Saturday, November 16, 2013

Año Nuevo State Park

In early November, we visited Año Nuevo State Park, about 15 miles north of Santa Cruz with the fabulous Kay Todd.




Año Nuevo Island is home to elephant seals who return to this island twice a year.

 We were in luck, it was the season for the "juvenile haul out" of the resident elephant seals. After about a 2 mile hike in along the coast, we saw hundreds of elephant seals.










During this time, juvenile males play in shows of dominance.






Most of the times, the seals bask in the sun, using their flippers to throw sands on themselves, in an effort to cool off.










A beautiful hike!








This is a 5-ton piece of wreckage from one of the many ships that have crashed along these shores.




A great trip for any future visitors to the Bay Area!






Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Niagara Falls

After Nora's wedding in Rochester, we went to Niagara Falls!


This is the view from our hotel room. No I'm not kidding. The sun came out once we went inside! On the far left is American Falls on the right is Horseshoe Falls.


American Falls!


Maid of the Mist adventurers!






American Falls





Horseshoe Falls.










A great trip!


Fallen Leaf, Lake Tahoe

For Labor Day weekend we went to Fallen Leaf campground in South Lake Tahoe. On our drive in, we could see the smoke from the Rim Fire in Yosemite, about 150 miles away.




The campground is next to Fallen Leaf Lake.






The dogs enjoyed the water in different ways. Rufus let the water come to him...




 ... Joey tried to swim to the middle of the lake. Brian had to jump in and corral her.



 One afternoon we hiked up a ridge, which afforded views of Fallen Leaf Lake (foreground) and Lake Tahoe (background).











We enjoyed lunch with a view!










We went back to the lake to cool off and Brian and Mike swam with Joey for twenty minutes.







The fire's smoke meant a beautiful sunset.