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Orb weaver, Eric's rock garden.

Berkeley, Museum, Sonoma...

So anyway, after Memorial Day, we pretty much immediately flew out to California to link up with my family. A very brief two-post summary will now commence:


One of the first things we did was visit the California Academy of Sciences, a huge natural history museum. It has a wonderful assortment of things, including a huge aquarium, planetarium, a green roof, and a rainforest dome. Unfortunately, the dome was closed due to maintenance or something, but despite that, we still didn't have time to see everything.


Aquariums are always a favorite of mine. As well as obligatory silhouette photos.


Sea nettle from the aquarium. Among the other specimens hanging out there were various reptiles I've never seen before, an albino alligator (named Claude), a Pacific octopus, Alligator gars, and more fish than you can shake a reel at. So much fun.


The next, we did another always fun thing: wine tasting at the vineyards. Last time Cathy and I visited we went to Napa Valley but this time we went to Sonoma Valley. I gotta say, I liked Sonoma better since it was drastically more laid back, casual, and natural.


Seigo is not yet of age and so did not partake in any of the tastings, but he did enjoy running around the grape vines (this was at Wellington Vineyards).


Bartholomew Park vineyard. We ended up flying back with an armload of wine, some of which I'm enjoying immensely as I type this.


Eric and Rie actually live in Berkeley. A nice feature of their particular area was a weekly farmer's market just a short walk away from their house. We came to check out on one of the days.


It wasn't terribly big but there were more than enough tasty morsels to choose from and the local support is strong, which is great. We bought a variety of edibles that we snacked on for the rest of the week. Also, the weather was excellent everyday we were there - which wasn't all that surprising, but it was excellent.

Next post soon.

Home at Lodi

Wow there is a lot of shit from California, and I only posted a fraction of the photos I took. In any event, this is the last post from our trip. The day before we left, we decided to take it easy. We spent the day in nearby Sacramento and the night in Lodi. It was a nice relaxing day since we had been running around quite a bit the past couple days. Some of the photos were taken with Cathy's p&s.


Nothing too notable happened in Sacramento. Some walking around, random shopping, and banana splits at Gunther's. The place has been around for about 70 years, and they make one hell of a split.


They were promptly eaten.


We returned to Lodi, did some more errands, and eventually setup the grill for dinner.


Meat and vegetable kabobs were on the menu.


Lots of random dishes. By the way, the produce around there is a lot better than in Chicago. I've been settling for wilted greens, bruised peaches, and sub-standard tubers for too long now.


Anyway, everything turned out pretty tasty.


We also enjoyed some killers mojitos, complete with fresh mint from Eric's garden.


I was sad to go. Roland was sad to see us go.


Clem was sad too.


See ya later (Eric and his flourishing veggie garden).

Santa Cruz Sea Lions

Time for some non-hiking photos from our California trip. After Cathy flew in, we went to Santa Cruz for a day with my brother. We lay around all day, played some frisbee, watched some weird fog roll in, and had a great seafood dinner on the wharf. Nothing too notable, but here are some photos of sea lions (taken with Cathy's p&s Sony camera):


There was a spot for sea lions to hang out on the wharf. Here's a group of them sleeping, barking, and/or scratching themselves. They kinda look like dogs. Cute little guys.


This one wanted to take a nap away from the crowd. Somehow he was able to get up on this beam on the other side. Funny shit.


Looks like he is really enjoying himself.

Lassen Volcanic National Park, Pt. 4

More Lassen.


For the most part, we didn't see much wildlife besides a squirrels, a couple snakes, and some deer. There were lots of insects though, and this butterfly was pretty common. Looks like a California tortoiseshell.


There were a lot of dragonflies near the lakes. Somehow, I was able to get a photo of one in flight. Not sure what species it is, but through some brief interweb research, my best guess is that it's a blue-eyed darner.


We ran into some interesting terrain the second day. The ground transitioned from brown dirt to black cinder, the trees turned from alive to burnt and dead, and the scrub all but disappeared. You can see Eric near the bottom right corner - it provides some perspective of the size of the trees.


Trail signage on a partially charred tree.


Yellow brittlebush barely growing in the dirt and cinder. A tough little plant, you often find this growing where nothing else can.


Eric and I approaching the Cinder Cone, which we later climbed. A great view but we were totally exposed to the sun at this point. It was damn hot. We drank about five liters of water that day and it still wasn't enough. I think I pissed smoke later that night.


Taking a break while climbing up the Cinder Cone. It really wasn't that high up, and the heat, dust, and 35 pound packs on our backs were fine. It was the loose gravel and cinder that was frustrating. Since it gave way with every step, we lost ground as we gained ground. It was one of those things where you keep your head down, try to think about something else, and just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Next post, top of the Cinder Cone.