Moonrise

Will took this photo of the moon rising over Mount Diablo one evening last week.  Great views from his office building in downtown San Francisco.

Muir Woods Hike

August is almost over, and I am getting antsy for summer to come to San Francisco.  We've had a characteristically foggy June, July, and August; but if September and October are anything like in years past, we should have some nicer weather to look forward to.

Foggy adventures are still kinda cool, though, so these are some photos from a foggy Sunday a while back, when we swung by one of our favorite Muir Woods hiking trails--the one where fog seems to wind its way through the huge redwood trees.

The trails were empty, and we ran into two turkeys.  

One flew into the tree, which I understand is rare.  Turkeys don't like to fly.

Towards the end of the hike, the sun ended up streaming through the trees:

Moss:

This woodpecker was knocking so loudly, I mistook it for construction noise at first.

Moss only on one side:

The bonus to foggy weather is empty hiking trails in the Headlands and Muir Woods!

Wacky Wednesday

It's been a foggy summer...I'll share more on that next week.
Did you know that the San Francisco fog has his own instagram and twitter accounts?  I am especially partial to his instagram account.

It has made me truly appreciate Karl, knowing that summer has been so damp simply because he loves San Francisco so much.  He's got some great selfies in his feed.

Karl

Get to know @KarlTheFog a bit better with some of my favorite pics and captions: here, here, here, and here.

Enjoy--and have a great Wednesday!

Karl

Holga Lens

I've been playing with a new lens on the camera, called a Holga lens, ever since Christmas.

There's a bit of a learning curve, but the pictures are pretty cool.  Here are a few.

Carmel and Big Sur

Another weekend, another out-of-town adventure!
My lil sister returned to the states after 3.5 months abroad, where she was volunteering.  She arrived home late last week, so we welcomed her home...and sort of repeated our Easter weekend festivities so she wouldn't have to miss out any longer on those fun days!

We hiked at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park again, wanting to show her McWay Falls.  We picked an equally great day to visit:

On the drive down to Big Sur, we stopped a few times to see various wildlife.  Below is as zoomed in as I could get to several seal pups.  Not entirely sure if they are harbor seals or elephant seals, but they were really loud!  They were jumping in and out of the water.

We also saw numerous turkey vultures.

A few locals had their scopes on a California condor, but my photos didn't turn out, it was really far away.

But then on the hike back from the falls, we saw what we think was a second condor!  These guys have a 9-foot wing span.  And they are rare, so we were pretty impressed by the sightings.

Finally, to round out the nature scenes for the weekend, Sunday morning we went bodysurfing at Carmel Beach and caught some great waves.  And half-way through the session, W saw out of the corner of his eye something grey jump out of the water.  He said he thought it was either a surfer jumping off his board into the air, or a dolphin jumping in the waves.  Sure enough, a few seconds later we saw a pod of dolphins swimming closer to us, riding in the waves.  There were two really small dolphins and three adults; later a few more joined for a total of 8 or so.  The pod swam north and south along the coast and both times they passed by, they were incredibly close to us!  We don't think we have ever seen the dolphins in so close to shore; it was an absolutely incredible experience!

Anyway, fun weekend and great nature sights in Carmel and Big Sur.  This Spring weather has been such a treat.

Big Sur: Julia Pfeiffer State Park and McWay Falls

Over Easter weekend, I crossed another adventure off my 2013 bucket list: McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.  I had seen photos of this waterfall in Big Sur and had been wanting to explore for a long time.  

About an hour south of Carmel (with lots of stops for photos like the ones above), we pulled into the Julia Pfeiffer Burns parking lot.  We fueled with sandwiches before setting off on the rigorous 0.5-mile hike.  A few added loops and extra trails turned the hike into 1.5 miles total (which required refueling with more sandwiches and beer afterwards.)

A perfectly short hike to match the lazy, islandy-feel of the destination!

We wrapped up the Big Sur day trip with a stop at Nepenthe, Big Sur's famous cafe & restaurant, which is an old family favorite.

I'm still surprised Big Sur was hiding that waterfall and such turquoise water, despite the number of times we've hiked/camped/partied/explored in that area.  We lucked out on weather, and I'm glad the photos captured our beautiful day.

Muir Woods Tourist Club

Last Sunday turned out to be a sunny and warm day in the Bay Area, and after a relaxing morning, we were anxious to get outside and take advantage of Spring.  

This hike in Muir Woods caught our eye, since near the end of the trail, you pass The Tourist Club, a place recommended to us when we first moved here. 

The 5.5mi hike begins at Mt. Home Inn, off Highway 1 in Muir Woods, curving mostly downhill through redwood forests.

The views were so green and lush from recent rain.

These bottle-brush saplings were so unique.

The trail leads through Muir Woods' Cathedral Grove, home of some of the largest redwood trees around.

If you manage to weave through all the tourists at the Muir Woods Visitor Center, you pick up the Dipsea Trail and begin the uphill climb.  The views are worth it...

...but so is the Tourist Club!

We couldn't believe how many people were already enjoying beers, board games, picnic lunches, and the music here (the photo above was taken as we left--after closing time--but imagine a person with a pint or pitcher covering every inch of this place!)  We stepped up to the bar for beers and then settled at a picnic table overlooking the "stage" area where one of the members was trying to organize a German dancing lesson....hilarious.

We made friends with some cool fellow hikers, played battleship and Trivial Pursuits, drank German beers and stayed til they kicked us out after closing time.

We decided a mid-hike break like this is about as great of a Sunday activity as you can experience.

Another mile and a half, including plenty of stairs, and we were back at the car.

The drive back home across the Golden Gate bridge wasn't too shabby, either.

We're loving the extra hour of sunlight in the evening!

Whoever happens to be our next city guests will definitely get a trip to the Tourist Club.  Sign up now :)