University of Southern California - Annenberg - Commencement 2016

"A dream doesn't come true through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work." 
~~ Colin Powell

Oh. My. Goodness.

I really cannot quite believe it, but my baby girl (now 30! although she looks 23) has graduated from University of Southern California.  

She had a spectacular GPA of 3.6 (and would have had much higher except for that damn Geology/Earthquake class she didn't even have to take!  Thanks for not preparing her for a "real" university geology course ARC!)!

I know, a lot of exclamation marks but I'M SO PROUD AND HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

Clif Notes version:  Because of family illness and her mother stupidly quitting her State job, she didn't go to college right away and, when she did, she was working full time and taking classes at American River College (ARC). 

She worked long and hard...changing her major in the process...and finally applied to the school of her choice.  Yes, I said 'school' singular.  She did not have a back-up because she did not want to be anything other than a Trojan!  

This didn't worry me at all because the USC Annenberg transfer acceptance rate was only about 23%.  NBD /sarcasm 

Not only was she accepted!  But she was accepted with a partial merit scholarship because her grades!  
That averaged approximately $12k per year!  

LA was a little different than we expected and the costs of living were much higher.   Not to mention, the overtime that my new State job had been providing was suddenly cut after her first semester, so there went most of my college money.  

But we persevered and she DID IT!!  
I could not be more proud of my smart, beautiful daughter!

And now, the pictures:

That's Adrienne right under the hashtags.  Well, the back of her beautiful hair anyway.  

Family!

The beautiful Willow Bay. 

First commencement speaker and recent USC Annenberg Grad, Cody Smith.

He was so funny while introducing his mother, Judy Smith.  Ms. Smith is the inspiration for the television show "Scandal". 

Dean Wilson!  I love this guy. 

Oh they had sooooo many graduate students!  And then it was the undergrads' turn.  
Adrienne was near the end. 

Professor Floto, one of her favorite professors, was reading the names which was very cool!  

And then she walked!

Presented by Willow Bay. 

Afterwards they had a lovely reception in a VERY small area.  It was so crowded and the line for food was quite long so we let the grad make the choice and so we left. 

It had been an extremely long morning, having arrived at USC at 6:50 a.m. and the Annenberg ceremony was finished around 2:30.  Adrienne had decided to participate in the main ceremony as well, which made for a ton of standing around and then walking for her.  

I did convince her to let me take some family photos before we left.

Adrienne and her sister Brianna.

 And with dad and mom Lisa.  

Add in Aunt Rose!

With the proud parents (WHY did I forget my sunglasses were on my head??).

 My beauty! 

I really love this photo of my sister, Rose, and Adrienne.  I think it's a great photo of both of them!

And finally, my beautiful graduate!  #FightOn #USCAlumni

I am so proud to call you my daughter!  

xoxo

Nikon D3300

Road Trippin' - San Pablo Bay, San Rafael Mission, and the Hippie Tree 9/5/15

On a gorgeous Labor Day Weekend last year, we decided to go to the Bay Area and do a little bit of hiking and make a visit to one of California's 21 historic Missions, San Rafael Arcangel.  We set out pretty early on our drive since it was supposed to be pretty toasty.

To pass the time, I took photos from the moving car.  These turned out pretty good all things considered!

Black-necked Stilts!  And lots of them.

California was full on drought mode last year, and it's weird to see how little water there was in these marshes.  This was really only a small patch which is probably why there were so many birds around.

Just a hundred feet or so down the road, the ground was dry and cracked.

I loved this little wooden bridge? that crossed through the marshes.  I don't know exactly what it was but it made for some cool pictures.

Now this was fascinating...  Every so often I would see what looked like an outhouse in the middle of a barren marsh.  There were a lot of these and from the car it was hard to tell if they really were toilets!

They are!!  So weird!

We arrived in beautiful San Rafael, found parking, and walked to the mission complex.

Mission San Rafael Arcangel is not your typical, full mission complex.  It was meant as a hospital asistencia - kind of a place to send patients in a warmer climate than the foggy city of San Francisco.  It was also a highly functional agricultural asistencia.

The original buildings were razed in 1870 and, in 1919, the beautiful San Raphael parish church was built on the site of the mission chapel.

In 1949 a replica of the original mission chapel was constructed next to the church.

The inside of the replica is simple, yet beautiful.

This statuette of the Virgin Mary is inlaid in the wall of the mission museum, which was closed when we were there.

Three of the original mission bells are on display in the museum gift shop.  These are gorgeous replicas.

There were some stunning flowers planted around. I couldn't resist!

The obligatory statue of Father Junipero Serra

I really appreciated the wooden cross, which was delightful in it's elegant simplicity with the rose bush surrounding it.

We got back to the car and headed for the Tiburon hills.  We drove all the way to the top of the windy Gilmartin Drive where the tree is located.  At one point I didn't think the car was going to make it because it was really steep in places!

We had the brilliant idea to walk around for awhile and eventually make out way down the street to the tree.  Then we would swing a bit, take a few photos, and walk back up.  Yeah.  That's TOTALLY how it went down.  haha!

The first part of our little hike went very well, with stunning views of the bay.

The looonnngg Richmond-San Raphael Bridge.

And, in the opposite direction, lies the Golden Gate Bridge and Sutro Tower.

And in the middle, artsy Sausalito and a bazillion sailboats.

We walked down hills and through fields on on dirt paths and paved streets.

It was glorious.

On the way down.

There were incredible views of the city with Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge.

And lovely foliage!

Adrienne pointed out these bright green bushes that looked like a Bob Ross painting.  It really does!

We made it to the Hippie Tree!  Yay!  It is a truly beautiful spot with amazing views.  Unfortunately, there was some garbage around...as usual there are inconsiderate humans who just want to ruin everything*.  

But it was still a peaceful and relaxing place to just hang out.  Pun intended!

This is the swing.  I kind of love this photo with the swing and the Golden Gate.  :-)

And this is me swinging.  It was fun and relaxing.  The swing was a bit high off the ground (and keep in mind, I'm 5'10") and I had to start swinging and pull myself up.  I wasn't at all confident that I could do this and there were other people around.  But I proved myself stronger than I thought and succeeded on climbing aboard.  

Since there were other folks waiting, we didn't swing long.  I wandered around the cool, graffiti-covered rocks in the area for a bit.  

After a short walkabout, we started the hike back to the car.  And that's where things when south.

Adrienne has had a bad back since attending the University of Arizona's volleyball camp when she was a junior in high school.  She came back covered in bruises and with a messed up back.  They worked those girls HARD!

Anyway, as we were going back down the semi-steep trail, her back locked up.  Now we were about 1.5 miles from the car and the trails/road to get there were all up some pretty steep hills.  AND it was very hot at this point.  It was all too much combined so we agreed that Adie would wait there and I would go get the car.

This was just the beginning!

Don't tell Adrienne, but the hike took longer than it needed to because I just loved these golden and royal-purple thistles that were growing all over. 

Long, long, loooooooooooooonnnnnnngggggg, hot walk later, I made it to the car and drove back down the twisty, turvy road and picked up my poor daughter.

We stopped at a CVS for more water and some ibuprofen and then headed for home. The parking lot was home to a weird little nature area where I saw roses, a fat squirrel, and an inquisitive magpie.  

And then we put the Bay Area in the rear view and headed back to Sacto.  Despite the back problems and heat, a fun day was had by all.  

*It came to my attention as I was posting this that some asshole has cut down the swing from the Hippie Tree.  This makes me very sad and I hope someone rectifies the situation.  I don't think it's going to stop the trash and graffiti because people are still going to go there for the views, rocks, etc. But it's all very sad. 

xoxo

Nikon D3000