Vacation Day 4: The Tall Trees Trail

Only 50 permits are issued each day to limit the number of visitors who are allowed to hike the Tall Trees Trail in Redwood National Park. The area that this trail encompasses is home to several of the world's top ten tallest trees.

Being around these giants, which are over 2,000 years old, was a humbling and uplifting experience.

The tallest tree is about 367' high. To give you an idea of how high that is look for me, circled in red, in the below photo for comparison.

I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to see some of the few remaining magnificent Redwoods and I fervently hope that the greed that drives people to cut these beauties down will be replaced with the peace that these trees freely share with us. Currently, less than 4% of the original Redwoods remain.

I've never seen a bee like this. Does anyone know what it's called?

Vacation Day 3: Birds, Beasts, Beaches & Big Trees

Our first stop in Redwood National Park was the visitors' center.


Right behind the visitors' center was a big flock of birds that put on quite a good show. We also saw a seal fishing in the water, but we weren't fast enough to catch the slippery guy on film.






Gary got some wonderful footage of hundreds of seabirds flying above the beach and ocean.

View from the Redwood Creek overlook


Big Ferns along the Big Tree Trail


It's not "The" Big Tree, but is a quite big one nonetheless


At one point on the Cathedral Trail we laid down on the ground and spent about twenty minutes looking up into the tree tops. It was easy to feel a connection with all living things in this exquisite place.




Here is a glimpse of some of the many beaches in the park.










I thought the below buildings built to disguise radar equipment during WWII were fascinating. I took pictures of the newspaper article along with a close up picture of a dormer that you can see is obviously fake. I wasn't previously aware of the threat to the West Coast during WWII.

From the information sign: "After the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II, the possibility of enemy attack on the U.S. mainland became very real. At one point, Japanese submarines operated in offshore waters and actually shelled some shipping operations and oil installations off the coast of California and Oregon. To guard against potential invasion, the U.S. Army built the "farm" buildings you see below. The cinderblock structures, complete with shingled roofs, and fake windows and dormers, housed an early warning radar station. From the air, the sea, and even the road, these buildings appeared to be part of a working farm. In fact, they housed a diesel generator, electronic equipment, and two 50-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns. As part of a network of observation stations, the soliders and civilians stationed here reported any suspicious boats and planes to a communications center in San Francisco, ready to dispatch fighter planes if the crafts were identified as hostile."






On the way out of the park we got to witness the interactions of a group of elk. Their relationships were complex and reminded me of a tv drama.

This poor yearling is gradually being driven out of the herd by the leader of the pack.

A little film of clips from our day in Redwood National Park

Vacation Day 2: The Drive to Arcata CA

Before we got into a long line of cars to cross the Golden Gate Bridge we took a break to take some pictures of it and to tour historic Fort Point. It was amazing to see this stunning icon in person.

The lighthouse at historic Fort Point under the GG Bridge.

Next we drove our little red rental Prius to Point Reyes National Seashore.

This video shows some of the beautiful plant life at Point Reyes along with a little pup that I befriended. Everywhere I went I was always asking people if I could pet their dogs because I was missing Katie and Louie.


A little film of the noisy Pacific Ocean at the Point Reyes National Seashore...good for a short meditation.

We also stopped briefly at a few other beaches along the California 1 Coastal Highway.

Vacation Day 1: San Francisco

This year we began our annual vacation in the charming city of San Francisco. It was my first time to visit the city (Gary's third) and I really fell in love with it. Gary and I kept joking about which house we were going to buy, although we later changed our tune after being stuck in traffic for an hour on a Saturday. Living in a medium sized city does have some advantages.

We enjoyed getting a glimpse into the wide variety of architecture found throughout the city of San Francisco.

The farmers market was a dream come true...especially for vegetarians like us who love organic food.

Near the market, we heard a couple of very talented musicians.

Chinatown made me think of Natalie. It would be so much fun to bring her here someday.

To get a good overview of the city we went to the top of 210' high Coit tower, which was built in 1933 as a tribute to San Francisco firefighters.

Coit Tower from a distance

From the top we saw some great views of the city including Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge.

Looking through the top of Coit Tower

Next, we took the obligatory touristy cable car ride on one line from beginning to end.

While we were waiting in line we got to see how they use a large turntable to turn the cars around when they reach the end of the line. The cable car operators make it look so easy.