Category: travel

Solano Avenue Stroll 2023

Today I had my artwork on display at the Solano Avenue Stroll. The Stroll is the East Bay’s largest street festival. It features over four hundred vendors including 50 entertainers, 25 food booths, 100 government and non-profit agencies, 100 artisans, jewelers, makers, and much more! I’ve participated in the Stroll in the past with the last time being 2015. Since then, I was so busy with my commercial photography it didn’t make much sense to participate. Now it’s time to get my artwork in front of more people so here we are. The stroll draws some 100,000 people. This year it seemed be well attended.

We were on the street setting up at 7:15 in the morning. The event opened to the public at 10:00 and ran until 5:00 PM. It was quite well attended with a constant flow people walking up and down the mile of vendors. Over the course of the day, we connected with friends we hadn’t seen in years, and we made many new acquaintances. We had a number of panoramic images on display.

To attract interest, I offered to give away a framed print, Wreck of the Reyes. I had quite a few people sign up to win, and after the event I spun the Wheel of Names to select a winner.

Congratulations to Thomas! Thanks to everybody that stopped by to visit. It was a fun event. And if you’d like to follow me and my fine art photography visit store.treve.com and sign up for my newsletter. We run a number of giveaways and sales over the course of the year.

Celebrating 50 Years

Fifty years ago Joann and exchanged wedding vows. Little did we know what the future would hold. It’s been a marvelous adventure, and I can’t imagine sharing fifty years with anyone else. To celebrate we decided to go wine tasting. We booked a couple of nights at a cute AirBnB in Sonoma called The Hacienda.

My grandparents moved to Sonoma in 1957, so I have many childhood memories, so I always enjoy a visit to Sonoma. On Wednesday morning we dropped our dog Carson off at Metrodog and drove up to Sonoma. We arrived with time to spare before checking into our accommodations. We walked around the square and had lunch at the Plaza Bistro. I had the special, a paella, which was out of this world. Delicious! After lunch we stopped at the Cheese Factory where we bought wine, cheese, crackers and a few other snacks.

Then it was off to the Sonoma Botanical Garden, a lovely place with large collection of Asian plants and a couple of lily ponds. It was a warm day so the walk through the shaded woodlands was welcome.

In the morning it was time to go wine tasting. Joann was inspired by an article in the San Francisco Chronical by Sara Schneider talking about the Moon Mountain Wine District. We had reservations to visit two wineries, Stone Edge Farm and Repris.

The road to Stone Edge was a very pretty, very windy, drive up the mountain. Philippe, the Director of Hospitality greeted us and gave us a tour of the facilities along with the history and philosophy of the farm. Mac McQuown, the Proprietor is quite and innovator. The estate produces first-growth quality Bordeaux-style wines from organically grown grapes in keeping with the highest environmental standards. The estate also has a microgrid that supplies all the electrical needs for the facility.

The wine tasting was quite educational, learning how to distinguish between wines with nuances of site, age and a host of other factors. We tasted some truly exceptional wines.

From Stone Edge we drove back down the mountain and over to Repris. As with Stone Edge, Cabernet grapes do well here. The yield on the mountain is less than that at the lower elevations, but the quality of the fruit lends itself to some excellent wines. Our tour included a jaunt around part of the mountain to a vantage point that gave us a good view of the property and a tour of the caves.

Once again, we tasted some excellent wines, and left with one bottle from each of the vineyards.

On Friday morning, the date of our actual anniversary, we had breakfast at Baker and Cook, which had excellent food. Then it was a tour of the Sonoma State Historic Park, where we refreshed our knowledge of the history of California, including the 25 days in 1846 when California was an independent nation.

Back from Bishop

Close to two months have lapsed since my last blog posting. So many adventures to share. I like to post in chronological order, which isn’t necessarily the order in which I write, so stay tuned as I fill in some of the back-dated adventures.

Or adventures recently took us over the Sierra to visit family and celebrate birthdays. For our return trip we left Bishop on the afternoon on July 29, with a stop at Donna the Dog Lady to pick up our dog Carson, who spent the night there since we were involved in some activities where Carson was not welcome.

With daytime temperatures of 100 degrees, we were hoping to gain some elevation and to find some trees for shade. Green Creek near Bridgeport seemed to offer a good bet for the night. We turned off onto Green Creek Road and followed the well-graded dirt road for a little over six miles where we found a level spot to park the rig for the night at 7900 feet. Carson was happy to wander around camp off-leash. Having set up camp we discovered that the mosquitos were quite abundant, so we did our best to cover any exposed skin and break out the repellent.

Green Creek is a gorgeous spot with Jeffrey pines, aspen and willows. The California Department of Fish and Game maintains the Green Creek Wildlife Area, a 720 acres protected area that includes habitat for mule deer migration and fawning. It’s also home to black bear, beaver, bald eagle, grouse, mountain quail and various waterfowl. We decided to camp outside of the wildlife area, which is marked with signs.

I wandered around our camp in the evening and again in the morning with my camera, in this case an iPhone 14. I was intrigued by the lush green vegetation, the aspen trees and the wildflowers. We saw lupine, penstemon, and prickly poppies. Once the mosquitos became annoying it was nice to take refuge in the camper with its screened windows that still afforded us a view.

Rock Creek

Our granddaughter’s fifth birthday was reason enough to join family at Rock Creek. So here we are at the East Fork Campground on Rock Creek in the Eastern Sierra, our granddaughter, her parents and two sets of grandparents.

We spent two nights here at 9000 feet of elevation, a cool retreat from the heat of the Owens Valley. For breakfast we fired up the Dutch Oven and cooked up a mushroom and brie breakfast strata, one of our favorite breakfast recipes. The hot coals provided heat to warm hands on the chilly morning. With two days to explore, our adventures included hiking around part of Rock Creek Lake and also paddling on the lake.

The trails were linked with wildflowers including Sulphur buckwheat, paintbrush, Lupine, and penstemon and a host of other flowers.

Between us we had three boats, two canoes and one kayak. We even managed to get our dog Carson into a canoe and were pleased to discover that he was a mellow pooch in the boat.

It’s such a lovely experience to paddle a boat on a quiet High Sierra Lake. It’s not a big lake. I logged 1.4 miles paddling around the perimeter. A peaceful and relaxing paddle. At one point we poked our boats up into the creek that feeds the lake and got a sense of white-water paddling. We were here mid-week arriving on Wednesday and leaving on Friday and we were surprised at how many people were here. This is a popular place for fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities. I would imagine the weekend would find the campgrounds full and parking for fishing and hiking scarce.

Ice Cream Paddle

The Lopez Island BASK (Bay Area Sea Kayakers) trip is a biennial event, with the exception of a break during the Covid pandemic. We spent a week camping at Spencer Spit Campground and over the course of the week we did a number of day paddles. One of the traditions is to paddle over to Blakely Island for ice cream. So today is our ice cream paddle. There were 11 of us on the beach at Spencer Spit ready to launch at 9 am. We had clear skies and no wind, a marvelous start for the day. We paddled out to Frost Island and then set a course for Bald Bluff with the intention of minimizing our time crossing the ferry route.

We kept a keen eye out for ferry traffic as well as other boating traffic as we made our crossing. Once we were across, we paddled just far enough offshore to stay out of any eddies and to take advantage of the current.

We landed on the beach at the Blakely Marina at 10:30, too early for lunch but not too early for ice cream.

We took our time eating ice cream and lunch and waiting for the current to change so that we could enjoy an easy paddle back. You can see the 11 of us in the photo below. Once we were back in the boats we poked our noses out into Peavine Pass, where the current was running strong, and made a quick turn to enter the “express” lane for a fast ride. On the return trip we held up for ferry traffic to pass with ferries going both directions.

We were back on the beach at Spencer Point a little after 2 pm. We logged 9.4 miles on the day’s paddle. An excellent outing with a fun group of friends.

Lopez Island: Makaye

This is day four for us on our Lopez Island adventure. Today we met with a few of our fellow kayaking club members (BASK, Bay Area Sea Kayakers) at the Makaye Harbor Boat ramp for a paddle around the southern points of the island.

From the boat ramp we headed south and around Iceberg Point, noodling along the coast, paddling through kelp beds and poking into caves. We conintued to noodle along the coast until we got to Blackie Brady County Park.

There we landed and broke out our lunches. After lunch we were back on the water retracing our route back to our launch site.

Over the course of the day, we logged 11.6 miles, on calm water with very little wind. It was a grand experience paddling along the rugged coast where one can imagine what the currents and water conditions might be like in less favorable conditions. We even saw a Bald Eagle sitting on a rock close to where we were paddling. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough with my camera to capture the magnificent bird.

Over the Mountain

June 4. Grandma and Grandpa are on the road, heading over the mountains to spend a week in the Eastern Sierra. Three of us, my wife Joann, Carson our dog and me. We planned to make the trip over the mountains a two-day outing since we often look for the road less traveled and we like to take our time to view the sights.

Our route over the mountains took us up Highway 50. By mid-afternoon we started looking for a campsite along the South Fork of the American River. At 4:30 we popped up the camper top at a site in the Sand Flat Campground. The river was a raging torrent with all the snow melt. I was eager to try some new tricks I had learned with my iPhone, so I started experimenting with the long exposure option on the Live View. This prompted me to get out the big camera and tripod to take advantage of the overcast sky and the soft light to capture some more intentional images.

The next morning be broke camp and headed over the mountains, making a stop on Highway 89 to admire the view over the Walker River Valley and the mountains to the east. By noon we were in little town of Walker and the Walker Burger restaurant looked quite inviting. We split burger and fries.

Then it was on to Bishop to rendezvous with family. We wanted to be in Bishop to see our granddaughter graduate from preschool.

Out the Gate

10 of us, members of BASK (Bay Area Sea Kayakers), met at the boat ramp at Horseshoe Bay near the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. The plan was to paddle out under the Golden Gate Bridge, along the shore and then to cross over to the south side for lunch at China Beach. Our adventure started with a safety talk where we reviewed our plan and checked our radios. We were on the water at 11 AM. There was a tongue of fog lingering under the bridge, but that just added to the sense of adventure.

As we passed Lime Point and headed under the bridge a swirl of water caught me and tried to spin me around, but I had been watching the water and corrected my course. The active water just adds to the fun. Then it was out along the shore towards Point Diablo.

Before crossing to the south side one of our members contacted Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) to make sure we would be clear of any shipping traffic. With no anticipated ship traffic, we gathered in a tight pod to cross the shipping channel. As we entered the more exposed water, we started to feel the swell moving us up and down. There was enough wave action to so that boats on the opposite side of a wave would disappear out of sight, and the waves seemed to be a bit steep, perhaps due to the wind and the current coming from opposing directions.

The current was apparently taking us further out the gate then we had planned, and we had a couple of paddlers experience some sea sickness. One has to temper the current predictions with the fact that this year there is a tremendous amount water coming down the river into San Francisco Bay. This accentuates the ebb. We put two boats on tow lines to move things along. It was a workout making way to China Beach. It was 2 PM when we landed on the beach for lunch.

After a quick lunch we were back on the water heading for the south tower of the bridge. We gathered up in the calm water of an eddy behind the tower. There we contacted VTS again and learned that a container ship was approaching the bridge. We held up for the ship to pass. Then we put our paddles in the water to get across the shipping channel. As the ship passed, we were met with the wake, a steep wave. Punching through the wake felt like punching through surf. Having crossed the bay again we headed for our launch site. Once we were back on the beach, we all agreed that it was an epic adventure. We logged 12.5 miles. More photos are available in an online gallery.

Ansel Adams at the de Young Museum

In the summer of 1980, I had to opportunity to participate in the last photography workshop Ansel Adams taught in Yosemite. Needless to say that was a key steppingstone in the path that led to where I am today. So, when I saw the announcement that the show Ansel Adams in Our Time was up at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, I put a date on my calendar.

This turned out to be quite an extensive exhibit with over 100 of Adam’s prints. It also includes the work of others 19th-century landscape photographers, such as Carleton Watkins and Eadweard Muybridge, and contemporary artists like Trevor Paglen, Will Wilson, and Catherine Opie. It is interesting to see how contemporary artists treat some of the grand landscapes of Yosemite. We spent a good 2 1/2 hours in the exhibit, and that didn’t even seem like enough. The exhibit goes through July 23. Well worth the visit.

Back from Baja

We arrived home on the afternoon of March 28 having logged 3012 miles over the course of 23 days: three of us, Joann, myself and our dog Carson. We were a little concerned about taking the dog, but Baja turned out to be quite dog friendly. Along the way we had some amazing adventures which I will share in the days ahead as I sort through the many photos I captured.

Before we could obtain our Mexican Tourist Cards (FMM) we had to make a stop in San Diego to renew our passports. If you are planning on traveling to Mexico, check your passport. You need to have at least three months on your passport to apply for an FMM. We discovered this just a few weeks before our trip and we had to scramble to get our passports renewed.

On the trip south we decided to take a quick detour to Anza Borrego to check out the wildflowers. We were not disappointed.

Our traveling rig consists of a Fourwheel Pop-Up Camper on a Toyota Tacoma. The camper is outfitted with a refrigerator, heater and cook top. There is no toilet or shower on board, but we’re comfortable taking a shovel out in the woods (or desert) if we are boondocking or taking advantage of facilities including showers in established campgrounds. We also have the rig set up to carry two kayaks.

For planning, both prior to the trip and on the road, we used the app iOvelander for locating facilities and Maps.Me for route planning. We discovered a hack that let us import the iOverlander pins into Maps.Me, which proved to be quite useful when we were offline without cell phone signal or Wi-Fi. We also found the Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas from Benchmark Maps useful as well as Google Maps, when we had a cell phone signal.

And of course, sharing travel information with fellow travelers is also fun and informative.

Some of the highlights along the trip included a fabulous lunch with a bottle of wine at Encuentro Guadalupe shortly after crossing the border, camping in the cactus gardens near Catavina, and whale watching in San Ignacio Lagoon.

We had our share of fabulous sunsets and sunrises and we managed to get our kayaks on the water at Bahia Conception and Gonzaga Bay.

Over the course of the trip, we spent 23 nights in camper. The southern most point in our trip was Playa Coyote on Bahia Conception. Three weeks is just not enough time to see much of Baja. We’re already thinking about our next trip. On a couple of nights, we were happy to have the camper as protection from fierce winds. Stay tuned. I’ll be sharing more in the days ahead.

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