photo by flickr user foxtongue

San Diego has always been one of my favorite cities. It’s close enough to Phoenix for a weekend trip, but far enough away to feel exotic. The weather is perfect: warm during the day and chilly at night. And who can complain about staying only a minute’s walk from the beach? When I was growing up, my family would rent a beach home on Mission Beach almost every summer. My brother and I spent hours on the beach and hours at Belmont Park. We rode the roller coaster, ate unhealthy carnival food, and wished we were surfers as we browsed all the shops. In high school, my best friends and I started a tradition of our own, spending a week every summer staying in a beachside condo. We bonded and grew and spent our days basking in the sun. Every time I go back, I remember all the amazing summers I spent on that boardwalk. Last weekend, a group of my colleagues and I traveled to San Diego for a web design conference. Our last night there, we spent it eating Luigi’s pizza and sitting on the beach listening to the waves. It was perfection and I can’t wait to go back.

photo by my dad, Rollie Erickson

From mymodernmet.com:
After seeing how tilt-shift photography could make real world scenes appear like miniature models, Serena Malyon, a third-year art student, decided to simulate the effect on Van Gogh’s famous paintings. Using Photoshop, she manipulated the light and adjusted the focus to make us see these paintings in ways we could have never imagined.

All I have to say is UH-MAZING!