Sunday, July 29, 2012

Humboldt: Giant Fairyland

I spend some time in Humboldt evert summer, it is a long drive but pretty; going through Lake County.

Southern Humboldt, or SoHum, is sunny and rocky in places during the summer

This rock has a non-PC name related to Native Americans, marking the beginning of the area 
 You can almost see to the coast
But up north near the bay it is foggy most of the time
The trees just love it, getting thousands of years old 
And hundreds of feet tall 
And dozens of feet across 
 
With entire ecosystems in their tops


 They twist as they grow and age
 And merg with their neighbors
An old, mossy redwood log 
This one has been down for a while 
Fairyland, with paths through the redwood sorrel (not clovers), even the ferns are giant

Pillowy 
Which way?
A flower 

More wildflowers
 

And more types of moss than I could count. This was my favorite, like lizard skin 
Up close

They, and I, really like minerals and rocks
 And fossils
And geodes 

 A perfect black sphere
 Stone dragon!
But the rivers are the best part 






Tadpoles 
Turning into frogs 

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Another Wine Country 4th

Every year I head up to the wine country town of Sonoma for the 4th of July with my best friend. We love the wine tasting, art, food and fireworks that are so abundant in this smaller cousin to the Napa valley.

They have been growing wine here for years

The vines go and go 

And undulate with the landscape across the valley floor 

Even the neighborhood houses have vines, this one is a good 50 years old 


The tallest building in town is the old fort from mission times 

I was confused with the name of this hotel, switzerland is a ways away 

This sunflower cafe has a great patio 

And the window shopping is nice too 


This was an ancient black fig tree in the patio of a great restaurant that I forget the name of, but it was all that was open 

They had this cool snail too
 

Chocolate lava cake and chocolate sorbet

 Weird stair configuration

So many lovely gardens 

 Doesn't it make you want to just sit there and chill out 

It was way packed this year, maybe people didn't travel as much, but well worth the 30 mins and finale, right above our heads.