Summer Tales Part 1

Hello!

I hope your Summer/Winter (wherever you may be)  has been as wonderful as mine.

In June, we flew out to Sunny California to photograph the wedding of two special people that we are delighted to call our friends, in the beautiful Sonoma County region surrounding the Russian River . What a magical place!

We didn't really know what to expect but as we hadn't done too much research into the area we were staying, as our heads were sort of focussed on the hard work aspect of photographing a wedding, the day itself and planning a big trip! But we couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised.

The teeny tiny town of Duncan's Mills had its boom time in the Victorian era when two brothers set up their logging business there. Unfortunately most of the town was flattened in the great earthquake of 1906, but what remains and what has flourished there since, in Duncan's Mills and the nearby towns is a happy, sleepy, friendly atmosphere of life by the waters of the beautiful Russian River. We especially loved Guerneville and the quaint little Monte Rio with its wonderful sign 'Welcome to Monte Rio, Vacation Wonderland'.

As an English girl, born and bred in dirty old London town, although it sounds such a cliché; this side of America really is like a film to me. Being in the great big, beautiful outdoors gave me such a sense of space, freedom and complete awe at nature, that I have only experienced  before on our last visit to the States in 2013.

We spent 4 days in this area, exploring, spending time with wonderful friends, and photographing the *most* incredible and beautiful wedding I'm sure we are ever likely too. The day after the wedding our pals took us to the Town of Bodega where Hitchcock's The Birds was filmed and then went to the BEST seafood restaurant, which I believe was called Tony's (?). I have a really bad iphone pic of it which is too crappy to share, but the clever GPS on the phone tells me that Tony's is on Petaluma. Oh man, what I wouldn't do for a bowl of that clam chowder now

Running from all the imaginary birds

When we left the area and our pals, (although he wouldn't like to admit it) we both had a little tear in our eye, but we were excited for the BIG adventure to come, and I'll be back soon to tell you all about it.....