What I did for Summer Vacation

Now that "summer" is over (still foggy here!) and Labor Day has passed, it's time to share (as the millions of schoolchildren do each September) what I did over the summer.

Generally, I worked.

Or took care of a motley assortment of nieces and nephews

And watched old movies at the Stanford Theater.

But summer is supposed to be about "trips" and "vacations" - well, faithful readers will remember the Disneyland trip from June. That don't count.

So here I give you "what I did over summer"

I saw Trees. Big Trees.

Yes, this is Muir Woods, on a sunny day in August. A Saturday. During Tourist season. This is a mistake I will not make again.

For before the lovely photo above was taken, we endured:

* An hour of traffic getting to the GG Bridge.

* 90 minutes of circling a one mile radius of Highway One in the pathetic hope that someone, ANYONE, would leave Muir Woods and allow me to park.

* One front row seat to a screaming fight between two grown adults over a parking spot (shamefully, I must admit I actually sympathized).

But once we parked (and really, I kissed the ground when I did) - Muir Woods was lovely, all peaceful and woodsy:

Of course, you know who snuck in (can you spot him?):

We were all set to head out on the trail when I saw THIS at the trail entrance:

OH HELL NO! I almost turned around, then I remembered the whole car parking drama and decided to brave it.

Giant Trees:
Giant clovers:
More Giant Trees:
and this weird looking "Monster Stump":
I caught DP annoying the local wildlife:
In September....we headed to Ft. Bragg for the Labor Day Holiday. This trip was lovely on the way up - no traffic, sunny skies along the way, and easy parking once we arrived.

However, once in Ft. Bragg, we realized a couple of things:

* The Fog that was suffocating the coastline we live by was also suffocating the coastline we had just driven 4 hours to visit.

* The cop cars we we seeing all over the tiny town were actually on a manhunt for an armed and dangerous murderer that was roaming the streets.

* Apparently, we were not the only people who thought Ft. Bragg would be a nice place to visit on the holiday weekend.

So here is the much talked about "Glass Beach":

and here is the proof that we managed to find "Glass Beach" - GPS system be damned:

The path to the beach was surrounded by wild blackberries. I didn't eat any. There was no packaging around them and it made me suspicious:

We had been told that "Glass Beach" was a rare spot boasting sands covered with polished beach glass due to centuries of landfill dumping in years gone by.

We saw a beach covered with unpolished tourists, picking the sand clean of the glass:

After a brief call to a friend to get further information about less known areas, we found the "hidden" glass beach down the cliffs:

ummm, yeah...not so hidden this holiday weekend! But, look at the glass:

closeup for you:

DP was duly impressed:

It was just a BIT chilly

Here's me, denying the cold and trying to look like I am on a "summer" vacation:

Now, since we ASS U ME d no one else would be in Ft. Bragg this HOLIDAY weekend, we ended staying at the "Bend Over and Pay the Outrageous Fee, tourist!" motel, which boasted a lovely view:

Yes, as a matter of fact, that is bird crap on a window overlooking a dirt yard with a shovel, clippers and some sort of "weapony" looking rock (oh, did I tell you they never found the armed and dangerous murderer?).

ANYWHO....the next day we decided to head home via Highway One.

Here's DP at one of the several vista points we stopped off at:

So, after three hours of driving what can only be described as "Satan's Highway" - a road with so many twists and turns that you forget which direction you are actually driving in...I unclenched my hands from the steering wheel and decided to get out of the car in this lovely little town:

Such a lovely place, little houses..cows....and THIS interesting building up a side street:

Yes, that is me (i.e. tourist, movie fan, nerd) standing in front of the famous "schoolhouse" from Hitchcock's "The Birds". It's in Bodega Bay, not in the main part of Bodega Bay - it's on Bodega Lane off Highway one, about 2 miles south of the main Bodega Bay downtown area.

Of course DP had to get in on the fun:

At first I thought these were bee hives, then I zoomed in...THE BIRDS are still there!!! They've taken over the house!!!

Well, to make a long story short - the house is closed up, the owner is sick of people looking at the house and has "do not trespass" signs posted everywhere (but she lives in a house behind this house!), and there is even a guard dog within the confines of the fence. A very friendly guard dog.

We spent some time looting the local antique store of ViewMaster reels, old thread spools, milk glass chickens on a nest, and I think an old photo or two. The owner claimed the church in the following photo was in the movie as well:So yeah, after THAT ( and a lovely seafood lunch at "The BoatHouse") we headed back out to "Satan's Highway" and spent the rest of the day attempting to stay out of the way of asshat drivers hellbent on getting in front of any car that also happened to be on Satan's Highway.

KARMA SIDENOTE: To the asshat in the silver volvo SUV that practically ran me off Satan's Highway - yes, I actually did enjoy laughing at you as I passed the car accident you were part of about 30 minutes down the road. Hope that front end damage isn't too expensive to fix. ASSHAT.

One last photo op before we hit the GG Bridge:
and that, my fair friends, is what I did for summer vacation!