Friday, July 24, 2009

Hoppas du har en fantastisk resa

karolanderssonwithglobe

My good friend and assistant editor Karol Andersson is headed to Sweden for a big adventure. Lycka till. Tja saknar dig!

Music on the bay

On Thursday evenings during the summer there are live bands that perform on the waterfront in Old Town Eureka. Last night, The Goddess and I decided to listen to the music while kayaking around the harbor.

harborband

The bands perform right up there. Last night some blues band played. They were pretty good.

woodleyislandboats

We launched from across the water at the Woodley Island Marina. At one point, we parked our boats on a dock and walked over to a local watering hole for a refreshing adult beverage.


kayakfront

We then explored the waterfront, and I took lots of blurry photos of godwits.

godwits

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Coast Redwood Tour 2009

Last week I travelled with The Goddess on a six-day camping trip from Humboldt County to Morro Bay and back. I only photographed small portions of the trip, so this is an incomplete pictorial account of what we saw.

elephantsealsatbeach


Just north of San Simeon, we came across a beach full of elephant seals.

sealions

We watched bulls fight for supremacy.

elephantsealsnot

I could relate to this fellow, who just soaked up the sun.

squirrelllookingatwater

We weren't the only ones enjoying the ocean view.

albinoredwood



On the way home we stayed at a campground in Big Sur and came across an albino redwood.

hulaspalash

We hiked up the Big Sur River with Hula, who had a blast the entire time.

adventuremobile

On Friday night we camped at Samuel P. Taylor State Park, located east of Point Reyes. This photo shows the AdventureMobile, which was outfitted with a canoe and my fixed gear bike.

ftrossyard

On the way home, we stopped at Fort Ross. In the early 1800s, the Russians built a settlement and a fort at this location. Below are various images from the fort.

ftrossguns

ftrosschapel

TrunkDesign

Kim took this photo of a design on a trunk.

bayatfortross

Kim took this photo of the harbor at Fort Ross.

windowatftross

ovenatftross

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Camping on the Smith

Last Thursday morning we headed north for a three-day camping trip on the Smith River.

smithriver

The Smith is a pristine, undammed river. The water is crystal clear. We camped at Grassy Flat. which is near where this photo was taken.

bicycles

We brought our bicycles – my vintage Schwinn newspaper bike and Kim's Trek Navigator. The Schwinn has the mother-of-all baskets on the front, and was handy for hauling essential supplies like food, wine coolers and lawn chairs down to the river.

campfirejackandkim

In the evening we played Canasta, cooked over the campfire and stargazed.

kimwithfire

The Goddess worked her magic.

campfireheart

We enjoyed our own kind of fireworks.



heartcloseup

bog

The next morning we went on a hike and visited a serpentine bog with a rare plant called a Darlingtonia, aka a Cobra Lily.

cobralily

Because there are few nutrients in a serpentine bog, these plants eat meat. Flies and other bugs are lured into the large bulb with a nectar. They're then slowly sucked down into the plant and consumed. This raises an interesting question: Assuming such a plant were edible, would it be kosher for a vegetarian to consume it?

MineTestHole

Nearby we inspected a "mine test hole," probably dug in the 1930s.

There were many other interesting photo ops, but I was relaxed and lazy most of the time and didn't bother. I soaked up a lot of sun and read an adventure involving Navajo officer Joe Leaphorn, a double homicide, a heist, a stolen helicopter, a woman corrupting a priest, a militant American Indian outfit and a cave wired with dynamite and full of scouts. Damn, that's a lot of plot twists to pack into a little paperback!

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