Ano Nuevo

After a long day of packing stuff up, took today off to hike with Cousin Ted again.

We went to one of his favorite places, Ano Nuevo Park – currently home to a large number of elephant seals.

Here are some photos for you to enjoy!

Look at that big one!  Ladies and juveniles are molting right now.

Can you see the two in this one?

Some tracks in the sand

Then a stop at Swanton Berry for some fresh strawberries!

Then a stop at Highway 1 Brewery.  I had the Road Rage IPA.  Yum!

Then a stop at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse – which is also a hostel!
   

Saw some sea otters too.

Anyway, enjoy!  It was a beautiful day!

It’s happy hour now.  Until next time …

Devil’s Slide

Yesterday I went on a hike with a different cousin – Beanie.  I’m staying with her in Half Moon Bay and we went for a hike at Devil’s Slide which is near her house.

Here are some very beautiful photos.  The out and back hike is 1.3 miles each way.  The ‘trail’ is the old road which is now closed, replaced by two tunnels.  The road experienced several landslides over the years which caused it to be closed many times, so eventually 2 tunnels were built to avoid the landslide problem.

Enjoy!

Heading north from the parking lot

This is a little bit south of the parking lot

You can see the two tunnel entrances in this one

Til next time!

Sweeney Ridge

Today I went for a hike – a little over 5 miles – with my cousin Ted.   I went to his place in San Bruno and we went to a trailhead pretty close by – Sweeney Ridge.

It was very hilly.  Actually, the ‘out’ way was all uphill, with some parts that were steeper and steeper.  But there were a lot of nice views.

So, without further ado, off we went:

Kenn came too!  That is the Crystal Springs Reservoir that he is looking at!

This shot shows fog rolling in

Fog rolling in amongst the Eucalyptus.   Kenn hadn’t seen Eucalyptus before.

I took this shot when we first got up on the ridge

I took this shot, at the same place, after we did a few little out and back hikes on the ridge and the fog was done rolling in … and out.  I know the angle is a little different, but now, if you look hard you can now see the ocean and a bit more of a view.  Amazing!

Anyway, here are some more views.

You can see the fog moving by in the background here

This little structure was FULL of bees.  Didn’t want to get too close to take this pic!

A rare instance of ‘positive’ graffiti!

And here is the ‘top’ of the ridge (without the side hikes) and we headed back down

After the hike Ted and I had Mexican.  He had a ‘sopes’ – I had a taste – boy was that good!  I had a ceviche tostada and a shrimp taco.  Also good!

And, after doing some stuff around the house – sorting and boxing – I am now back at the hotel.  I’m beat.

And that is my first full day ‘back in Cali.’

I’m back in my room with my tree, chillaxin’ now.  Until next time readers!

Going Back to Cali

OK, who knows this song – Going Back to Cali – by … LL Cool J?

I admit, I didn’t know of the song until somebody mentioned it to me once when I said I was headed back to Cali.  Which is what I did today – headed back to Cali.

As I’m sure you’ve figured out from my previous travels, yes, I flew First Class.  I can’t tell you how much stress that relieves for me!   And this time I decided to use Delaware Express since it was cheaper than me driving and parking my car.  Reserving was easy and I got up extra early to make sure I’d be ready when my ride arrived.

My ride was supposed to arrive at 8 AM and get me to the airport by 9:30 for my 11:05 flight.  I got a phone call around 7:50 telling me the driver was going to be a little late – more like 8:15, and I would get a direct ride to the airport.

In the instructions when I made my reservation, I indicated that the driver should go “straight back” to my house, which is at the back of the driveway (there is another house off of the driveway that goes up to the right).

And they send you a text where you can connect with their app to see where the driver is.  So, I saw he was close and moved my stuff outside, locked the door and kept an eye out.  Then my phone rings and he says, “I think I’m here.  I’m in front of a brick house.”  Of course, he did not go straight back.  I told him he wasn’t in the right place and he wanted to drive further up the neighbor’s driveway to their garage.  I had to tell him to look out his window and see me waving to him from the right place.  Ah well.

So, we get to the airport in a little over an hour.  It’s 9:46.  A little over an hour before the flight.  I started getting a little stressed, but the lines were short so I got through security in plenty of time.  Had about a half hour to wander around.

The flight was uneventful except for an incident during our meal service.  The guy one row up and across from me apparently dropped butter on his napkin.  So what does he do?  He shakes his napkin out in my direction and butter comes flying at me, and lands at my feet next to my backpack.  I tried to push it towards the aisle but then it just got on my shoe.  Idiot!!  After I was done eating I wiped it up with a napkin.  This guy was wearing a frickin’ pin stripe suit!!  The lady across from me saw the whole thing and was horrified.  I think the guy had no clue what he did.  Geez!

I’m staying at a Hilton Garden Inn, which is what I usually do for at least part of my trip when I come out here.  And I always try to get my ‘tree’ room.  Room 321!  And I got it again!  And here is an update with the tree!

Anyway, tomorrow I’m going for a hike with my cousin up in the hills of South San Francisco.  And doing more house clean out.

I’ll try to add the tree photo sometime too – hopefully it comes over!

Until then, dear readers!

 

 

Inspiration

Yesterday I had my annual gyno appointment (I know – TMI) – things seem fine – and then later in the day I got my hair ‘done.’  I was waffling back and forth about going to a restaurant for dinner after my hair appt.  Half of me wanted to go and half didn’t.  On top of that, I didn’t know where I felt like going.  But I knew I wanted to try somewhere new. Continue reading “Inspiration”

OK, this is pretty random and may be kinda boring … or, maybe not …

This post is going to be a mish-mosh of stuff.  Just because I feel like it.

First off, you working stiffs should note this.  While I was still working, my blood pressure was quite often “on the edge” – like around, say, 145-150 over 90-92.  It wasn’t consistently that high, so I wasn’t on any meds (yes, I discussed it with my doctor).

Went for an annual checkup today.  118 / 62.  I’ve been retired for almost 8 months now.  You do the math!!

In other news, I get ‘spam’ comments on this blog from time to time.  Most of the time I read them, and then mark them as spam, and delete them.  I will do that to this one also, but I cracked up reading it.  See for yourself:

Comment:
of course like your web site however you need to take a look at the spelling on several of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it very troublesome to tell the truth then again I will surely come again again.

I think whoever this is needs to look in the mirror.  Don’t you?

And finally, I know I haven’t mentioned Kenn lately.  He’s been a little depressed.  Check out the links below.  He’s still smiling, cuz that’s just how he is.  He’s happy to see himself on line!  But he is sad about these trending events …

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-man-bun-tattoo-survey-1.4612725

http://metro.co.uk/2018/04/24/the-death-of-the-man-bun-and-other-male-grooming-trends-for-summer-7367561/

Kenn can’t help looking at himself!  (You probably knew that already)

Anyway.  I think that’s all for this post.  I’m still finishing up a painting, and working on my travel plans.  And I’ve been scraping wallpaper.  And I’ve been wearing my leggings out in public.  Dress code schmess code!!

Until next time, readers!

Trippin’

I am trying to plan out some travel.  Places I want to get to this year include:

McMinnville TN (planned for Labor Day weekend)
South Lake Tahoe (SLT) (already planned for Sept 8-15)
Portland OR
Santa Fe NM

Near Syracuse NY
Providence/Newport RI

Chicago suburbs
Moline IL

Fallingwater, PA

I’m torn about how to connect these dots – I have them grouped by how I think they may fit together, but the IL ones may end up being attached to the top group.  And then, what modes of transportation am I going to use?  I thought about taking the train from Reno to Portland but it takes a surprisingly prohibitively long time.  Or maybe I should drive from SLT to Santa Fe and then fly from there to Portland and then take the train to IL?  Travelling to Santa Fe is also dependent time-wise on what I want to do.  My friends there are mushroom hunters, but there are also some art fests, and a hash in Taos in other months, which could make going to NM a one-off trip.  Decisions decisions!

Hm, I just checked Google Maps.  It’s about an 18 hour drive from SLT to Santa Fe.  Could meander down there over a few days I suppose…

Anyway, just thought I’d throw this out there.  I’m also thinking about a day trip up to New York City.  There is an installation at The Whitney that I want to see.
https://whitney.org/Exhibitions/JuanAntonioOlivares

But actually there are a lot of exhibitions there right now that are interesting:
https://whitney.org/Exhibitions

Sorry this post is kind of boring.  This is just a random Saturday morning with me travelling in my mind, since I’m not travelling for real.  Getting itchy though!

This May Ruin Your Day

Spent this weekend at the beach with friends.  I don’t recall how this even came up, but we ended up talking about “9 to 5 (Morning Train)” by Sheena Easton.   For your learning pleasure, the parenthetical part was added later to avoid confusion with the Dolly Parton song “9 to 5” because they both came out in the same year.  Anyway, we got into a comedically (is that a word?) heavy discussion about the accompanying music video for it.    My recollection is that Sheena Easton was shown vacuuming and doing housework in the video, as she waits for her man to come home.  However, after doing a lot of Internet Searches (note, Mr. Brian, that I did not call it “Googling”) we were unable to find the video with her vacuuming.  The video we found shows her riding a train, with some suggestive moves to boot.  This stupid song became a topic of discussion for the rest of the weekend. Continue reading “This May Ruin Your Day”

Another Painting

As promised, I’m posting a photo of my latest painting, and also a photo of the painting at BMA that inspired it.  I didn’t go back and look at the original when I did this one – I just did what I felt like.

Here goes – enjoy!

I’ve also gotten interested in sealing the paintings – there is much more to it than I would have thought.  Hoping to start playing around with that in the next month or so…

Til next time!

Dress Code, and BMA

Well well well, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of comments I received on my ‘Oh No’ post.  I had thought about marking it as ‘For the Ladies Only’ but I didn’t.  And surprisingly, most of the comments were from guys!  And a couple of them mentioned this clip from SNL.   Enjoy!  (And FYI I do not sit on the couch in my leggings, eating bon bons!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU55auqDD28

Anyway, my artist friend John came to visit for a few days and we ended up going to the Baltimore Museum of Art one day.  I hadn’t been there before.  It’s free, and it has a lot of great stuff.  Here are some photos.  And for fun, two of these are not art installations.  Can you tell which two?

The one below was really interesting, particularly because, when you looked at it with the naked eye, your eyes could not ‘see’ the head and face – the painting just looked like a green/orange blobby thing.  I wasn’t that impressed, but John took a photo and we discovered the hidden prize.  Pretty cool!

The photo below was a lucky shot – in the second shot of the neon art, you can see that is says “FACE ME I FACE YOU.”  I thought it would be funny to take the photo with John facing away from me looking at it, but I didn’t realize the neon would be so bright that you can’t really read it (without editing the photo to be darker).  And then I realized I had captured a reflection of some of the words on the other art in the room.  I like how it turned out!


I think I’m going to try to do a painting similar to this one.  When I’m done I’ll post this one and the one I do:

This photo is interesting because the top light is actually RED, but the camera can’t pick it up.

This photo is actually looking down into a sculpture which I unfortunately didn’t photograph from the front.  From this angle it looks like an alien!

And below is a Van Gogh.  I like it because it shows a style of his painting that you don’t see as often.

I had fun taking several photos of the same piece, from further to closer:


There is a sculpture garden outside as well.  John was taking a bunch of photos of each piece since he does sculpture and is always interested in how things are formed/put together.  This guy that was also there started talking to him, and then asked us if we were artists.   We both said yes.  I asked him why he asked us that and he mentioned that we both were staying clear of getting into each other’s photos.  And then the guy just wouldn’t stop talking to me!  But anyway …

The first piece below, if you put them together, make up a round solid circle / pie.

All right, I think that’s it for now.  ‘Til next time!

Words of Wisdom

Tomorrow I am getting my second floor and stairs carpet replaced.  I started prepping for this last Sunday – purging stuff, going through stuff, etc.  I really should have gone through all of it before now, but, at least I’m getting it done now!  Yesterday I literally took a car full of stuff to a homeless shelter, and Goodwill.  I think I have more to go too – but not quite as much.

I’ll take before and after photos so you can see the difference.  The carpet being replaced is from 1986.  It will feel SO GOOD to get it replaced!  (It’s been on my list for I don’t know how long)

So, today is my 8th month ‘anniversary’ of being retired.  Observations I’ve made lately:

For the most part, I’ve started driving a bit slower, and I don’t get stressed about getting to places (for the most part)

I am still really busy!  I guess because I have time to get done all the things I have been wanting to get done

My trip planning has changed – I used to have everything set up to the nth degree but now that is not my preferred mode of planning.  I’m a lot looser now.

And today is the third-ish day of my juice cleanse.  I started it Sunday afternoon (I ate breakfast on Sunday and then didn’t eat any more since).  I’ve lost about 5 lbs!  And I really noticed how many commercials on TV are food-oriented.  And I don’t know if I should admit this but this is the longest I’ve gone without a ‘drink’ in a long time.  Feels good though.  But, boy, my sleep pattern is messed up.  The good side is I got to watch two episodes of ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ in the middle of the night last night.

Anyway, I decided to write this post because I’ve gotten a couple really good reminder horoscopes.  I’ll leave you with those and update you next time with updates about the carpet!  So stoked!

The desire for perfection is a prison.  The need for acceptance is a prison.

The hardest lessons happen when we forget that life is a classroom.  Learning happens everywhere.

Talk soon!