LAST MORNING WALK OF 2024

 It was a beautiful last morning walk of 2024.  The clouds cleared away to reveal a beautiful sunrise.  

Good-bye 2024!  It was fun.

It's been windy lately.  There are several trees down in Lincoln Park.  This one is across the main Bluff Trail.

Do I go under or around?

I MADE A WHY

 I watched Joe's Quilt Freedom Workshop this morning.

And while I did, I worked on my Maybe.

I made the Y.

We went for a walk in Lincoln Park this morning.  It was very windy!

AUTUMN HAS ARRIVED

 The rains have come, bringing their friend the wind.  And the colors are spectacular!

FRIDAY MORNING

 We went for a walk in Lincoln Park this morning.  I was pleasantly surprised that I felt as good as I did.  I slept well after my ordeal yesterday.

I love walking in the fall - the beautiful autumn colors and kicking through the fallen leaves.

Afterwards, we went to PCC in the Admiralty District for breakfast.  It was a bit disappointing.

SPRUCE RAILROAD TRAIL

 We headed up to Port Angeles yesterday where we spent the night. 

We had a nice breakfast at Shirley's, which is completely packed with collectibles - license plates from everywhere, photos and memorabilia.  Plus it was decorated for Halloween.

 After breakfast, we drove west towards Lake Crescent.  

We went for a walk on the Spruce Railroad Trail in the Olympic National Park.  It was raining when we started out, but the rains receded a bit after a while. It is a Rain Forest afterall.

Coltsfoot

The lake's water is this very interesting blue color, apparently because of low nitrogen levels which inhibits the growth of algae.

A Rough-skinned Newt - they have a bright orange belly, which this one didn't show us.  Also, don't touch - their skin secrets a toxin.  Yuck.

Then we drove back into Port Angeles so we could stop at the Ranger Station and get our Passport Stamp.

Then it was time to head home.

DAY TWO OF SKETCH TO STITCH

 I woke up early and drove up to Ebey Landing Pratt Reserve and went for a great morning walk.

So beautiful.

Back to work, I started on the very small piecing of my drawing, making very little progress - it's all so fussy.  I feel like I'm unsewing and redoing every seam. 

After class, we were all invited to a potluck dinner at the rental home where three of the participants were staying.  One of them had brought crab cakes that she had made along with berry crumble and ice cream for dessert.  It was wonderful and very nice to spend some time with the other quilters.

JELLY'S PORTRAIT

I've been taking Jelly's portrait on her birthday every year in the same place in Lincoln Park.

But, unfortunately, they've torn down the wall I would place her on.

So, we found a different place in the park.

Jelly - age 9

Also on our morning walk, we saw a Barred Owl - the crows pointed him out.

LAST DAY OF 2023

 It was a beautiful morning for a walk in Lincoln Park.

Good bye 2023.

WILL ROGERS STATE PARK

 First thing this morning we left Santa Clarita and headed to Will Rogers State Park for our morning walk in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Of course, as our luck would have it, the house tour at the park was not open on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.  But, there are great trails to walk, which was obvious, by all the locals that were taking their morning walks here, too.

We walked up a trail called 'Inspiration Point' which wound around up to a lookout point where we could see the surrounding area and out to the ocean.  There were lots of wild flowers, shrubs and birds.  The weather was perfect, but cloudy with marine air.  I like it.

I was fascinated by these beautifully symmetrical flowers? weeds? seeds?

When we got back to the pickup, we notice something hanging down underneath.  It was some kind of shroud.  Darrell was able to get underneath and unscrew the last screw holding in place, it was hand tight.  We called the local Chevrolet dealer and headed to Van Nuys.  We had 10:30 tickets for The Getty, but, we were not going to be able to make it there unfortunately. 

 The Van Nuys dealer wouldn't honor the work done at our Chev dealer and wanted $80 or something to put the other screws back in place.  They said there were no other problems and we could leave it off until we get home.  Which we did and went on our way.  Next stop Pasadena.

INTO SAN FRANCISCO

 We spent the night in Santa Rosa, got up early and headed into San Francisco.  Of course, it was foggy on the bay.

We stopped in Golden Gate Park for a walk.  We went straight to Stowe Lake and walked up to the top of the hill on the lake's island.  We've done this almost every time we've visited.

Then we looked on Yelp for a good breakfast place and headed there.  When we got to where it sent us, it wasn't what we were expecting, but down the street a few doors was a very nice little place.  The menu outside looked very promising.  So, we lucked into another great place.  They make their own breads, including English Muffin (my fav).  So, I indulged in one with homemade pear jam along with my yummy scramble.  It is LaLe at 731 Irving Street.  If in town, check it out!

After breakfast, we stopped at Haight & Ashbury.

Next stop was the Palace of Fine Arts. 

Then it was on to another National Park site, Fort Point, which is located under the Golden Gate Bridge.  It's a very interesting place.  There was a Spanish Castillo built on this site in 1794.  Americans took it in 1846 and started building the current structure in 1853.  It housed many cannons to protect the opening of SF Bay.  

Looking out thru a cannon porthole.

We headed out of San Francisco, across the bay to Fremont, where Darrell met up with one of his buddies.  We visited with them for a while, getting a tour of his woodshop and garden.

We spent the night in Newark.