Fishy Business

Several weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to receive a brief visit from our friend Jim (Hannah's penpal Savannah's Dad). He and Daniel decided to take a hiking/fishing trip to a place called Red Mountain Lake, which is about two-and-a-half hours northeastish of here. We're not sure of the exact mountain range, but it was near the Sawtooth Mountains (if that helps!). I thought you might like to see a few more reasons why I love this part of the world so much...

Apparently there was some fishing for trout involved. I can only imagine that I would have been too distracted by the scenery to concentrate on flinging a fly onto the lake.

Here's Jim. I doubt he stopped grinning the entire time he was here.

And here's Daniel. Not the most flattering photo of him I've ever seen, but check out the scenery!

San Francisco Getaway

I have to start this blog somewhere, and San Francisco seems as good a place as any! Daniel was working out near the city for a month, and so we decided I would fly out and join him for the Labor day long weekend, which also happened to be his birthday weekend (September 6 was the big day). We had a free hotel and access to a rental car, thanks to his employers, and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

We started our adventures out of the city proper, with a visit to Muir Woods. Muir Woods is a stand of coastal Redwood trees that has never been logged and is named after one of the country's founding environmentalists, John Muir, who was also instrumental in establishing many of the west coast's national parks. They are not the fabled ginormous redwood trees you may have heard about, and they don't beat WA's Tinglewood trees, but they are impressive nonetheless.

Once we had walked about a mile through the crowds and left them behind, we found out what these huge trees are all about: silence. Trees this big seem to demand that you keep your mouth closed.

Of course, a trip to SanFrancisco wouldn't be complete without a trolley ride - which we duly did. Spent most of our 45 minute wait for a ride talking to a couple from Melbourne. It's always a little disconcerting to meet Aussie tourists when I am not one myself. They were planning to travel all over the west coast of the country, having already seen the east coast on a previous trip. Daniel has a saying, and I think he's right: "West is Best"... with the exception of Southern California. I'd be quite happy if it fell into the ocean and took all that awful Hollywood rubbish with it.

We caught the trolley down to the harbour, and made the mistake of catching it back, too (another 45 minute wait). It was fun, but I don't feel any desparate need to catch one again.

San Francisco Bay is really quite lovely, for all that it is shrouded in mist most of the time. At least, it's lovely in the downtown area. Further up the bay it's a mass of oil refineries and associated heavy industry (which is why Daniel was there and why I got to take the trip so I can't complain too loudly).

Another "must-see" on the list for any visitor to San Francisco is, of course, the Golden Gate Bridge. We rented bikes and rode around the bay to see it. Fortunately for us, the mist cleared while we were being distracted by a fort at the base of the bridge, so we got a very clear view. The first photo is the view from the fishing harbour before we rode our bikes around.

It was pretty windy on top of the bridge, as the above photo shows. Windy enough, in fact, that yours truly scarpered off it as quickly as she could! It was also ridiculously crowded, and I didn't like the idea of riding a bike so close to all the traffic.

Daniel took this really interesting photo of the fort. It was built, I think, in the early 1900s and is now a museum. I really like the hall of mirrors effect. I swear there is no photographic trickery involved! We don't know enough about our camera for that...

On our way back from the bridge, I spotted a really interesting dome sprouting up amongst all the (weird and amazing) houses. We tootled over for a look and it turns out it was a place called the Palace of Fine Arts. It's a folly of the kind they built a lot during the Victorian era. It was a little neglected, so of course I immediately wanted to restore it to its former glory (anybody have a few million to spare?). I was most surprised to discover it was built in the 1960s.

We stumbled across another interesting thing while we were down at the fishing harbour after our visit to the bridge (we were looking for fish and chips). It's a place called Musee de Mecanique, and it is a museum dedicated to arcade games. Most of them dated from the 1800s and all are in working order, so you could pay your 25 cents to see them work. It was actually a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. Daniel got a glimpse of his future with this one...

This is Dan the Drinker. For 25 cents you can watch him take a drink (I suspect he's on the road to wrack and ruin).

I got my future told by this lovely lady... and no, I'm not about to be a millionaire.

So there you have it. My first ever post, and it covered something that is about as far from Idaho as you can get! We had a lot of fun, but I bet I'd explode if I had to live there - too crowded and not enough trees for me.

I will leave you with a sunset over the bay, courtesy of Daniel....