Humboldt County, August 2-4, 2005

These first photos were taken on Clam Beach, just north of McKinleyville, CA, right at sunset on Tuesday. Camie and her friend Alfie and I hung out at the beach and watched the sun go down.


The next day I took the girls into Arcata. I explained on my regular blog some about the homeless types in the plaza, but photos do a much better job. Yes, the guy with the blanket wrapped around himself just woke up and he's changing his clothes. Sigh.


The politics in Arcata, as with most of Humboldt County, tend to lean a tad to the left.

And, of course, no trip with girls is complete without letting them get in a little shopping.


That afternoon we went into Ferndale, the site of filming for "The Majestic" and "Outbreak".
The first photo is the actual theater used for "The Majestic". The second photo is the inn where Jim Carey's character stayed in the film. Others are just about town.


A chuckle for my law-enforcement friends: glamorous Ferndale PD.


We wandered the big Catholic cemetery for a bit. It's built on a hillside, with the oldest placings at the bottom, and the most recent at the top. This place was very neat. Photos in this set are taken by my daughter, Camie.


The next day, before we left, we went to the Jetty in Eureka. The morning was cool and foggy (It was 105 here in Sacramento when we got home that day. Sheesh!). The jetty goes about a half-mile into the ocean, and works as a break-water, protecting Humboldt Bay from the open ocean. We caught a shipment of logs destined for a lumber mill on it's way in.

This One Got Past Me!

I took this photo of a little oriole in the trees at Scott's Flat. Something about it I like alot.

Camie and Alfie's Photo Shoot

On that trip last week to San Francisco with my kids, Camie (my youngest) and her friend Alfie (wearing glasses) took off with my camera on a photo-shoot all thier own. They took at least 200 photos of each other, running around and posing by the San Francisco yacht club, and on monuments and stairs, in phonebooths... about anywhere two little girls could take photos. They were having such a good time that I took several photos later, allowing them to "pose" together and generally have a good time. Below are a few photos I thought were kinda cute, and shows them having a really fun time in the City By The Bay.

San Francisco, June 20th, 2005

I took a trip to San Francisco with my two youngest daughters and one of their friends. We got there around 11:00am on a just gorgeous day, so I took a few shots that I think turned OK.

Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in fog, then same shot later after the morning fog burned off.


A classic Golden Gate Bridge view from the Marin Headlands, with a close-up of the busy traffic, a cargo ship passing beneath the bridge, and the top of the mammoth tower looming over Battery Spencer.


A parting shot of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge and The City skyline from Treasure Island, in the middle of San Francisco Bay.

Silver Lake and Caples Lake

Along California's Highway 88 are two lakes that I love. I went on a late spring fishing trip, and came away fishless, but took in some gorgeous scenery.

Silver Lake is at the 7000' level of the Sierras. Lots of snow, and the lake is still partly frozen.

Silver Lake seen just before the sun crested the mountains, right after sunrise, then looking at the body of the frozen lake from just beside Kay's Resort.



These Canada Geese were all over Silver Lake, and they were fearless! I wanted to fish from a spot on shore next to them, and they were leary, but they just watched me and were not going to be moved from their spot! After the sun came up, they wandered into the lake and out to the ice shelf.



Caples Lake, a little higher up the highway, was more extensively frozen. There was only one spot, about 30' square, that was not iced over. You can see the sole fisherman on the rocks in the photo on the left. You can see how low the lake is by the level against the dam, well below the rim. Later this summer water will rush over that in prodigious amounts! The snow-sheet has begun to melt away from the edge, but it's still frozen over with clear ice.


And, of course, there's snow-melt cascading down hillsides all over the mountains.