Starting this photo-a-day blog back up, retroactively. Here’s the shot for the first of June.
First day visiting Austin for my little brother’s high school graduation. Other brother works here…had a cool sign. Good food too!
I’m going to cheat a bit now and catch up in one post with a nice overview of our camping trip. There’s a photo for each day.
On the way out we stopped in San Luis Obispo for lunch. After trying for about 20 minutes to find some place to eat with the dogs, we stumbled across a little cafe with tables outside.
Here’s Bizarre resting:
And us eating (photo courtesy of Jeff):
We then headed on our way, with the goal of making it to Big Sur before it got too late (particularly before it got dark). We couldn’t help but stop at a few scenic spots on the way. A bit after we headed out of SLO we saw some enourmous waves through the trees. We decided to pull over, but unfortunately by the time we found a good spot to do so we had passed the really big ones. There were some cool rocks, though.
We got to the campsite with plenty of light left to set up:
We then walked down to check out the river, where Bizarre decided that he was both thirsty and hungry for nature.
We pretty much just hung around the campsite for the evening. Had some complimentary coffee from the front, cooked some salmon, drank some beer, etc…
The next day was our day for exploring the area. The first stop, as you’ve seen, was Bixby Bridge. Here’s another view:
From there we headed off to find somewhere to hike. This involved hiking through some cool tunnels and picnicking in alongside streams in the forest:
Before heading back to the campsite for the night we stopped alongside the road and found a good spot to check out the waterfall that falls onto the beach. Here are some shots of the waterfall and of us hiking around the area:
The next day we had breakfast, packed up, and headed home.
That was our trip in a nutshell! Was a pretty quick camping trip, but a lot of fun. Maybe next time we will be able to spend more time up there. I’d like to go back and shoot some of these locations during the morning or evening hours.
Hiking location number two was Pfeiffer park. Originally we tried to go to some trails that were closer to our campsite, but they didn’t allow dogs. This place didn’t either, but there weren’t any rangers to tell us that.
Pfeiffer Hiking (click to enlarge)
There were some falls, but at the time we were hiking we couldn’t see them through the dense fog. They had also closed off part of the path due to the “high likelihood of rain” in the area. We turned around and had a picnic lunch by a little stream on the other side of the road.
Hiking destination #1 was Bixby Bridge. This is a very famous and heavily photographed bridge about 10 miles north of our campsite.
Bixby Bridge (click to enlarge)
There were people down on the beach below the bridge, and we really wanted to figure out how to get down there. As far as we could tell the only way down was a steep hike down the cliff, and we didn’t feel comfortable leading the dogs down it. Another thing I find funny is that there are benches in the middle of the bridge where you can sit down, but there isn’t really any good place to walk on the bridge to get there. There is no sidewalk and, given the traffic, no real shoulder to speak of; there is certainly no place to park.
Sorry (again) for the lack of posts the past few days. Heather and I spent the long weekend with some of our friends camping up in Big Sur. It’s a beautiful place about five hours north of us. Here’s a shot of our tent site from the river.
Tents on the River (click to enlarge)
The campsite was nestled among big Redwoods and right alongside the Big Sur river. When we first arrived we were a bit concerned about how close the campsites were together, but it ended up not being an issue. We drove around and did our hiking elsewhere, and at night the river was all we could hear. We were also concerned about not having any coffee (we forgot to bring it), but the campground office had complimentary coffee! They even made some for Heather and I at 7:30pm one night. What a great place.
After fumbling around for a while, Bob found himself on a cliffside overlooking dog time. He sat on a conveniently placed piece of gum to observe the strange creatures.
The Overlook (click to enlarge)
Bob is learning about this new world he has stumbled upon.
I had to use this picture for tonight because I just thought it was funny.
Dog Time (click to enlarge)
Both dogs are resting on Heather’s leg, and Heather is petting Bizarre. I like the way Winston is looking at her petting Bizarre. This is the second stage of jealousy for Winston. If you’re petting Bizarre, stage 0ne involves climbing all over you and getting up in the your face sniffing and licking. Stage two happens after that doesn’t work. Winston will go lay on or near the near you and just stare at you as if you have betrayed him. Just like the look he is giving Heather in this picture.
Today is a shot of a bowl with Bizarre’s food in it.
Dog Bowl (click to enlarge)
I liked the lines in this shot and the opposing geometry. Otherwise there’s not much to it.
Here is a Halo guy approaching some ruins.
The Approach (click to enlarge)
I figured I’d use this shot to start a little Halo guy story. This particular Halo guy, Bob, just woke up weaponless with no clue about where he was. He stumbled upon some ruins (a candle and some coral) and began rummaging around for some kind of clue.
A short beginning. To be continued!
Here’s another view of the new apartment. This is the papasan chair in the living room, above which we have decided to hang the dragons!
Papasan (click to enlarge)
Our new living room is much nicer than the old one. The porch just has a regular door leading out to it, so there’s not a giant sliding door taking up an entire wall. This has translated to much more space in the living room than we had expected. The papasan chair actually fits now, with plenty of room to use it without rubbing into the wall or blinds. The dragons also fit very nicely above them.
I will be officially caught up and back on track tomorrow!
