December 22, 2009
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Putting the Santa in Santa Barbara
 Ho ho ho, here is Santa Barbara's version of Jolly Old St. Nick - he's evolved over the years, don't you think? We had a fun time with Mike's brother Charlie and his wife Deb, bike riding along the coast. The big tree we are sitting near is the largest fig tree in the U.S.!!   Labels: California
November 20, 2009
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Carlsbad, CA Sunset
 All that pollution here in Southern California does make for beautiful sunsets, this one was a brilliant globe sliding into the Pacific. What a treat to smell the ocean (and not the smog).
Golf here was at Aviara - ranked #38 in North America. It was a tough but fair course, with thousands of flowers (in November!), waterfalls & lakes with abundant wildlife. And they give you fresh cookies when you tee off on Hole #1...is life good or what?!  Labels: California
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Palm Springs - Golf and Trams
 Palm Springs is all about golf. (Indian Wells course here is designated by the big arrow). Perfectly manicured, perfect weather golf. Eat, sleep, breathe golf. Navigate by golf courses, discuss handicaps, swap swing theory. We're pretty much golf nuts so it sure works for us! Otherwise you might be bored to death here. Except for the tram, which is really cool - takes you from about 2,000 ft. elevation to 8,500 ft. elevation with a TWIST. Yup, the round tram actually turns in a circle a few times on the 15 minute ride. My theory is the centrifugal force pushes you closer to the window to enjoy the view.   Labels: California
October 24, 2009
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Rock Climbing in Lake Tahoe, CA
 From the left, Brian, Mike, Jay, Aron, Joe and Dan hauled up lines, beaners and courage to glorious Lake Tahoe peaks. Expert climbers Jay, Brian and Aron led the group, setting anchors every 10 to 15 ft. while Joe, Dan & Mike climbed behind after the lines were set. Mike is rappelling down after climbing this wall rated 5.9, a tough rating based on both the 85 degree steepness and limited hand and foot holds for the initial ascent.  Labels: California
September 8, 2009
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Staying at the Ahwahnee Hotel In Yosemite, CA
 The Ahwahnee is a 5 star US National Park hotel in the middle of the Yosemite Valley. We were married here, so it will always be special for us! The hotel was built in 1926 and has grand old architectural charm, truly impressive service and Smokey the Bear rubber duckies :)   Labels: California
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Hiking the Panorama Trail in Yosemite, CA
 The Panorama Trail starts at Glacier Point, then continues down 8 miles past Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls on the Mist Trail. You can just make out the silhouette of Half Dome behind Mike & me. There was a smoky haze in the air due to a controlled burn by the Forest Service that got out of hand. We saw several helicopters flying by with big buckets of water fresh dipped from the Merced River.  Labels: 2009 Highlights, California
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Watching the bear in Yosemite, CA
 We decided on a short walk from our hotel early on the morning of our anniversary , to visit the apple tree where we were married 4 years ago. There was a BEAR about 20 ft. up in the tree, having a fine time eating the apples! We watched him for about 15 minutes until he decided to knock some apples down from the top and climb down to eat them. That's when we decided to get outta Dodge and have breakfast ourselves.
Labels: California
September 1, 2009
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Biking in Squaw Valley, CA
 We biked from Truckee, CA to Squaw Valley along a beautiful route following the Truckee river, the only river that flows from Lake Tahoe.
Squaw Valley was really pleased to host the Winter Olympics, as it was the first time they had been hosted in the US in 28 years. And what year was that, you ask? 1960! Labels: California
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Sailing on Lake Tahoe
 Ingredients for a great day: summer weather with breeze, sailboat that rents by the hour, Mike's brother Dan & wife Vicki along for the ride. What a blast!
We did our very best Titanic "king of the world!" impressions off the bow... Lake Tahoe is 1,645 ft. at it's deepest. If the water in Lake Tahoe were spilled out, it would cover the entire state of California at a depth of fourteen inches. WOW.  Labels: California
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Hiking Lake Tahoe
 Here's a great quote describing Lake Tahoe...
"A noble sheet of water lifted six thousand three hundred feet above the level of the sea, and walled in by a rim of snow clad mountain peaks that towered aloft a full three thousand feet higher still... I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the whole earth affords." Mark Twain, Roughing It
Nuff said, Lake Tahoe is one of America's national treasures!!  Labels: California
February 15, 2009
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Zabriskie Point, Death Valley
Rolling mud hills front the Funeral Mountains. This hike is only a few miles from the Furnace Creek Inn, the national park lodge where we stayed. The ranger told us about a hiker last year, fit and in his 20's, who hiked this with a liter of water in the middle of summer. His wife called for help 3 hours after he was supposed to be done with his 3 mile hike...it should have taken him an hour. The rangers found him 4 1/2 hours after he had started, dead from heat exhaustion and dehydration.  This is a woefully unforgiving land in the summer. Labels: California
February 10, 2009
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The LOWS of Death Valley
This is Badwater Basin, the lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere...282 ft. below sea level. It's bizarre to walk through a landscape so barren. It's surrounded by mountains of up to 13,000 ft. in a 15 mile radius around it, and all the rainwater in those mountains empties into Badwater, washing down the moutains, forming huge salt beds once the water evaporates. By the way, the reason Death Valley is so dry is that storm systems have to pass over four mountain ranges before they get here. For the most part, the storms are very weak by the time they reach this desert.  Labels: 2009 Highlights, ALL TIME GREATS, California
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Death Valley Borax
Remember Borax? It was a popular household cleaner that at one time was "mined" in Death Valley, originally these huge wagons pulled tons of borax from Death Valley with teams of 20 mules. Eventually a closer, cheaper borax mine was discoverd. Walking around the borax flats is like walking on snow. It's very weird that it's warm, yet you are leaving footprints in the white residue.   Labels: California
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Golfing below Sea Level
Golfing in Death Valley @ 214 ft. below sea level means that this is a tough course! The ball doesn't go too far, and the unusual wet conditions added to the difficulty. Having said that, the snow capped mountains made it so scenic that all was forgiven.  How often do you see palm trees and snow capped mountains at the same time??  Labels: California
February 9, 2009
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Welcome to Death Valley
It's not very often that you see Death Valley with snowcapped mountains in the distance. Also note that Mike is wearing a sweater, and there is an actual PUDDLE in front of the sign. A rainstorm yesterday dropped about 2" of water on Death Valley in 24 hours...that exceeds their annual rainfall.  Labels: California
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Driving Through the Sierra Nevadas
This was an unbelievably beautiful drive. We had all the winter snowcapped mountains, but clear roads. We kept the tunes going...it takes about 7 hours to get from Lake Tahoe to Death Valley!  . There are some really long, straight roads here that tempted us to go over 100 mph, not that we necessarily did, of course!!   Labels: California
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It's a Miracle...Smokey Robinson
 We went "Cruisin' Together" with Smokey @ Lake Tahoe - he sounded good, and had a great band behind him! Other Smokey hits are "Tears of a Clown" and "Tracks of My Tears". He had great stories about growing up with Motown, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, the Temptations...he wrote "The Way You Do the Thing You Do" for the Temptations, which became their first #1 International hit song. Labels: California
February 5, 2009
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Yay - we make it to Lake Tahoe!
 It's hard to capture the panoramic view of Lake Tahoe from the top of Heavenly Ski Resort. Great blue cruiser runs, too. We've now met up with Dan & Vicki for skiing and... ZIP Lines - the "Heavenly Flyer" starts at 9,580 ft, and drops at 50 miles per hour, the longest zip-line in the lower 48 states. Fortunately they slow you down at the end, because we rode it with our ski boots on.  Labels: California
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That's Mt. Shasta, in all her glory. She was a little skimpy on the snow for skiing, but beautiful nonetheless. The other photo is Burney Falls, a spectacular 129ft. spring fed waterfall...check out the water coming out of the WALL  . This waterfall was made famous in the old Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller (click on the YouTube link for the original Tarzan yell)! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwHWbsvgQUE Labels: California
May 5, 2008
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Giant Sequoias in Yosemite, CA
 In Mariposa Grove (part of Yosemite Nat'l Park) we checked out these HUGE old trees. One of the oldest living trees, Grizzly Giant is dated at over 2,700 years old! Mike and I figured it would take at least 10 adults holding hands to encircle the base of this massive tree. Although amazing for their age and size, apparently the wood in these trees is fibrous and brittle, and when they do topple over, they shatter like glass. The wood is unsuitable for construction, but it is used to make pencils, matches and toothpicks. Amazing - something so long lasting and massive....  Labels: California
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Yosemite - Glacier Peak, CA
Yosemite is where we got married, and will always be romantic for us! Behind us is Half Dome,  Yosemite's most familiar landmark of granite. Labels: California
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Yosemite National Park, CA
Take a close look at that waterfall behind us...at 2,425 ft. that's the longest waterfall in the United States. We hiked up to upper Yosemite Falls to get a closer look at the thunderous water - it was really roaring with the early May runoff!  Labels: California
March 12, 2008
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On the 19th Hole at Pebble Beach
No we didn't play there (maybe someday) but we did drive out to Monterrey to gawk at a REALLY beautiful course. Can you believe they make chili here at their cafe that has prime rib in it??  Labels: California
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Winchester Mystery House San Jose, CA
  This is a real haunted house! Sarah Winchester, heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, was convinced by a psychic that all the people who had ever been killed by a Winchester gun would come back to haunt her unless she continually built a house. So she did, for 38 years - construction proceeded 24 hours a day from 1884 until she died in 1922. There are 160 bedrooms and 47 fireplaces over 24,000 square feet. It has stairways going up to the ceiling, bizarre passageways and the infamous door to nowhere (it opens to a 13 foot drop). Creepy! Labels: California
November 4, 2007
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In Disneyland with Walt and Mickey
 What a great day at Disneyland, although somehow it seemed smaller than it was 20 years ago! The fireworks and music were absolutely spectacular. Labels: California
October 2, 2007
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In California with the Governator
Down to Sacramento, for a little golf. The govenator was in our hotel, but we must have missed the invitation to the party. That's OK, though, because WE'LL BE BACK.  Labels: California
January 28, 2007
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This is not Tiger Woods
 Yes, we did see the PGA Tournament at Torrey Pines in San Diego. We did see Tiger Woods (and I yelled GO TIGER, which is why he won). Alas, Tiger was unwilling to pose for a photo. A far more likeable candidate is my brother Mike, who played golf with us. A few more swings than Tiger normally takes, but he was definitely more fun :) Labels: California
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Golfing in San Diego
This grown woman (my sister in law) can actually STAND inside a golf cart. At 4 ft. 8 in., this is the first time I'd ever seen Cyndi without her heels. Now that is what you call petite!!  Labels: California
January 27, 2007
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Taking in the sights at La Jolla, CA
 As the song goes we "still feel small" when we stand beside the ocean... and indeed we ARE!!! Those are big seals on the beach, by the way. Labels: California
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Beachcombing in La Jolla, CA
 Crisp and sunny, the water was spectacular. Labels: California
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