More from the East Coast

We had some beautiful weather while back east. Zach and I took some great walks around the bay and got to see many houses from the 1600-1800s! We also had some incredible thunderstorms which were quite exciting - thunder that shook the house! Plus, being right on the water, we had front row seats to all the action.

We also spent alot of time with Zach's Grandma Minnie! She lives in an assisted living home in New Castle, not far from the cafe. She's going to be 94 this year, and is feeling her age (though she sure can race around on her walker!). However, over the week as we took her out each day for ice cream (her favorite is chocolate) she progressively became perkier. She's super adorable and sweet; we had alot of fun with her and her other friends at the home.

New Castle, NH

So this week I am staying in New Castle, New Hampshire with Zach and his family. Zach's dad grew up over here, so we are meeting many of their friends and family! Zach's parents are actually moving over to Botswana, Africa in the next week or so, so we are spending some time with them before they leave.
We are staying at the Piscataqua Cafe, which Zach's relatives own! It's no longer a cafe, but a bed and breakfast type of house. It's right over the water so we can look out and see all the boats. It was built in 1899 and in many aspects is in the original condition - so cool!
Below are a few photos taken from the Cafe.

Family Biography: Erma DeVries - Grandma

I have taken upon myself to create an autobiography of sorts from my entire family. I'm so intrigued to know about their past and about where we came from. The information is slow in coming, but I have gotten both of my grandma's stories. From my paternal grandma, I got a whole bunch of photos from her childhood - which was very exciting! I'm looking forward to getting old photos from my other grandparents and family members as well.

Erma Helzer/DeVries

This photo was taken of my grandpa in a photo booth. She had quite a few of these little wallet photos that you would pay a few cents for. This is one of my favorite photos from the collection I got from her. She was born in Portland, and grew up camping alot and vacationing at many places we still go today. A major summer tradition for her family was going to Rockaway Beach for a week. Below is another photo I love because it's such a classic road trip type of photo from that time, and also because it was taken at the lookout point over Manzanita - one of my favorite lookout points on the Oregon Coast. (My grandma is the girl on the very left)

The North Shore

Here's another shot from the Salton Sea. All the non-summer-like weather we've been having has been making me want to go back... I thought I'd post a "Then and Now" kind of juxtaposition to show the Sea in it's glory day. The bottom photo is a postcard I found online of The North Shore Yacht Club, and above is a photo that I took a few months ago of the same building. I wish I could have found a good front photo, or had taken a good photo of the lake side of the building. But you get the idea.
When I was shooting here, my grandma told me that she waterskied on the Salton Sea back when she was pregnant with my mom! I found that kind of funny, and cool. How awesome that she was actually there when the Salton Sea was the happenin' place?
I finally broke down and bought a photography book of Palm Springs featuring the art of Julius Schulman. They had an entire exhibition of his photographs at the Palm Springs Art Museum. It was so awesome seeing all his amazing work. He even had photographed the Yacht Club - though I couldn't find the image online to post. Here are a couple of his beautiful shots:

Mighty Mouse

I got one. It's wireless. I love it.