Trip to the Coast

So, what to do on a sunny California day? Head to the coast for a little relief from the sun, the smell of salt air and cypress trees. Drink some coffee and maybe get rained on little. That's exactly what we did. From our home base in Sacramento, we drove 2 hours west toward San Francisco with a slight detour south to Half Moon Bay. First stop was to grab some coffee, a quick bite to eat and then on to the beach.

It was slightly overcast but warm. From Half Moon Bay we headed north toward Pacifica.

How could you pass up a chance to walk the maze someone created from rocks on the beach?




This was the coolest! Click on this picture to enlarge it. Someone carved a whole bunch of marine animals on this tree stump that was washed up onto the beach. Is that crazy, or what?

The beach at Pacifica was loaded with surfers. There were easily 200 people of all ages out in the water surfing. I wish I had taken an over all picture of every one. These were just a few of the surfers.



After leaving Pacifica, it was onward to San Francisco which turned out to be quite crowded. The chocolate festival was going on down at Ghirardelli Square. We walked around, sample some chocolate had some ice cream, got rained on and then headed home. What better to do when stuck in traffic in downtown San Fran, than shoot some pictures out the sunroof.

The daughter shot this one out the back window on the way home. The rain was following us home. All in all a very satisfying day. Nothing super exciting, but definitely better than sitting on the couch all day watching tv!!

Have a great week!!!

TVH

California State Fair

Ice House Reservoir, Wrights Lake and Dark Lake

So, with the T.H.G. (Tattered House Gang) on the road to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market, the kids and I decided to get out of the Valley heat and head up into the mountains for some trout fishing. We took off up Hwy 50 to Ice House Reservoir. Upon arriving we found that we weren't the only ones that had the same idea. The campground had a "Full" sign and the lake was busy with water skiers and jet skiers. Not a good thing if you want to go fishing! But having made the hour drive up, and seeing as it was such a nice day, we decided to stay and give it a try.

The thing about fishing with the kids is making sure there is something to do when the fishing gets slow. Luckily there were plenty of rocks on the shore for rock skipping and excavating.

After spending some time with nothing to show but a few drowned worms and a few less rocks on the beach, we left Ice House Res and headed up the road to Wrights Lake. Wrights was also full up. We couldn't even find a place to fish, so we cruised over to Dark Lake.

Dark Lake was fairly quiet, so we went to work trying to catch us some trout. I give Jake credit, he definitely gave it a good try, but alas, no fish today. The day wasn't a total loss. It was a beautiful day and we had fun. On the way back down, we were up around 8,000ft, we stopped and took some pics.

Who doesn't love climbing on top of a big chunk of granite?

Looking back toward Sacramento with Hwy 50 looking tiny in the lower left hand corner.
We drove past this rock and the kids and I thought the graffiti was hilarious. :0)
Ok, that wraps up our day trip to the mountains. I'll try and post some pics of the goodies that the Tattered House Gang brings back from their trip to L.A.

See you next time

TVH

Independence Day Weekend - Happy 4th of July!

Well it's the 4th of July, and that means summer is halfway over. Thanks to Facebook, the family has re-connected to some old friends for a great time this weekend. On Saturday there was a birthday party with one set of friends and later on that night a barbecue and fireworks with another set of friends. The kids had a ball lighting all the fireworks and watching them go off. I'm pretty sure the adults all enjoyed the food and beer, while watching the fireworks! Unfortunately no pics from Saturday. I forgot my camera which is so unlike me. That's ok though, as I was elected to man the bbq and make sure the ribs, hamburgers and hot dogs all got burned to a crisp! (just kidding - nothing got burned)


Sunday has been pretty layed back. We all took a cue from the cat and just layed in the shade. With beautiful weather in the upper 80's, we hung out around the house and just chilled in the backyard.



One thing about our yard, there is still plenty to see. With the flowers blooming and the garden producing, I found a few things to take pictures of.

As I took pictures of the dahlia's, one of our hummingbird friends came down to check out what I was doing. She was hovering about a foot away from me, but it was too hard to get a picture of her at that distance.


This dove has adopted our backyard and has become a permanent fixture around the feeders.

The back bed with some new plants from last weekend. All ready the weeds are coming back!



The bees are loving the lavender. I'm sure that the lavender honey they are making is delicious, wish I knew where the hive was. :0)

The trumpet vine is trying to take over the back corner. I hate to cut it back because I know the hummingbirds love it and so do the bees.

It amazes me, the scrub jay's always know when there are peanuts for them and the squirrels.

This year seems to have been really good for all the birds. The pheobe who hangs out has either had 2 babies or I saw both parents and the baby, either way we have 3 pheobes for the time being.

There are no shortage of house finches for us this year either. 6-8 of them are always under the eve's or on the front porch looking for bugs. I haven't had a single tomato worn this year and I'm sure the birds are responsible for the insect control.

So another weekend is in the books for the 2009 summer. We had a good time here, hope yours was good as well. Until next time.

TVH