Archive for category Travel
Bixby Bridge
Making our way south to Big Sur we crossed the famous, oft-photographed Bixby Bridge on Highway 101. On a beautiful day like this, the setting was, indeed, worth a photo stop.
Pinnacles National Park
Pinnacles is one of the less well-known National Parks but popular, apparently, among local hikers. It was a bit of a disappointment for us. After visiting the stunning topography at the Utah parks and Yosemite the rocky formations at Pinnacles were not so impressive.
End of Day 3
This was a pretty easy travel day and it ended with an amazing sunset over the Pacific Ocean, seen from our motel room balcony, in Seaside, California.
Redwoods
On our way to Salinas, CA we took a side trip to visit another redwoods forest: the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. It was a much smaller park than the ones we visited last year but the trees, of course, were equally amazing.
McConnell Arboretum
On the way to Redding, CA we stopped at the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. What a disappointment! It looked more like late fall than early spring. Few plants were flowering or even emerging; many looked near death. Labelling was very poor and there were no guide booklets or maps to be found. It’s unfortunate because the setting is very nice, adjacent to the Sacramento River. Then, we were rear-ended at a stop light just after exiting the garden (but with virtually no visible damage to our car).
Burney Falls
The first stop on our California-Big Sur-Pinnacles trip was Burney Falls, about fifty miles SE of Mt. Shasta. After admiring the lovely 130-foot cascade, we had lunch at a peaceful picnic ground that we had all to ourselves save some squirrels, blue jays and a small band of deer.
Off to California
We spent the day making our way south to Medford; a leisurely jaunt for us. We stayed at the Medford Homewood Suites, our third stay there, I think.
Denali Puzzle
Posted by nbdog in Around the house, jigsaw puzzles, Travel on 17-Dec-2015
We went overboard with this puzzle. It was a very difficult one to assemble and it has sentimental value: we bought it at Denali National Park. So we felt we should preserve it. So here it is, nicely framed. This is one of the many national parks poster created by artists working in the Federal Art Project between 1938 and 1943.
Bellevue Botanical Garden
I stopped by the Bellevue Botanical Garden this morning after depositing the Acura for a regular service. Even this late in the year and in a light mist, it was truly beautiful. Especially the Japanese maples what are still flaunting their glorious colors.
Yao Garden pond
Halloween Fun
This is the first time we’ve spent Halloween away from home. It was an enjoyable evening, sitting with family at our niece, Brigitte’s home, watching the little kids and teenage nieces in their costumes.
Brigitte as a Chic-Fil-A cow
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