California Living

I got to tag along with Dave last week for the annual Automattic grand meetup in SANTA CRUZ, CA! (Everyone that works for Automattic is fully distributed (can live anywhere in the world) but they meet once a year for a week.) The two best things about the trip was getting to hang out with sea lions and Dave’s coworkers! I got to hang out with a bunch of the Automattic designers who live all over the world… Portugal, Denmark, England, Australia, etc. This company is stacked to the brim with world class talent. It was so fun to get to be around that. And I was filled with such pride of how talented my husband is. It was music to my hears to hear a few of his coworkers speak so highly of his work. I wish I loved code and designing for the internet, because then I would totally apply to work there. There is a new book just released by a writer who worked for Automattic. Dave got us copies and I can’t wait to read it!

Okay enough of that. Let’s get to the most important part. SEA LIONS!

Underneath the Santa Cruz Wharf are so many sea lions! I kept saying thousands, but Dave kept telling me it was probably hundreds. But to make it a better story, I’m going to go with THOUSANDS. You can hear them talking from far away. They kept saying, “Kate! Come see us!” I took over a hundred photos of sea lions. We don’t exactly have wild sea lions in the South. It’s not everyday I get to out to California so I had to take advantage of it.

I mean… LOOK how many sea lions are in this picture!!! Amazing.

And this one totally waved at me! He was just chilling out but then saw me! He turned over and started waving his fin! AH!

This one is a model.

We rented a car on Saturday to visit Carmel and Monterey! Is this my life?! We visited Point Lobos State Park. If you are ever near there, GO! It was amazing to see such beautiful beaches and Pacific Coast wildlife.

You can borrow binoculars from the visitor’s station. Here’s Dave looking at the thousands of sea lions covering those rocks. Yes those rocks are covered in sea lions. I couldn’t believe it. Best thing ever? YES.

We saw porpoises, seals, and sea otters. And we heard people had seen whales earlier that day so we stayed a long time looking. I finally saw some spouts and massive fins coming out from near the horizon! I saw humpback whales!

While Dave was at “work,” I spent most of my time working on my 2014 calendar! I realize it should have been done in August, but I’ve had a busy few months. I knew what it was going to be a few months ago, but I didn’t want to tell anyone online because I haven’t seen it done well yet. I’ve drawn everything except the patterns for the backs of the pages. I have a busy week ahead working to get this ready for the printer. I hope to have it ready by the first of next week to send to print. Here is a sneak peek. You’re seeing the raw, unedited version. You might notice a few typos in there! Thank goodness for my computer!