The art of Drakes Beach

I thought this photo looked like a painting, so I helped it out with a little filter.

Sunday bird blogging

A pair of gulls hanging out on Drakes Beach.

Drakes Beach

I haven't taken many pictures in Berkeley, and haven't processed most of those I did take, but here are a few from our excursion to Point Reyes on Friday.

Drakes Beach is backed by steep sandstone cliffs, which the wind and water have sculpted into beautiful patterns. The winds were on display Friday, and I could only stand to walk on the beach for maybe twenty minutes, but it was worth being in the grindstone of the flung sand and water to be able to breathe in that fresh air.

Back to the Bay Area

I'm leaving tomorrow, for a brief stop in Reno and then on to Berkeley. So I want to post these pictures from last year's trip before I start collecting new ones: the view from Mount Tam and some nearby wildflowers, and the always amazing view from Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley.

The cat is apparently alive

I went looking for water pictures and found this from Berkeley in April. A long way from the Mediterrean but peaceful water views have always been the thing I enjoyed most about ship travels.

I'm flying to Heathrow tonight, and on to Athens tomorrow afternoon. I have a pre-cruise tour of Classical Greek sites, and the cruise proper leaves on Friday.

I guess we're really doing this.

Cerca del océano pacífico

One more picture of the view from the cliffs in Lima—the little black specks in the water are surfers. Surfing is very popular there. And a wiggly sort of tree that caught my eye nearby.

Sunday bird blogging

Peruvian pelicans outside the fish market in Chorrillos, south of Lima.

Views from the parks

I loved the cliffs winding along the coast. I never did go down to the actual beach; by the time I found the stairs that led down to the water I was too tired to think about climbing back up again. Maybe when I come back to Lima after the tour.

Parque Chino

This is one of a series of parks on the cliffs above the ocean.

View from the mountains

That's the Pacific Ocean, seen from the terrace here.

I sprang for a transfer to the hotel and had a driver pick me up in San José because I didn't want to have to try to figure out how to get here on my own. And though we did drive along the coast briefly after leaving the Central Valley, we soon turned east towards the mountains and spent two hours on narrow winding two-lane roads going up, up, up. I wish I had been able to take some pictures along the way—there were fields full of white Brahmin cattle, river gorges so deep and thickly forested you couldn't see the actual rivers, and a string of towns that seemed to consist of only a church and a couple of houses.

It felt as though we had left the ocean far behind and below us, so this view was a surprise.

Saturday reflections

It's obviously a stretch to call this a reflection picture—a few faint clouds and two silhouettes in the water do not really qualify. But I'm in the middle of a take-home midterm this weekend and don't have time to look for something better.

These are the ruins of Sutro Baths, by Ocean Beach in San Francisco. The baths burned down in the Sixties, but I remember visiting when we were having special occasion meals at the Cliff House next door. There was a skating rink, and for some reason a mummy in a glass case, which I found both fascinating and terrifying. I never even realized there were actual baths there until after it had burned down and the ruins of the pools were exposed. We used to climb all over the ruins and the hills above when I was in high school; like so much else in San Francisco they've now been cleaned up and there are beautiful trails over the hills where we used to skid around on the bare rocks.

View from the bluffs

After Fisherman's Wharf, I just kept going. I'd also seen paths along the bluffs from the bus, and though it had been quite gray and chilly that morning, it had warmed up enough to make the idea of a walk near the ocean appealing.

Vancouver Island is the largest island on the West Coast of the Americas, more than 12,000 square miles, so I've only seen a tiny piece of it. Victoria is at the southern tip, just across the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Washington State; you can see the mountains in Washington across the water from these bluffs and ferries go back and forth to Seattle.

I'd thought I might get back on a bus if one came by, but ended up walking all the way back to downtown. The Pacific Coast will always feel like home to me, and I like it better if it's not too warm, so those ocean breezes were a perfect tonic.

Coast after the rains

Pacific coasts

The runoff from the recent heavy rains has carved new channels in these beaches near Half Moon Bay, rivers and streams running parallel to the waves before finally finding a way to join the ocean.

The ends of the earth

This may not seem like the most exciting picture I've ever posted, although those clouds are pretty impressive.

But this is the view from my hotel room in Punta Arenas, looking out at the Straits of Magellan, where the Atlantic meets the Pacific. This is the end of mainland South America, although the islands of Tierra del Fuego -- you can see them on the other side of the water -- extend south for a couple hundred miles to Cape Horn. This is not a part of the world I ever expected to see, and maybe that's why just the names -- Straits of Magellan, Tierra del Fuego -- make me feel like I'm in a history book come to life.

It's not a comfortable location to walk around in. It's sunny and warm but very, very windy, and I kept taking off my jacket because I was too hot, only to have the winds start up again and cut me to the bone. Fortunately I've already seen most of what there is to see here, so now I can stay inside until we leave for the Falklands and then Antarctica early tomorrow.

After today I have no internet until I'm back here at the end of the month, though I may queue up a few pictures to run while I'm offline if I have time.

Sunday bird blogging

Okay, the bird isn't exactly the focus of this picture, taken at Stinson Beach on Friday. Blue sky and blue waves going on forever, some rocky headland and a bird.

It's too small to identify, but I'm thinking some kind of sandpiper

Cool reflections

Jayne on the beach.

More driftwood shots

Morning at sea

I meant to lie down for just a few minutes last night, but I slept through dinner. And then slept through the night.

I finally woke up around five, and went up to the ship's lounge for coffee around five-thirty. We were anchored off the coast of Espanola, and the crew was already preparing for the morning's expeditions.

At the equator, the sun rises at six and sets at six without much variation all year round, so I didn't have to wait long for the sunrise.