Ode to Bodega

Over the weekend we headed out to our old stomping grounds of Bodega, Ca. It’s a very small town out in the country passed through when heading west out to the coast. One of those places where everyone knows everyone else and there’s a real sense of community that’s pretty rare these days.

Back in the day, there was such a wonderfully eclectic mix of characters living there… surfers, hippies, artists, fishermen… lots of eccentric types to keep things interesting and then being a quaint stopping point on the way to the beach, you’d get tourists and bikers as well.

Once upon a time, Lucas and I lived behind the general store (big blue building in first photo) in an old water tower converted to a tiny studio, right in the heart of town. This consists of the general store, the surf shop, the teeny coffee shop where Lucas used to work, the post office, firehouse, a handful of shops to entice the tourists, and the social hub, The Casino, a biker bar with two pool tables, ACDC, Patsy Kline, and Bob Marley in heavy rotation on the jukebox and the most impressive collection of taxidermied animal heads you’ve ever seen (not to mention this wallpaper behind the bar)… God I miss that place!



Bodega also has the claim to fame that the famous church and schoolhouse scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” were filmed there, and the town is known for being quite haunted. While I can’t back up the haunting claims first hand, I can attest to the fact that the birds in that town are actually quite friendly ;)

All of the above photos are via various flickr photostreams and link to the original source when clicked on. It was funny to randomly come across that photo of the laundry line which I really love, then to read the description and find out that it belongs to my brother-in-law’s mother, haha! It seems the picture was taken by someone just passing through town… small world :)

We were actually there for a party in honor of our old and dear friend Tim’s recent marriage which happened out of state in his lovely bride’s hometown back east. This was a chance to celebrate at home with friends and family.

We had a wonderful time and the setting was absolutely breathtaking, with gorgeous gardens and pastoral views! We got to hang out with so many people we hadn’t seen in years, it was almost like a reunion of sorts. It all brought back memories of a really fun time in my life and we got a chance to show off the little one too :)

Speaking of little ones, I kept trying to take pictures of Tim’s precious daughter in her adorable pink fairy princess dress, but I wasn’t using the flash and she was fluttering about so much that all the photos turned out fuzzy in this really wonderful way. Almost as if she were an actual fairy I had captured :D


This is our good friend Joey, who is someone that we do still see on a regular basis as he lives right down the street from us. He’s posing for this photo to show off his new Missa-thrifted vintage plaid western style shirt, so seasonally appropriate with its orange and brown hues, if I do say so myself, unlike his somewhat inappropriate footwear ;) This is one surfer who lives in flip flops rain or shine!

Then Joey turned the camera on me and I think it’s quite obvious that I’m clearly more comfortable being photographed when it’s just me and my self-timer alone in the backyard ;) Not my most inspired outfit I’ll admit, but I was wearing my recently thrifted cardigan, so there you go.

Also, once the sun went down it was FREEZING cold and I was happy to not be in a dress or skirt. I threw on a knit scarf and hat and was a whole hell of a lot cozier than Mr. Flip Flops I'm sure!

Hope you all had wonderful weekends as well! :)