A Trilogy neighbor comes from a family that has historical ties to Riverside and the Mission Inn. Tonight my granddaughters and I were treated to a wonderful tour of the Mission Inn. We were able to visit a couple of guest rooms, the chapel, and generally were given access to the guest-only areas of the Mission Inn. I had no idea of the diversity of art and architecture at the Inn. We had a great time. Click here to enjoy pictures from our visit.

Happy Days are here again! Last week I had the pleasure of traveling to Las Vegas for Pauline and Louie’s wedding. The wedding ceremony and reception dinner took place in the Mount Charleston Resort. Other than the cold weather (the overnight low as around 12 and the bottle of water in my car was frozen solid the next day) it was a very warm event and we had lots of fun. You know I had to take pictures. So, for those of you that couldn’t come, and for those of you that were there, please help Pauline and Louie celebrate their reunion in marriage. Click here to see the pictures.

I just returned from a short visit to see my very good friend Joe in Northern California. When we get together we always discuss politics and religion and, depending on the weather, we’ll go golfing and/or fishing. While I don’t fish and I’m not sure its accurate to describe my actions on the links as golf, I enjoy our time together out in the field. Recently, since our trip to Yellowstone, Joe and I have added photography to our list of shared activities. On this trip we went out twice to see what we could find: a hike at Gray Lodge Wildlife Area to see what the birds were up to and a drive in the Sierras.

At Gray Lodge we had a nice walk around the ponds, but it was early for migration and it was still dove hunting season and the birds were very skittish. This didn’t stop me from trying; after all, much of the pleasure that I get from photography comes from snapping the shutter, even when there isn’t any promise of a photograph materializing later.

On the last day of my visit Joe’s father-in-law, Stan, took us for a drive in the Sierras by Lake Almanor. On the way we stopped at a rest stop on Dear Creek Highway where we found a working, hand-operated water pump. We turned off the highway onto a gravel road and found a interesting contraption made of old truck parts and wood which we determined to be a working weather vane.

It was a short but fun trip. I plan on going back to visit Joe again around the first part of February to see what’s happening at Gray Lodge and other great birding sites in the area around Yuba City. Click Here to see a few more pictures from this trip. Enjoy.

It’s hard to believe that with all my foreign and domestic travel I had so far missed the splendor of Yellowstone. So, when I retired I planned two photography trips to celebrate my new freedom: Tanzania and Yellowstone. After doing some research on Yellowstone I determined that the best time for my visit would be September -- A plan was born.
Read More...