A walk to the pier

On our most recent stay in Point Arena last month, I was eager to get out one morning and take a walk down the road to the pier. It wasn’t the first time I had visited the pier, but this time I arrived on foot and was able to look around at some of the details I missed before. It […]

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Blue Mesa

Photos can’t even begin to convey how amazing and overwhelming the landscape is when you’re standing in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. I’m so glad that we stopped and took a couple of hours to see this incredible place, even though we only scratched the surface of what the park has to offer. One of our stops along the road […]

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Along Arguello

There were a few brightly painted houses that caught my eye as I walked up Arguello toward Geary Boulevard to catch my bus. But I wasn’t expecting to find such a colorful garden of flowers growing right at my feet beside the sidewalk. It was too irresistible; I had to stop and check them out. I was intrigued by the […]

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The Adventure Continues… Wind

Wind turbines do come in many different sizes, but one of the most frequent topics about these windmills is how difficult it is to get an accurate sense of their enormous size from the ground. In a later episode of California’s Gold (Windmills, originally aired in October 2021), Huell gets the chance to climb to the top of a windmill and take in the view; if you watched last week’s featured episode, you’ll remember Huell recalled this as probably his most frightening experience! But this week he gets a feel for the size of these mighty blades while staying firmly on the ground. This episode of Visiting originally aired April 15, 1998, and is not to be confused with an entirely different episode of California’s Gold also titled Wind (original air date April 1997). The Palm Springs wind farm is still operating and offers both guided golf cart tours and self-driving tours with curated audio provided. You’ve seen the giant windmills alongside the road to Palm Springs. Well now you can learn all about them with Huell as he gets a special “Wind Farm Tour” in an electric cart. One of only 6 wind farms in the world, this is a great place to learn about one of mankind’s earliest forms of energy. (Click on the linked image below to see the video.)

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Stornetta autumn

I shot these photos near Point Arena during November 2021. The ocean can be surprisingly calm and smooth during the winter months; in our younger days we often camped in our big 1960s-era tent (bought at Sears) in the Bodega Dunes Campground — and frequently had the place almost to ourselves. It’s been years since I used a sleeping bag […]

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The Hot Spot Part 2

We enjoyed our peaceful walk through the ferns and redwoods at The Hot Spot last September, but I’d really love to go back and see if I can learn a bit more about what I saw there! There are 21 wooden posts along the trail with corresponding informational notes in the trail guide pamphlet. Since we wandered somewhat randomly through […]

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The Hot Spot, Part 1

The great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 may be history, but the cause of the quake — movement along the San Andreas Fault — still occurs all up and down the coast of Northern California. Sonoma County’s Hot Spot is only one of several faults along the San Andreas Fault Zone. I’ve found it nearly impossible to find much information […]

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Memory Monday: Old ways

I’m not sure of the location of any of these images although I keep trying to ferret out any possible visual clues. I believe some of them may have been shot around the Korean Folk Village site; this living museum depicts traditional life during the Joseon dynasty. One photo below shows the album’s original owner posing next to a stone […]

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