Misty, cold Pescadero Beach (Sunday, August 14, 2022)

Highway 101 follows the Pacific coast from California into Washington. We stopped at Pescadero Beach in hopes of finding a tidal pool. We quickly lost interest because it was freezing and windy!

U.S. 101 was one of the original national routes established in 1926. Significant portions of U.S. 101 between Los Angeles and San Francisco follow El Camino Real, the route connecting former Alta California's 21 missions.

 

Monterey Bay Aquarium (Sunday, August 14, 2022)

Such a beautiful interaction with sea life on Monterey Bay. Check out their live cams at montereybayaquarium.org. Penguins! Sea otters! Sharks! and more.

Sea turtle with a school of anchovies or sardines, I don't remember which. They look so much alike except for their tail action. Anchovy tails open and close like scissors. Sardine tails swish back and forth.
 

San Francisco with Camille, Part 2 (August 13, 2022)

Sunbathing sea lions at Pier 39 on the Embarcadero

Smiling Camille and a really creepy laughing puppet at the Musee Mecanique on Fisherman's Wharf. The interactive museum of 20th-century arcade games and artifacts has more than 300 mechanical machines.

Papa Tom made a hole in one on the golf game.

The arm wrestler easily beat me.

The Palace of Fine Arts was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific exhibition.

We caught the end of a wedding there.

The Summer of Love (1967) lives on in Haight-Ashbury.

We had to pay homage to the house where Janis Joplin lived.

A windy Saturday at Ocean Beach

Us and the Golden Gate Bridge

Pelicans over Camille at Ocean Beach

The amazing Laphet Thoke (Tea Leaf Salad) at Burma Love. It is a fermented tea leaf dish tossed with a crispy mixture of nuts, beans, and garlic with lettuce.
 

San Francisco with Camille, Part 1 (August 13, 2022)

Breakfast with Camille in a restaurant with no office space. Desk is set up outside the restrooms, with the file cabinet and printer in one of the restrooms. 

You know you're in San Francisco when you see a flower-laden VW bus. This photo is for you, Brandy.

View from the Poetry Room in the City Lights bookstore. In 2001, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors made City Lights an official historic landmark – the first time this had been granted to a business, rather than a building – citing the organization for "playing a seminal role in the literary and cultural development of San Francisco and the nation." It recognized the bookstore as "a landmark that attracts thousands of book lovers from all over the world because of its strong ambiance of alternative culture and arts", and it acknowledged City Lights Publishers for its "significant contribution to major developments in post-World War II literature."

At the Zodiac Wall. My Chinese zodiac sign is the snake, the symbol of wisdom. They are intelligent and wise. They are good at communication but say little. Snakes are usually regarded as great thinkers. I like being a snake.

Fruits and vegetables I'd never seen and have no idea how to prepare

Crimping fortune cookies at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Co.

Dim sum

 

Mt Diablo (August 12, 2022)

See that really squiggly line from the North Gate to the mountaintop? When Martin lived in Walnut Creek near Mt. Diablo (before your time, most of you young uns), he cycled up and down the 3,849 foot isolated upthrust peak every Tuesday. Go Martin!  The park closed at 8:30 p.m. the day we were there. We left the top of the mountain--in a car--at 8:10 and didn't reach the gate until about 8:37 p.m. And that was with Tom driving!  The park ranger was still there. He said his co-worker had gone up to shoo any remaining visitors down so they could close the park. 

Sunset on Mt. Diablo. The view is 360 degrees. Tom's back is to the San Francisco Bay Area, about 33 miles away.

On a clear day, you can see nearly 200 miles in all directions from the observation platform at the Summit Building, where I was standing. Our day was cloudy.

The mountain casts a giant shadow to the east at sunset.

Looking east at sunset, from the observation platform at the Summit Building.
 

Au revoir, Mt. Shasta! (August 12, 2022)

This view of Mt. Shasta from Weed, California, struck me as interesting, given Mt. Shasta's reputation as a spiritual center on Mother Earth. 

NOTE: Weed is named for its founder Albert Weed, who in the 1800s ran the largest sawmill in America. But they play on the name. For instance, you can get a clay flower pot with "A little pot from Weed" stenciled on it.

Tragically, Weed suffered a wildfire conflagration--the Mill fire--on September 2, 2022. Fueled by extreme heat and winds, the fire destroyed about 132 homes and buildings in this community of only 2800 people.

 

Gateway Peace Garden (August 11, 2022)

The Gateway Peace Garden in Mt. Shasta City began with a sincere prayer by the landowners to fulfill a higher purpose with their lives. They were led to build this garden, dedicated in 2002. Visitors leave prayer flags and other remembrances for loved ones and themselves.

Along the pathways are trees covered in prayer flags.

Waffles earned angel wings.

This A Pou Whenua (Healing Pole) was carved by Maori Master Woodcarver Matua Louis Kereopa, North Island, New Zealand. "Te Mana o Te Atua Pou" (translation: "The Power of God Pole") was carved with prayers for the healing of Turtle Island (North America).

Prayer pole detail: For some Indigenous peoples, Turtle Island refers to the continent of North America. The name comes from various Indigenous oral histories that tell stories of a turtle that holds the world on its back.

A prayer

 

Mt. Shasta City (August 10-11, 2022)

We hung out with Mt. Shasta City locals at Handsome John's Speakeasy. Handsome John himself works hard in the kitchen making pizza and fresh sushi. I recommend the goat cheese/basil/pesto/sundried tomato pizza. 

Mmm!  Sushi made to order by Handsome John himself.

The Sacred Well is a Wiccan-owned shop near Mt. Shasta featuring healing crystals, organic and wild-crafted herbs and teas, no-waste beauty products and more. The open-air Kuan Yin Sanctuary behind the store is available to the public 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

A line of people was collecting drinking water from the headwaters of the Sacramento River in Mt. Shasta City. We figured, despite warnings, the water must be safe to drink if so many people were collecting it.

The river headwaters

We collected water too and drank it that day. No ill effects!  Plus, a kind New Age woman gave us a ripe avocado which we enjoyed with our dinner salad.
 

Mt. Shasta (August 10, 2022)

You must be on Mt. Shasta when you meet a hiking guitarist.

The dreaded scree. Luckily there was a clear, flat trail through the rocks around Panther Meadow, a lush green spring-fed meadow surrounded by the volcanic rocks.  Both Native Americans and New Agers treat Panther Meadow as a sacred place. We came upon Native Americans performing a ritual at the spring source so respectfully, quietly walked past them.

I walked the meditation spiral on Mt. Shasta.

Where are the loved one's cremains removed to? I'm sure they cannot be identified and returned to family or friends. 
 

Happy 71, Tom! (August 9, 2022--Part 3)

As we drove south on the I-5 from Crater Lake National Park toward Mt. Shasta City, we passed Klamath Lake. I thought we were driving into a heavy rainstorm. But no! It was a heavy little green bugs storm! Tom could barely see to drive. We were 9 miles from the nearest town and it was pitch dark.

. 

Even the headlights were covered! We were so relieved when we could pull into the Love's Truck Stop just beyond the lake. 

Love's was set up with high pressure hoses for the year-round nightly attack of the midges. They live in the bottom of the lake until it's time to mate. Then they fly up by the zillions! We weren't the only ones washing cars off. What would it be like on a motorcycle?

The following day we checked the radiator, and sure enough, it was clogged with midges that had mushed through the grill. The Mt. Shasta park rangers were kind enough to let us use the high pressure hose in their truck yard to clear the radiator. And yes, that's Mt. Shasta in the background.