sketchbook and more, to get away from my usual pen + watercolor routine.

At Mystic Seaport's Antique and Classic Boat Rendezvous. Sadly several vessels couldn't make it, we learned, due to bad weather in the region a few days prior.