MUIR WOODS and SAUSALITO

May 5, 2012

Dscf4056

Today was the a perfect day for venturing over the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods, home of the giant Redwood Trees, whose average height is 200 feet tall.  These trees are magnestic beauties of nature and this cozy forest is  wonderful place to take a stroll.

Afterwards, Sausalito  was a must stop to enjoy the harbor views, shops and refreshments.

Dscf4010

Some perspective of just how big this Redwood is.

Dscf4055

Redwoods typically grow in “family circles”.

Dscf4086

Sausalito shops and shoreline.

Dscf4105

Sausalito Harbor

Dscf4107

I could live here. 🙂

ALCATRAZ

May 4, 2012

Dscf3902

Your Room is Waiting….

A day at Alcatraz.  Interesting, creepy…… but over all it was a beautiful day and I especially enjoyed the wonderful  gardens planted all over the island and tended to by volunteers. Of course, the gorgeous scenery of the Bay Area and the Ferry Boat ride to the island was also unforgetable.   My appreciation  and graditude to  The National  Parks Department for doing such a  great job displaying  the history of The Rock. Thanks also to the gardeners, who give of their time and sweat so that others can enjoy and smell the flowers.

Alcatrz is definitely an attraction in San Francisco that should not to be missed!

Dscf3851

Alcatraz Island

Dscf3897Dscf3906

Cell Blocks and Solitary

Dscf3971

The “yard” used by prisoners in back of the former prison.

Dscf3883Dscf3942

Gardens on Alcatraz Island

Dscf3886Dscf3876

Breathtaking scenery

Dscf3873Dscf3887

CALIFORNIA’s WINE COUNTRY

May 3, 2012

Dscf3767

A visit to California is not complete without a trip to  Wine Country. So we let the tour bus do the driving  and we sat back and enjoyed the day.  Toured four wineries in all but my two favorite were:

V Sattui Winery and Andretti Winery ( yes as in Mario). (No, he did not host the tour. )

Wineries also, I discovered, have beautiful gardens, generally roses gardens.  Because if any pest was going to attack  the grape vines, they will attack the roses first, thus setting off the warning of impending danger.

Dscf3753

V. Sattui Winery

Dscf3823Dscf3799

Andretti Winery

Dscf3828

Sierra Nevada Moutains in the Backdrop

Dscf3744Dscf3821
Dscf3819Dscf3779

Chinatown, Coit Tower, Haight Ashbury, What a Day!

Dscf3651

For Sale at the Ferry Build Marketplace

May 2, 2012

Exploring more of   San Francisco, we started our day walking through Chinatown, gawking at the strange items and foods at the outdoor markets.  Coit Tower , high on Telegraph Hill,  was  the next  fun stop.  There is colorful murals completely lining the walls at the  bottom  and at the top of the Tower were postcard views of the city and the Bay area.  Afterwards we walked to the waterfront via the 477 steps Filbert Steps – good thing we were walking down!  This end of the waterfront is one ferryboat pier after another. The Ferry Building Marketplace is a refurbished pier now filled with shops and eats – very Californian and interesting.  Haight Asbury was our next destination via public bus. The closer we got to the Haight, the more colorful the bus became.  Anyone who thinks the Hippie Era has passed, hasn’t been to the Haight.   It is alive, well, and based on the guy smoking pot walking down the steeet, still stoned!    Our final walk of the day was back through Chinatown again.  Its truly its own little world, fun to see and the shopping is never ending.

Dscf3560Dscf3600

Coit Tower

Dscf3578Dscf3565

Views from Coit Tower

Dscf3676Dscf3677Dscf3680

Haight Ashbury

Dscf3617

The 477 Filbert Steps

Dscf3545Dscf3702Dscf3539

Chinatown

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Sundae

May 1, 2012

My Traveling  Adiction happily took charge again and swept me off to San Francisco, California.  Home to hilly streets, cable cars, and a vast assortment of sights.  Traveling with my friend, Laura, we wasted no time jumping on a cable car to the loopy Lombard Street and then onto Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Pier 39 and the Maritime Museum.  Ghirardelli Square tempted us with sinfully delicious sundaes in an old soda fountain atmosphere.  The Maritime Museum was  great cheap entertainment where we explored 3 retired ships from the 1800’s,  a ferry (full of antique cars and trucks) a tug  and a cargo ship.  Pier 39 was a clever mecca of shops and restaurants with views of San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz.  We even witnessed some fools swimming in the bay and that water has to be cold because we were wearing fleeces and wind breakers!

Dscf3419Dscf3458

California pigeons like chocolate also.

Dscf3427

$60.00 Block of Chocolate

Dscf3495

Sourdough Teddy Bears

Dscf3502
Dscf3503

Pier 39 Restaurants

Dscf3433Dscf3462

Mueseum  Cargo Ship

TACOMA MUSEUMS and GIG HARBOR

Dscf3342

April 20, 2012

My last day in the Northwest, I took a quick road trip south  from Seattle to Tacoma to see the Museum of Glass, the Tacoma Art Museum and Union Station.  Tacoma is the home town of  Dale Chihuly, famous artist of beautiful glass creations, thus….I was on a mission to see Chihuly works. I was not disappointed.  As always, Chihuly’s creations were beautiful.

Next stop was Gig Harbor, a charming little town on the Puget Sound with a picture postcard harbor, friendly people walking their dogs, a Harbor History Museum,  interesting shops and galleries. My favorite shop was Reverence Jewelry Store were I found a shiny  little souvenir to take home and I also enjoyed a tasty lunch at Kelly’s. What a perfect corner of the USA for me to spend the last day of this trip.

Dscf3266
Dscf3249

Chihuly’s glass creations.

Dscf3329

Peaceful Gig Harbor

Dscf3337

Historic Net Shed on the left of this photo.

Dscf3343

I REALLY WANT THIS.

PIKE PLACE MARKET and SEATTLE’S WATERFRONT

Dscf3179

April 19, 2012

Downtown Seattle has  historic neighborhoods,  high end shopping,  ferries  with which to venture across the  Sound, coffee,and food  everywhere you turn, just to start.  I began my touristy day at the  Pike Place Market full of  vendors  that sell just about anything you can imagine.  The most colorful vendors sell  beautiful and affordable  bunches of  fresh flowers, fresh  fruits and vegetables, fresh (raw) fish that one vendor in particular likes to throw from one sales person to the other to entertain everyone. Bakeries are also popular vendors at the Market. One vendor has a machine working non stop so you can have the freshest donuts of them all.  The Pike Market is a wonderfully serious wake up call for  all the senses.

Before wondering off  to the waterfront , I walked by the Art Museum to get a shot of the Huge Hammering Man. Then a quick walk down some very steep streets took me to  beautiful views across the Sound andmore shops and food, all with something  catchy to get my attention. Today was fun and accompanied with some serious walking !

Dscf3193
Dscf3187

Market smells range from flowers to fish.

Dscf3164

The Original Starbucks started at the Pike Market with this logo.

Dscf3174Dscf3176

Hammering Man at Seattle Art Museum (click to see him hammer)

Dscf3220

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop at the Waterfront

Dscf3214

McDreamy Sighting on the Waterfront

Dscf3226

Fish and Crowder restaurants on the Waterfront

RIDING THE DUCK IN SEATTLE

Dscf3077

April 18, 2012

In my family, a vacation isn’t a vacation unless you Ride the Ducks. : )  Thus, I was introduced to downtown Seattle today, via Duck. Our  Duck zipped by the busy waterfront, Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, then onto the Fremont District ( where a troll lives under the Aurora Bridge), and  dipped into Lake Union toshow off the ships from the “Deadliest Catch”,   the houseboat used in “Sleepless in Seattle” (which recently sold for over two million dollars), many other houseboats and yachts that line Lake Union and we even saw a couple of float planes come in.  It was a fun day ! Quack, Quack!

Dscf3105

Seattle’s Downtown Warerfront Skyline

Dscf3110

Sleepless in Seattle Houseboat

Dscf3142Dscf3096Dscf3123

Misc. Attractive Houseboats on Lake Union.

Dscf3050

The Fremont Troll

Dscf3152

Chihuly Garden near the Space Needle

Dscf3148

Space Needle

Dscf3125

Floatplane coming home to  million dollar houseboat.

SKAGIT VALLEY TULIP FESTIVAL, WASINGTON

Dscf2815

April 16 and 17, 2012

Welcome to Skagit Valley !  It’s a piece of Holland  and thousands of beautiful tulips in the state of Washington, about one hour north of Seattle.  I  spent the last two days enjoying the area, soaking up  the huge fields of blooming tulips and daffodils and  quaint little towns. One town in particular, La Conner, sits on the waterfront , home of functional fishing boats and a tug that was for sale ( in case anyone is in the market). La Conner  has many art galleries, and interesting shops so it was a nice place to have lunch and walk around a bit.  The town of Mt. Vernon, is the home of two gardens, Tulip Town and Rozengarden. These gardens,  for a small admission fee, welcome people to come in and enjoy their gorgeous fields of  rainbow colored tulips and numerous tulips displays , all planted with your camera in mind.  Yesterday, I also took a “Shutter Tour” which was wonderful!.  The owner of the company was our guide, friendly, personable and he drove us in a small van to  the gardens, fields, and various  places of interest in the area.  It was a great way to see Skagit Valley without driving and his tour is also designed  with your camera in mind and he gives many tips for getting great shots.   I highly recommend Shutter Tours and Skagit Valley’s Tulips !!

Dscf2784
Dscf2913
Dscf2983

Tulip Town had tulips displays set up with murals.

Dscf2894
P4160005
Dscf2818Dscf2730Dscf2837Dscf2824
Dscf2871

Red, white and blue!

THE CASCADES and LEAVENWORTH

Dscf2588

Today’s post is like a version of  Where’s Waldo except its Where’s Jeannie?  I had the car windows down when I started my journey, turned the car heater  off and on throughout and visited a little German town without leaving the USA.  Where was I?  I took a drive into the beautiful Cascade Mountains , where there was still snow ( lots of it in places) to visit a cute little touristy town called Leavenworth.

The drive was beautiful with the huge mountains in front of me, babbling moutain streams cutting in and out  along side  the road, sometimes calm and sometimes looking like white water rafting waters, huge, huge evergreen trees and the smell of crisp fresh air.  At some places of the road the mountain would be straight up on the one side, either a mass of rock or evergreen trees and straight down on the other side, aside from the safety rail that was supposed to make you feel better. Then there were also some wierd looking trees  covered with a thick hairy green moss and with their branches reaching out, and my wild imagination, they reminded me of a large family of Mean Mr. Ginches.  : )

Leavenwoth was cute, full of shops and places to eat and  German replica buildings to photograph and pretend I was in that wonderful country of Germany. It was a great day!

Dscf2627
Dscf2605
Dscf2590

Leavenworth in the mountains.

Dscf2691

Neatly plowed snow on the sides of the road.

Dscf2696

Mean Mr Ginch Look a Likes.

Dscf2680
Dscf2685

When I pulled over to rest my hands from the death like grip I had on the steering wheel, this is how tall the snow was on the side of my passenger side window, actually it was taller than the compact car I was driving.

Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries