Blessed New Year!

Day 2: As close as I could get to hugging this tree in Arizona.

I hope you all had a joyous Christmas and wish you a blessed New Year.  2014!  Honestly, I do believe time flies faster as the years go by.  Come this March Ken and I will have been married for 30 years!  The last of our babies have graduated from college.  It has been a great ride so far.  My dear, sweet, ever-so-thoughtful, beloved husband decided last summer that he would arrange an anniversary trip for the two of us over our Christmas break.  Whisking me off to my favorite place on earth in the mountains of Oregon we embarked on a wonderful adventure together.

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A glimpse of our $44 dollar room in Vallejo, CA- it even had a balcony.

We usually just "wing it" on our trips, but Ken had our stops planned along the way.  And this budget conscious girl was very proud of her man- the deals he found for our accomodations were incredible.  I was a little disappointed at first that he had our journey take us California for a few days- I heard Union Creek, OR and that was all I wanted to do.  Here is a tip for you, though I share reluctantly for I do not want to ruin the wonder of empty beaches and low cost accomodations, but over Christmas is a wonderful time to travel.  (well, it is when the weather cooperates anyway.)  While we had our coldest night in Flaggstaff with 14 degrees-by the time we hit California it was in the 60's during the day along the coast.  

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School House Beach- Photo by Deb Davis 2014

We enjoyed several strolls along the Sonoma Beaches- with whales, and sea lions, and all kinds of birds.  I even made my first sighting of tufted puffins, alas not close enough for a good photo though.

Below are just a few of the sights we saw while in California

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Point Arena Lighthouse-©Deb Davis 2014

Point Cabrillo Light Station

I have to tell you this next set of photos was a wonderful find.  A little winding road-did I say winding?  Well, let's just say it was a good thing we were in the Mini Cooper-not a road for the faint of heart, but the views...spectacular.  We had a lovely visit with a young man while watching some surfers-he was a dad of two young children, a subaru driver, a surfer, and a meteorologist.  He was packed full of great information that he shared with us in an engaging way.  We learned a lot about wave action and could have stayed and visited with him all day.  The waves in these photos were running 16-20ft by the way.  They came in "sets."  For 20-30 minutes or so they would crash against the shore and then the ocean would become completely still-just little ripples moving in.  A few minutes later the whole show would resume again.  We had never encountered that before.

Luffenholtz Creek Access

Lady Bird Johnson Grove-Redwood Natl Park

We closed out our time in California with a lovely meal on the harbor in Crescent City.  These are photos of the things that captured our attention and made it hard to leave, inlcuding another birding first for me: a pacific loon, one of four I saw on this trip.

From the window of the restaurant...

Next up- the Oregon part of our trip.

Happy Trails!
Deb