Arcata (Part I): The Tree House

July 23, 2009

This summer’s been such a busy one for me that when I got back from summer school, I’d forgotten entirely about all the photos I took while I was in Arcata! I took so many that I’ve divided the posts into 9 categories: Kristina’s house, Allyson’s house, food, friends, feet, flowers, walking dogs in Trinidad, visiting Cotati / San Rafael and a handful of self-portraits.

The above photos are just two of my favorite views from around Arcata, but this post will focus on the ins and outs of Kristina’s house, where Chris and I used to live and I lived again for one month more.

For the first half of my trip Chris and I were pretty adamant about having Skype dates. We would tune in every weekday at noon and watch All My Children together. It was the best!

I dyed my hair a subtle hint of reddish-gold, which was the first time I’ve dyed since I was 18!

Kristina is an amazing printmaker and, in fact, that’s exactly how we first met and became friends: in printmaking class!

This is an A.P. of her homage to Henry Darger. Someday I hope to have a polished version of it hanging on my own living room walls. The cats on the mountain of sugar cubes are my favorite part. Okay, I lied: the cats showing off their buttholes is my favorite part.

To get a better, blurrier look at the print, you can view the full size version of this photo here!

Lots of this happened. On this couch. In front of the TV.

Oh yeah, and that’s Olive sitting behind Allyson, snubbing us. She had lots of time to get to know my camera, so you can expect a Cat File on her in the future!

You may remember the above building from my Bedroom Window set of photographs.

That’s my travel laptop, the Asus Eee PC. You might notice that the screen isn’t much bigger than my Nintendo DS and, suddenly, my disappearance for the month of June seems appropriate!

The upstairs guestroom has the most amazing wallpaper. This used to be Katie’s room, and while we were all living together I was always super jealous of her colonial lego decor.

The back yard was as lush and beautiful as ever, with more happy birds than I’d ever seen. I can only imagine the celebration that took place the day our terrorist cat left town.

Summer in Arcata isn’t anything like summer in Redding, but it’s still hot when you have to hike up 20 hills just to get home from the grocery store. To counteract the sweat, I always took the back way through the community forest home. Beautiful and cooling!

Stay tuned for Part II, where I’ll torture you all with the food I ate :)

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COMMENTS

If I could buy a calendar of this set of photos I would! I’d buy two!

mmm that looks AWESOME right now. i love the second one. i am a fan of your blog by the way! i was on it a couple of weeks ago in the weee hours of the night and there were so many posts i wanted to comment but my computer wouldn’t let me…but i must say i am now a regular!

what a beautiful light!! I would take thousands of pictures only of that window haha :)

Darger is a legde.. I did an art degree and will never be as skilled as him.

very nice, very peacefull and soft…

love the lighting

Seen in my contacts’ photos. ( ?² )

Holy post of awesomeness! Wow. Incredible photos, really. Really really. Are these digital?! What camera did you use to shoot these? [I hate being that person who asks that.. but I must know. A ton of them look like film, which is a good thing.]

Very neat. I look forward to seeing the next parts!

Thank you! And I completely understand, I hate asking others the same thing but sometimes you just HAVE to know! I shoot with a Nikon D50 and a lot of these were taken with an 85mm f/1.8 or 30mm f/1.4 lens.

I don’t remember eating that bear claw.
Can’t wait for parts 2-9!!

I fed it to you during your darkest hour, when you came over to mourn over the loss of your love and make me listen to you sing that terrible song!

Stunning photography, as always. And it’s weird, one of my closest friends from childhood just moved to Arcata. Small world!

Thank you! Small world, indeed! Humboldt is a surprisingly popular California destination for a lot of folks, but if your friend happens to be a pothead then it isn’t a surprise at all. :P

You know, I just watched this movie called “Humboldt County” the other day and I immediately thought – this looks like your area. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s about potheads/pot growers… so right on. I never knew about this place until after watching it. It does seem like such a beautiful place, though… it’s got the best of both worlds… mountains and beach.

The photos are spectacular as always. You do have a magical way of making your shots not look like digital.

A lot of people have been telling me about that movie! I’m embarrassed to admit that it was even playing in Arcata for a long time and I never went to see it.
I’m the furthest thing from a pothead, so it can get pretty frustrating sometimes when that’s all people tend to associate with the area. It really is the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived, though– mountains, beaches, redwood forests! And lots to do, if you’re into the outdoors and looking for a small, quiet vacation. :)

Let me tell you this story it’s a pretty good one.

It’s about videoconferencing on netbooks while your better half’s on vaycay.

So yesterday I’m using on skype on my netbook with Jinah who is in the Bahamas with her sisters. It has wifi, so I’m walking around my place and the background is changing behind me but my head stays the same (and I think that’s funny).

So then I’m in the kitchen and I says, “See if the light stays on in the fridge!” So I open the fridge and put the netbookk in it, still skyping, and I close the door. And then I’m talking to the refrigerator and she’s answering from inside and I think that’s funny.

But the real funny part is she says, “There was enough light from the monitor that it lit up the condiment door so that’s what I was staring at while I was talking to you.” and I think that’s really funny!!!!

My God. And to think– I used to find it funny to chat with friends on AIM while sitting on the toilet. You, dear Markus, have me beat by light years of geeky-coolness!

I love bed photos. These both look so cozy.
The light in the first one is especially lovely .

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