Higher Elevations, Summer 1987 When we weren’t traveling to the coast or fishing in our own backyard, The Big Guy and I liked spending a day or two up in the mountains — especially during the summer when the temperatures were uncomfortable in the valley. Back then our house had only an old “swamp cooler” and sometimes it just wasn’t […]
July 1986 — Camping and fishing at Prosser Lake. Prosser Creek Reservoir, near the California-Nevada state line, was one of the first places The Big Guy took me camping. It was a roughly 2-hour drive from our house east on Interstate 80 in my 1970 VW Bug; we left home at eight in the evening and by 11:30 we had […]
Back before The Big Guy was able to afford a fishing boat, we did an awful lot of fishing from the shore. There was frequently a fair bit of hiking to get to the water from wherever we’d left the car, and then of course we had to hunt around for the “right” spot to find the fish. Our dogs were […]
One of the images I used in Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge today got me thinking back to our Doberman-Rottweiler, Buster, and how much he enjoyed snoozing on our sofa. He was the only one of our dogs ever allowed on the furniture, and he took full advantage of the privilege. As he got older, one of his favorite things was […]
Back in 1987 we had more free time than money on our hands, and we spent a lot of that free time going fishing — whether in our local area or on the Northern California coast. Bodega Bay and the Sonoma coast was one of our favorite places, and we had discovered that winter was a great time to be […]
Back in January 1987, The Big Guy decided we should make a list of San Francisco Bay Area fishing piers and hit them all, one by one. That was why, at 8 AM on this particular day, I was sitting in an improvised chair in the back of our 1976 Camaro watching the rain pour down at Ballena Bay in Alameda. […]
April 1974 — During the second half of our Southern California road trip we spent a full day at Knott’s Berry Farm — back in the days when it was still a relatively small and family-owned attraction. We also visited a now-defunct attraction in Buena Park, the Japanese Village. We loved the log ride at Knott’s Berry Farm: A lot of […]
Back in April 1974, not long before I turned 13 years old, I was very lucky to take my very first trip to Disneyland — not with my parents but with a school classmate and her family. The Joneses had five kids, all girls; I was friends with their eldest daughter, Debby. When the family headed to Anaheim they invited me […]
Whenever my dad traveled to Mexico in the summer time and I stayed home, he always made sure to send me a postcard or two. In August 1973 he sent the above image of Matehuala — one of my favorite towns we had visited — and wrote: “Just a few lines to say Hi and tell you I’m in San Luis Potosi. […]