| | Description | Date |
| We did a moderate hike at Pinnacles National Monument, hoping to see some of their Condors. | 5/3/2009 |
| A view looking up from along the trail. It climbed fairly steadily just about the whole time. | 5/3/2009 |
| Here are some interesting geologic formations at Pinnacles. | 5/3/2009 |
| Adam on the Juniper Canyon Trail at Pinnacles. | 5/3/2009 |
| Some more cool geological formations. | 5/3/2009 |
| A close-up of those same formation from the previous image. | 5/3/2009 |
| Here we are looking back down to the parking lot from about 1000' or so of elevation gain. | 5/3/2009 |
| A couple of miles into the hike there was a tunnel cut right through the rock. | 5/3/2009 |
| Looking through the tunnel to Adam at the other end. Not sure who those other two people are who were just entering the tunnel. | 5/3/2009 |
| Alix was pretty tired by this point, and could swear she was seeing the famous "light at the end of the tunnel" | 5/3/2009 |
| On the other side of the bridge, that's Adam looking over the rail. | 5/3/2009 |
| A boulder wedged very tightly in the rocks | 5/3/2009 |
| After going through the tunnel we continued to climb some more. This is looking back down towards the tunnel. | 5/3/2009 |
| Looking up at the Pinnacles. | 5/3/2009 |
| Here we are looking back at the bridge leading back into the tunnel. | 5/3/2009 |
| And looking past a large boulder towards that bridge. | 5/3/2009 |
| My favorite photo from this hike. This reminds me of those famous Easter Island statues. | 5/3/2009 |
| Here we are, back in the parking lot, looking back up at the mountain we climbed. We did not go all the way to the top, and we never got to see any condors. | 5/3/2009 |
| Here is a "Beechy" squirrel that was attempting to charge a food toll on a path at Point Lobos State Park. | 5/3/2009 |
| Looking across a bay at Point Lobos. You can see some harbor seals near the left side of this image. | 5/3/2009 |
| A large, very weathered conglomerate. | 5/3/2009 |
| This was a spectacular inlet called China Cove. There were seals, turkey vultures, beautiful blue waters, a tunnel leading to the next cove, and even a large jelly floating in the water. | 5/3/2009 |
| Here you can see part of the tunnel that flows into the next bay. If you look closely you can also see a harbor seal at the right side of the mouth of that tunnel. | 5/3/2009 |
| Looking down onto China Cove from behind it. Here are some turkey vultures who had found something dead washed ashore to feast on. | 5/3/2009 |
| A gull overlooks China Cove from the opposite side. | 5/3/2009 |
| A famous waterfall at Julia Pfeiffer Burns Sate Park in Big Sur. Overall I loved Big Sur. But I was disappointed that almost all the trails that lead inland were closed as a result fo the fires from last year. I had been looking forward to several cool hikes in Redwoods. | 5/4/2009 |
| These were the stairs down to Sand Dollar Beach. We were here to collect jade and serpentine, and we got some very pretty specimens. And there was not another soul here. | 5/4/2009 |
| Some of the many flowers we saw, these were along the trail down to Sand Dollar Beach. | 5/4/2009 |
| Here is a close-up of one of several lizards we saw here. | 5/4/2009 |
| When Alix and I first saw this creature we couldn't tell what it was. It looked like a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel. But after watching it closely for several minutes (although we could not get a better picture than this), I decided it must be a pika. Alix is still skeptical, I just don't know of anything else found along the CA coast that it could possibly be. | 5/4/2009 |
| One of the many interesting bridges along Highway 1 in Big Sur. | 5/4/2009 |
| Alix loved these purple cone flowers we saw all week. We never determined what they were, but they were found almost everywhere along the coast. | 5/4/2009 |
| A beautiful house along the cliffs in Big Sur. | 5/4/2009 |
| The fog that we saw lots of in Big Sur. You can see it didn't go very far at all beyond the immediate coastline. | 5/4/2009 |
| A pair of Redwood trees outside our cabin. | 5/4/2009 |
| Adam posing in front of a Redwood to try and give a sense of scale. | 5/4/2009 |
| The cabin (#3) we stayed in for our two nights in Big Sur. Also you can see our rental car for the week. | 5/4/2009 |
| The river running right behind our cabin. Each night at dusk you could watch a flock of bats come out and fly over the river catching bugs. I enjoyed watching them both nights we were here. | 5/4/2009 |
| A house directly across the river from our cabin. Nice place! | 5/4/2009 |
| These were the rewood trees right outside our cabin in Big Sur. | 5/5/2009 |
| A lush valley that reminded me of Hawaii. It was off a side road at the north end of Big Sur. | 5/5/2009 |
| Another of the Highway 1 bridges in Big Sur. | 5/5/2009 |
| Here's Adam looking at one of the many turkey vultures we saw on our trip. And every time we saw one, Adam would take a closer look, hoping it was a condor. But it never was. Just hundreds of turkey vultures, even more than we have in Oregon. | 5/5/2009 |
| A stunning shot along 17 Mile Drive of the pink flowers we saw everywhere and a weather-beaten tree. I really like this photo. | 5/5/2009 |
| On this golf hole you definitely do not want to go long. | 5/5/2009 |
| The very famous Lone Cypress tree along 17 Mile Drive on the Monterey Peninsula. | 5/5/2009 |
| The coastline and a nice home next to the Lone Cypress. | 5/5/2009 |
| The steps leading up from the Lone Cypress tree. | 5/5/2009 |
| When we checked in at our hotel in Pacific Grove, we took a walk around town past a cemetary right next to our hotel. We were thrilled to see many deer just wandering around the cemetary, helping keep the lawn short. | 5/5/2009 |
| More deer at the cemetary. | 5/5/2009 |
| And still more deer. | 5/5/2009 |
| The deer were obviously quite comfortable with people around. Here they are just lazing around in the cemetary. | 5/5/2009 |
| The lighthouse was closed by the time we got there. But here's Adam walking up to read the sign that told us it was closed. | 5/5/2009 |
| I think people would stop here even without the Stop sign, just to admire the vibrant flowers. | 5/6/2009 |
| This one looks back towards Monterey. In an otherwise gray image, the flowers add a splash of color. | 5/6/2009 |
| A beautiful tree across the street from the pink flowers. | 5/6/2009 |
| More of the flowers, and Adam's leg jutting into the photo in the lower left. | 5/6/2009 |
| A close-up of one of the succulent flowers along the path. Sorry, I don't know the type of flower this is. | 5/6/2009 |
| Here are some of the purple cone flowers in the foreground and the pink flowers in the background. | 5/6/2009 |
| I used to have a friend who referred to most wildflowers on a hike as "PPF"s. Pretty Purple Flowers. This area of Pacific Grove was covered with them. Here they surround some restful benches. | 5/6/2009 |
| Here are some of the pink flowers hanging over a rock over Monterey Bay. | 5/6/2009 |
| More of the PPFs | 5/6/2009 |
| It was like a luch pink carpet along the bay. | 5/6/2009 |
| I thought of these as the sentinel trees, guarding the pink flowers beyond. | 5/6/2009 |
| This one shows the path winding along the coast, lined with pink flowers. | 5/6/2009 |
| Adam walking along the path in those pink flowers. | 5/6/2009 |
| As we neared our hotel, we passed the Pacific Grove golf course, which had some Canadian Geese and two fmailies with goslings. | 5/6/2009 |
| I never realized that Canadian Geese lay eggs that are big, round, and red. | 5/6/2009 |
| This shows the two different families of Canadian Geese. | 5/6/2009 |
| After spending the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we headed back to Pacific Grove. They have a wonderful walking/biking trail that runs along ths coast for several miles. Here are some of the houses in Pacific Grove. | 5/6/2009 |
| The pink flowers that were blooming this time of year were absolutely stunning. This is the first in a series of photos, this one shows them lining the walking path along the coast. | 5/6/2009 |
| This is how Adam spent much of his vacation. Staring into the ocean looking for sea otters. We saw quite a few, but I was always looking for more. | 5/6/2009 |
| Here's a close-up of some of the flowers. | 5/6/2009 |
| Since we missed out on some hike in the Redwoods in Big Sur, we went a bit out of our way to Big Basin Redwoods State Park on the way to Point Reyes. Here's a couple of the redwood trees. | 5/7/2009 |
| Sunlight streaming through the redwood trees. | 5/7/2009 |
| A path that helps give a little sense of scale to the size of the trees. | 5/7/2009 |
| Adam standing in front of two huge redwoods and three very young redwood saplings. | 5/7/2009 |
| Believe it or not, this redwood tree appeared perfectly healthy at the top of the tree. Even though the trunk was extensively hollowed out at the base. | 5/7/2009 |
| The waterfall at the end of our hike in Big Basin, near Slippery Rock. The highlight of the hike was a coyote we saw on the way in. | 5/7/2009 |
| This fence which straddles the San Andreas fault, shows how much the ground shifted in the 1906 quake. These two sections used to be connected. | 5/8/2009 |
| These fence posts run directly along the San Andreas. Here you can stand with one foot on the North American plate and one on the Pacific plate. | 5/8/2009 |
| A sign describing the results of the 1906 earthquake. | 5/8/2009 |
| You might see this sign if you looked in the dictionary for the definition of oxymoron. | 5/8/2009 |
| I think these were a pair of Grebes floating on a river in Point Reyes. | 5/8/2009 |
| Point Reyes National Seashore is one of the only places in the US I can think of where there are miles of pastureland right next to the ocean. I've never been to Ireland, but that's the other place that comes to my mind with a similar setting. | 5/8/2009 |
| We walked down the stairs to get to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. And then we had to walk back up. | 5/8/2009 |
| More stairs! Note that the stairs are numbered every ten steps. | 5/8/2009 |
| After climbing part of the way back up, looking back down to the lighthouse and the ocean. | 5/8/2009 |
| This building is where the staff for the lighthouse can choose to live. Very windy, but quite scenic. | 5/8/2009 |
| Adam in the wind on the way back to the parking lot from Point Reyes Lighthouse. | 5/8/2009 |
| Alix admiring the coastline and pastures. | 5/8/2009 |
| We saw many many cows as well. Here is #579. | 5/8/2009 |
| Here is a lady in purple dancing with a purple scarf. The color really stands out against the background pasture and cows. | 5/8/2009 |
| Still not far from the lighthouse, we saw this beach with dozens of harbor seals. | 5/8/2009 |
| On the way out to dinner that night, we drove past a flock of turkey vultures alongside the road. We doubled back to take a few photos. This one shows one of them spreading his wings. He actually posed like that for at least a few minutes. | 5/8/2009 |
| Here are the turkey vultures, guarding their carrion. | 5/8/2009 |
| There was a full moon that night. We didn't have a tripod, so we did the best we could to get a picture of the moon over Tomales Bay, with the reflection. | 5/8/2009 |
| A bridge across the street from the Bed and Breakfast we stayed in - Ten Inverness Way. | 5/9/2009 |
| Ten Inverness Way - where we stayed the last three nights of our vacation. | 5/9/2009 |
| Here is Ten Inverness Way. Our room was in the upper right, under the two skylights. It was a very nice place to spend three nights. | 5/9/2009 |
| This is from the hike to Tomales Point at the northern end of Point Reyes. | 5/9/2009 |
| Our first glimpse of the famous Tule Elk, with Tomales Bay in the background. | 5/9/2009 |
| More elk along the hike. | 5/9/2009 |
| Something had startled them (No, it wasn't me!) and they started trotting off. | 5/9/2009 |
| The trail to the end at Tomales Point. The bay is on the right and the open ocean on the left. | 5/9/2009 |
| One last shot of the Tule Elk. | 5/9/2009 |