Hitting The Reset Button

So, we are officially down to the last couple of weeks in Southern California.  With some of the best sunrises and sunsets in recent history, at least as far as we are concerned, we are cherishing the last days in our hometown of San Diego.

 Sunset at San Elijo State Beach Campgrounds (Northern end).  Photo by: Petra Kavanagh

 Sunset compilation, one December evening at the reefs of La Jolla.  Photos by: Petra Kavanagh.

My Batman silhouette in La Jolla.  Photo by: Pierce Michael Kavanagh

Pierce and I have both spent some time away from this amazing and beautiful town of ours, but for me personally, this will be the longest I have stayed away from home (over 3 months), and I am looking forward to this opportunity.

Over lunch yesterday afternoon, Pierce and I discussed all that we hope to accomplish and experience while on the islands.  Although there are lots of areas we want to cover while in Hawaii, we will be spending most of out time on the island of Oahu and our biggest priorities while there, are hiking Waimea Valley, Diamond Head State Monument, Makapu Lighthouse, and Manoa Falls.  Also, while visiting, these spots, we hope to be able to swim in most areas on the island, in addition to traveling amongst the Island chain.

We look forward to sharing our experiences and milestones with everyone, so please stay tuned to our blog to learn more about what we are up to and what's coming next.

Learning never ends...

As we get older sometimes we think that we know everything (or at least all we need to know in order to survive), or we may think that there's no room for any new information, or in my case, the technology in front of me freaks me out.  Well this weekend I had to come face to face with my fears, when people I usually rely on for such things were already busy with important things as well, so I took a deep breath and jumped in.

When I graduated from high school in 1999, I still had dial-up internet at home and sought out books for answers, so this time around was much simpler when all I had to do was Google "how to use iMovie".  I was excited when all sorts of YouTube videos popped up to help me in my venture.  The one at the top of the list was by a young boy, I would guess about 12 years old, and I figured if he had done it then I sure has hell could do it too.

Here's the video I watched :)

As a film producer I do a lot of work to make films be made, but in my case that usually does not involve editing, graphics, basically anything that has to do with computers or tech items.  But when push comes to shove, sometimes you have to give yourself a bit of a kick in the ass and learn new things.  So this weekend, misfit pictures (a production company run by my husband, myself and a friend) needed to get together some clips from our upcoming film, WHAT THE SEA GIVES ME, for a local news producer, and both my husband and our partner were working on other projects, so I took the bull by the horns.

First off I had to find the clips I wanted to use and the segments within them that I needed to pull out.  Secondly, I had to upload all the clips into iMovie, which took quite a while depending on the length of the clip.  Then, after all the clips were uploaded I had to cut them down into the segments I wanted, before arranging them in the order I preferred.  Lastly I added title cards.  Unfortunately for me I didn't realize that it would then take over a hour to upload the video to Vimeo, and this after I started a WeTransfer that didn't work out, then had to figure out how to convert the file to the correct type, before the final upload to Vimeo.

So after all of my hard work, I did it, I made a video!!!  I feel very proud of my accomplishment and I look forward to making more videos soon, ones that I will be able to share, because unfortunately I can't share this one with you just yet.  But I do promise to post it once the feature film has been released.

In the mean time please take a few minutes to check out what we are currently working on :)

Teaser for WHAT THE SEA GIVES ME

Trailer for RESURF

Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Our day started off with a family 5K walk around Fiesta Island, it was a great way to start off the holiday.  Pierce and I then did our normal routine, Thanksgiving Day with the Kavanagh clan and the rest of the weekend camping with my family.

 Family walk at Fiesta Island.

Thanksgiving Day meal with the Kavanahs, plus Geoffrey Smart.  Photo by Pierce.

This year we went to Rancho Jurupa Park in Riverside and it was a perfect place to relax and get away from the daily grind.  We spent our time talking around the camp fire, hiking up to Mount Rubidoux, playing monster trucks with our nephew Jayden and just having a grand ole time.

View from the top of Mount Rubidoux.  Photo by Maureen Gaare

 Campground backdrop.

 A walk around the lake.  Joel & Tim tried to catch some fish, but no luck.

 Joel and Pierce enjoying the campgrounds on our walk/ride.

 Sean working his magic with the popcorn as my dad (the fire master) looks on.

 Sunrise Sunday morning, what a way to start the day :)

 Blueberry, raspberry and banana pancakes for breakfast, yummy!!!  Photo by Pierce.

Warwick (the dog and newest edition to the group) being hand fed by Jayden. 

On our way home from Riverside we stopped by Fallbrook to visit with Pierce's sister Claire and her family, which is always a blast.  I'm glad we stopped too, because we were there to welcome home the latest critters to the brood, two kittens (names to come later).

As a "short cut" to our favorite food joint Daphne's, we decided to go through Vista, since we'd really been enjoying our scenic drive thus far.  In the process, we stumbled upon Pierce's old stomping grounds, the Vista Tennis Camp, which his parents owned and operated in the late 70s and early 80s.  It was quite a flashback for Pierce as he recalled all the fun (hot girls, youth shenanigans, video games and slurpees) and not-so-fun (pulling weeds, cleaning up, and not to mention, leaving the beach) things about spending each summer going to camp.

 Old River Road Bridge

Which way should we go? :)  Photo by Pierce.

 Vista Tennis Club

Panorama of the club.

Main sign from the road.  Photo by Pierce.

Daphne's California Greek for dinner, delicious.

From Daphne's we hit the coast and meandered our way down the highway, enjoying the sunset the entire way back home.

 Photo by Pierce.

 Photo by Pierce.

 Photo by Pierce.

Photo by Pierce.

We hope that you all had just as much fun this past weekend :)
Happy Holidays!!!