HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY (of us finding each other!)

Two years ago, I locked eyes for the first time with the hottest gay guy I had ever seen, and even better, he ended up not being gay. Thank you Ignas for the most wonderful two years of my life. <3

Nasca Lines are a No-Go

The Nasca Lines are these amazingly large etches into the land of southern Peru. By large, I mean like up to 200 meters large. The drawings are of animals and geometric shapes and some of them get pretty complicated.  Their original purpose is uncertain and there are several theories about their existence (calendering, agriculture, sport, etc.). Many recommend to view the lines by plane - this will allow one to really embrace the mystery and vastness of the shapes.

"The Monkey" -  Taken from Wikipedia

Taken from http://escapedtonazcalinestours.com

Taken from TripAdvisor. A picture from one of the plane tours. This looks very anticlimactic...

With such a short time to explore Peru, however, we've decided to rule out the Nasca Lines from our itinerary. A plane to see the lines would cost $45-$100 (for a very short flight) and I'm not really sure how much we would see from above that we can't see from pictures online.

Peru planning continues!

Snapshot Saturday: Torrance Beach

This weekend is a weekend where I don't get to see Ignas so I'm uploading this picture of us to get my boyfriend fix! I took this picture when me and Ignas were relaxing at Torrance Beach a couple of weeks ago. I was in a hyper, picture-taking mood but Ignas was Mr. Grumps. He just wanted to lay down and nap. But look, I actually got him to smile!

Fall in the air...

Today I got off work at an unusually early 6 PM. I checked Sigalert, surprised to see there was no traffic whatsoever on the way home. I bought an Al Merrick Flyer surfboard this past weekend as a replacement for my magic board that I snapped a while back, and couldn't wait to try it. As I drove home, I soaked in the beautiful, soft sunlight breaking through tattered, popcorn-like high altitude clouds. I threw on my spring-suit (shorty) as soon as I got home, waxed up my new board, and sprinted over to Tourmaline beach. Casting my flip flops aside on the cool sand, I was spellbound by the sheer beauty of the evening. The patchy small and flat clouds covered the whole sky, dividing up the setting sun into a kaleidoscope of red, fiery rays that mixed and reflected in the ocean. It was as if the air itself was aglow, the clouds reflecting the sunlit ocean and vice versa. Then, as I eagerly entered the water and began paddling, it hit me...FALL. It's here. The summer is over. The water, so warm and inviting just two weekends ago when Heather and I were at Scripps, now cool and numbing. The harsh glare of the midsummer sun replaced by a softer, paler light. The fiery red sunset igniting the horizon, something I vividly remember as a signature omen of autumn in Lithuania. And while I was left with a momentary feeling of melancholy over the summer that fleeted by almost unnoticed, my thoughts quickly turned to excitement for the future.

Soon enough the north Pacific storm machine will turn on and begin churning up storm after storm and hurling it in our direction. Surf forecasters predict this may be an El Nino year, meaning more frequent and intense storms, in turn creating more swell. Gone will be the summer doldrums with week upon week of knee high surf. (I really need to thin out my quiver of boards, which is sitting at a whopping five right now.)

The season of baseball being the only sport to watch on TV will be a distant, agonizing memory, as USC football, poised to make a run for the national championship, will fill my Saturdays with joy, excitement and anxiety and leave Heather trying to calm and temper my emotional rollercoaster.

I'll be looking forward to the cooler weather, a trip to Seattle to watch USC play UW, and, even more so, a two week trip to Peru with Heather, which we're hoping to start planning soon.

With that said, I leave you with some pictures from summer's last weekend (Labor Day) in Newport Beach: