San Francisco Bay Area Weekend

We annually attend the Mother's Day-Kyria's Birthday gathering with the Shimizu and Belasco family, and this year was no different.  Due to Kyria having a 60K race on her natal day, we had a glorious day with Jeffery's Mom at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Then on Sunday, we went over to Kyria's for the party.  We missed seeing Alan and Chris, but I had good times with the little girls and our kids Kyria, Matt, Wendie, Kara, and Alex.  Here's some views.

It's 5:10 a.m. and I have a cuppa Starbuck's and my camera.  In the right-hand side of the shot is the straight-line lights of the Avenues

Hello, Kyria!  I am thinking of you, already running your 60K race.

Big boats come in, little boats go out.

spotted a tunnel, and had to investigate

the tunnel led to a view of the deeps of the Marin Headlands, and to another tunnel

the second tunnel led to this strange place, which we think was a gun turret

from the turret, you can see where we'll be going later in the day; to the Point Bonita Lighthouse and Rodeo Beach

looking back at the seaward face of the turret

the basin that held the gun on a pivot?  where'd the wood come from?

daylight has come on, and the Avenues no longer show with lights.  That's Godzilla standing tall on the hill

a different viewpoint

at the head of the Golden Gate Bridge is the walkway and bikeway

I walked under the bridge to the eastern side

and here's the view from the north east

back under the bridge and back to G-ma's house

Jeffery and I took a walk while Mom was at a meeting, and here's one of the funny-cool flowers we saw along the way

Blackie's Pasture, with the replica of Blackie standing guard

another pretty flowering bush

Mom, Jeffery and I went out to the Point Bonita Lighthouse. 

The hike was a half-mile down this trail to the lighthouse, which Mom did!

Lichen

the Lighthouse.  We saw humpback whales from this spot, and boy, did we feel lucky!

looking north.  If you look, you'll see a humungous rock in the ocean.  Rodeo Beach is just around the corner from that.

It's a stubby little lighthouse, eh?

seen from the other side.

There goes Mom and Jeffery, up the hill to the car

pretty!

After our picnic lunch at Rodeo Beach, we popped over to Fort Baker, at the north east end under the bridge

Ahh!  San Francisco!

Fort Baker's main parade ground

I'd gladly live here.

Croquet anyone?

dinner at Lillie's in Tiburon

we had to take our main courses home, we'd filled up on the appetizers

Now it's Sunday, and Kyria made the Birthday-Mother's Day cake and quiches and coffee cake!  I love her!

the adults.  Alex was also there, but no photos of him.....

Lily is 2

Aila is 5

on the way home, we saw a truck that had just wrecked and spilled black liquid everywhere.  If we'd been 10 minutes later, we probably would've been forced to take a long detour.

There you go!

Tobin Trail

This is just my way of accomplishing two goals.  One is to introduce you to my new Facebook Page, which is called Tobin Trail.  The other goal is to promote the Tobin Trail via the internet.  I'm seeking ways to make it so that when you Google "Tobin Trail", you get my site(s), and begin to learn about our little world of trails in the Feather River Canyon.  I hope to add information about more local hikes near Tobin, but for now, we're working on getting the word out about the Tobin Trail. (there, did I say it enough to make Google take notice?)

If you're not a Facebook user, perhaps this link will get you to the Tobin Trail page, at least:

 https://www.facebook.com/Tobin.Trail.6162hwy70/?fref=ts

On into May

I really want to show you the bridge Jeffery built up on the Tobin Trail, but I have other things to show, too, so I'm going to try to keep it all in mostly chronological order.

Brenda and I found this large downed tree along our path on a recent hike

this is one of the slopes covered by dogwoods, but it really doesn't show how many there were all the way down, and all around us.

 

which is sky and which flowers?

roadside attraction - we call them "sticky monkeys" because, although they look like azaleas, they are in the monkey flower family

Jeffery cut down a few dead trees to use for the bridge on the Tobin Trail

he skinned them the old fashioned way, with his draw knife

the first log is set on it's base

Roger tests the bridge so far

Jeffery, the bridge builder

while Jeffery worked on the bridge, Roger built up a very skinny section of trail (he is going down the hill for his bottle of water that he dropped)

later in the day, Jeffery and I hiked up to see what the guys had accomplished.  Compare these to the photos in the earlier blog post I put up.

there it is, the bridge over Colby Creek.  So much easier and nicer!!!!

I feel no vertigo or nervousness.  Jeffery and I added "straps" underneath to stabilize it.

looking at the bridge from the other direction; prior to Roger's work, this trail to the bridge was (to use Karl VP's phrase) like the bramble bush Prince Charming had to cut through to get to Sleeping Beauty.

The trail Roger improved.

On Opening Day of Fishing Season, Kathy, Jeffery and I went to Caribou Crossroads for the yummy  pancake breakfast and a tour of the fishing crowds.  I took a three mile hike while they drove up the road.

this is the creek with the smelly-good wild azaleas, so we had to go sniff them

here's Kathy getting a whiff; it smells like Hawaii, spring, and honeysuckle, all at the same time.

Jeffery admires the flora and the diamond-sparkling water

right below the azalea is a "Japanese symbols rock".  Don't the markings look like Japanese writing?  It was more see-able in person without the water shine on it.

I love water!  I love the sparkles on a sunny day.  I love the sound!

the geranium Sara gave me last year bloomed on May 1st!  Happy May to you all.