Hiking the Pioneer Express Trail from the parking lot at Sterling Pointe Equestrian Staging Area is a seriously up-and-down experience. There are some great views of Folsom Lake — but this time of the year, you’ll be too busy avoiding poison oak, watching swallowtail butterflies, and navigating up and down the horse-sized changes in altitude to notice the view. No […]
Each of the 21 missions has its own story of creation, neglect and perhaps destruction, and finally rescue and reconstruction in some form. This week’s three missions have gone through some very dramatic changes; both Mission Santa Cruz and Mission San Jose were replaced by more modern buildings back in the 1800s. In fact, San Jose’s mission building wasn’t reconstructed […]
This week I have slides from winter and summer, in two very different locations. First up, January 1981, when I took a quick trip with my mom and dad up to Post Falls, Idaho. We went to visit my grandpa; and although we only stayed for a couple of days, the whole journey was something of an adventure for me. […]
I got the chance to learn something about the all-too-brief lives of California Pipevine Swallowtails last Friday while hiking along the south fork of the American River at Folsom Lake. It was amazing how these beautiful butterflies were literally everywhere around me, on just about every wildflower. The California Pipevine is a rare subspecies of the Pipevine Swallowtail, found only […]
It’s hard not to fall in love with the gorgeous blue-sky spring weather we’ve had for the last couple of days — but I’m also sorry to say goodbye to those cool, grey days, or the ones with ever-changing gray and white cloud formations keeping the sky interesting and unpredictable. It was on such a gray, overcast mornings that I […]
A couple of days ago, I described the dramatic weather changes we experienced on our recent trip to Clear Lake. As always, the time seemed to fly by, and much too soon we were packing up to head home. I had arrived at the lake separately from the Big Guy; he rode along with a buddy who was towing our […]
Mission Soledad was built in 1791 in what is now the Salinas Valley. After destructive flooding and an epidemic, there wasn’t much left of the buildings until restoration efforts began in the 1950s. The window over the door at San Carlos is unique among the 21 missions. This is also the site of Father Junipero Serra’s grave, which can be […]
Even though our recent trip to Clear Lake was only three days long, we experienced so many different kinds of weather it made for a very memorable time. The day we arrived was windy, with dark clouds threatening — not exactly ideal for a fishing trip. It rained off and on all night, and we woke to yet more black […]