At the Top of the World

Aka, Harding Icefield in Alaska.

Into the Sunset...

The most Important Choice

The most important career choice you'll make is who you marry. -- Spot on, Sheryl!

Well, I have chosen wisely :)

A Snake in the Hand Is Worth...?

Last weekend at Lassen Volcanic National Park:

"We caught a snake, do you want to see it?" - proudly shouted in my direction four young boys.
"Sure," I responded, "but if you catch a bear, please do not bring it anywhere near me..."

Sunset at Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic National Park

Can you smell the sulphur?

Somobody I Love

Shopping Craze

I must have established a new world record in shopping craze: in just one afternoon I bought 44 items of clothing, 40 for myself and 4 for my prettier half. This is what happens when your Internet doesn't work and there are power cuts all the time!

Mendocino

We almost bought an ocean-front land in this beautiful small community.

Looking at this photo I can't remember why in the end we decided against it.

Morning Mist and Spider Web

The early morning mist in Russian Gulch State Park revealed that we were surrounded by thousands of little spiders, each using a horsetail plant as a base for its web.

Seeing all those webs made me wonder how come spiders don't get entangled in and don't stick to their own webs?

The smart creatures weave their webs using both sticky and non-sticky materials. Typically, the radial threads are non-sticky and spiders make sure to travel on them, carefully avoiding the adhesive spiral threads that catch the prey.

Early morning mist helps visualize spider's web.

Road through Zion

How awesome it is that the color of the road winding through Zion National Park matches the color of the canyon's rocks?

Waterfall at Russian Gulch State Park

Here's another highlight of our recent trip to Mendocino area: a beautiful and surprisingly full-flowing waterfall in Russian Gulch State Park.

Ferns of Van Damme State Park

After tidepooling we went to Van damme State Park were we hiked beautiful Fern Canyon Trail to the Pygmy Forrest.

As the name suggests, the trail was lined with ferns. My favorite fern was northern maidenhair fern (five-fingered fern), which caught my eye due to its unusual curved purple-black stalks and delicate flourescent-green leaves.

Tide Pools at Bruhel Point

Apparently, this last weekend was the lowest tide of the year. What a great timing! Not only we were at the coast but also near one of the best tidepooling locations in California: Bruhel Point north of Mendocino/Fort Bragg.

We had so much fun exploring the tide pools that we must have spent there several hours.

The inventory of sea animals and plants we saw includes: giant green and aggregating sea anemones, purple sea urchins, mussels, clams, abalones, gooseneck and acorn barnacles, sea lettuce, rockweed, bull kelp, sea palm, hermit, kelp and seashore crabs, dead man's fingers, bat and ochre sea stars, sculpins, various specious of snails, and even a baby eel.

Glass Beach and Crabs Eating Fish

On Friday evening we visited Fort Bragg's famous "Glass Beach." The beach itself hasn't impressed us much but we had lots of fun watching colorful crabs catch and eat fish stuck in the tide pools.

MacKerricher State Park

Last Friday we went camping in MacKerricher State Park.

Even though the campground was full, as soon as we embarked on a 10-mile-long hike along the beach, we haven't met any other people. Instead we saw lots of seals, sea lions, whales, endangered snow plowers, ospreys, as well as miles of ocean, empty beach and dunes. That's what I call perfect holidays :)