bricks & butterflies

In December we took a quick little trip to Santa Barbara. We lived there for a couple of years when Scott was in school at the Brooks Institute of Photography and it was fun to see how things have changed and visit some old favorite places. Our BFF Jenny Kim came up from L.A. too (yay!) and we stayed with another good friend who was working in town. One stop on our nostalgic tour was Samy's Camera, where I looked at everything 3 times and played on my phone while Scott and Jenny shopped and chatted with their old favorite Samy's guy (ask for John, he'll take good care of you!).  They were each gifted an Argus...the first camera that was mass produced in quantities over a million. We nicknamed it The Brick...can't wait to see the pictures come out! We also went out to Ellwood Mesa...a preserve of beautiful bluffs above the ocean where thousands of monarch butterflies overwinter each year. We were there just when the sun was hitting the orangish clumps of cold butterflies and it was cool to see them slowly start fluttering and flying.  If you're near Santa Barbara, you just might see a few still there (this is the time of year they mate and migrate). Besides that we rolled by our old apartment and the old and new school campuses, wandered and had dinner on State Street, and watched The Change-Up (way funnier than the previews suggest). It was a great weekend!