Zion National Park

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Happy Birthday Charlotte!!

Happy 58th Birthday Girl! Thanks for the Dinner out John!

(Charlotte, you hardly look a day older than this picture that I took in January of 2004 when you came to visit us in Portland.)

NAPA 2

Napa 1

Pictures I Want to Remember From the Napa Valley

See below for picture explanation.

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Carol and I stopped here in Yountville because we used to come here all the time for various functions, including their once a year Fall Festival of some sort. This is where I waited in line, for the bathroom, just behind Dennis Franz, who played a couple of different characters in Hill Street Blues. I personally did not watch the program but I am sure some of you were avid fans.

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They still have one store that sells magnificent art glass but it is so expensive that I hated to even go near it in fear of breaking something. This particular stain glass/leaded piece is actually built into the high walls separating different shops from each other.

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I like the symetry of this picture, plus if I ever need to know I click on the picture and find out that the elevation is: 105 feet above sea level and that it is 64 miles from San Francisco.

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I like to take flag pictures as well as fodor for an occasional flag warm glass piece. This one turned out kind of cool with the sun symetrical to the the shape of the flag. (Actually there was a bit of photoshop cropping done as well.)

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Another great symetry picture that I actually took on the main street of St Helena. We got out of the crazy traffic going north - all of the winery traffic ends up going down Main Street of this town - and enjoyed the ambiance of this little berg.

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The Napa River Front development is very well done. It has a beautiful mosaic in a public area attached to a fountain. The mosaic itself is two levels and probably has a surface area of over 300 feet. It is very well done.

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I cannot remember how many time we would refer Napa Pipe as the "Napa Mill." This signage is now connected to the Riverfront development. I thought this picture was kind of cool so I included it in my post.

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If you are a Napa trivia buff, you probably know that the Motorola Loudspeaker was invented in this city by two gentlemen in the year 1915. See below for the specific information.

Castello di Amorosa - A New Winery Near Calistoga

Near Calistoga, the man that owns V Santui built this winery using castle architecture. I believe that it took approximately 15 years to build. We decided to bypass the tour as it was somewhat expensive, although the price included a wine tasting.

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I liked this shot of the castle from the inside court yard. It has a pretty symetry.

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A view of the grapes behind the castle - most of the dramatic panoramic shots of the valley view are the opposite direction. This shot was interesting to me however.

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Ever wonder what a complete, practically new wine barrel would cost you? $45.00 at this winery. I think you could make a really cool dog house out of one if the dog could stand the smell of it all.

Golf & Dinner With Pete & Carol

Pete and I went golfing at Kennedy GC in Napa. Master chef, I mean Head Pro Tom from Hiddenbrooke was there running the show and cooking burgers. Pete & I had to stop after 9-holes and buy more balls - that is pretty descriptive of our present day golf skills.

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I took a picture of Pete & I on the top of Pete's shiny titanium driver. He walked away in disgust after I teased him that I have seen outdoor movie theatre screens smaller than his driving head. He started driving pretty well on the 7th or 8th hole and his mood improved from a 3-4 to about a 7-8.

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Pete, cooperating with my attempting to make a unique golf club portrait, prior to my disparaging remarks on how big his driving head was.

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Pete and Carol had us over for dinner. Thanks you two, it was a lovely evening! They have been doing a lot of traveling and it was fun talking to them about some of the places they have been that we have yet to see.

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Fishing & Dinner With Steve & Linda

It has been way too long since getting together with our old Napa friends Steve and Linda - we always have very animated and interesting conversations. I took a picture upon departure, then Steve took a picture - the only difference is that I remembered to suck in my stomach and Steve forgot. (Steve, I edited the worst of the bulge out with the white vignette.)

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Our ladies look marvelous... as usual. Thanks for the very nice fishing and dinner date Steve & Linda. Good luck on your 100 mile bike ride coming up Linda. Have fun in Costa Rica with Heinz Steve, catch a couple of bigguns. Send pictures of some poisonous frogs - better yet, bring a few home in your underwear!

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We spent quite a few hours going over Steve's exhaustive rock collection. As I recall, he has thousands of collectable, little light brown rocks - shown above held down by those big ones that he found laying around in different places he has been. I was not paying that much attention to the rocks as he has a really neat collection of poisonous frogs hopping around in the corner of his back yard. Did you know that some of the frogs he has collected can immobilize a very large dog just by thinking about walking on a leaf which falls into the dog's water bowl. Anyway, pretty cool stuff if you ask me.

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Steve caught a 19-inch striped bass - which was the only keeper out of the 20+ that we caught due to the limit being 18 inches. (We were catch & release so we did not keep it.) Steve showed me many parts of the Napa River and associated wild refuge areas that hardly any people ever get to see. It was a great morning of fishing and touring.

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The magic fly from Martinez - the Fly Tie Capitol of the World - that catches all of Steve's biggest fish. I only lost one of them.

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If you are an avid bird watcher, enlarge this image look at the specks in the air. Those are some kind of really rare birds - we saw as many as 4 of them flying at once. It was pretty cool to see 4 rare birds flying at once, I wish I could remember what they were since they are so rare.

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The Napa River Bayou - we saw some Sea Otters in this area. We also saw some rare white looking birds - for the life of me I cannot remember the name of them.

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We drove by the old Napa Pipe Mill and Steve pointed out an Osprey nest in the wires in the old crane on the dock. He is going to put a live video camera overlooking the nest so that all of the world can enjoy the generations of birds that will no doubt be raised there.

Some Sunday Fun In & Around Petaluma

Drive through Petaluma about 10-miles, turn when you see a sign for a town called Nicasio. Go there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon when the Tommy Castro Band is playing. (Do not eat lunch until you get there: order the pulled pork - eat in the sunshine or the shade - your choice.) Get excited as the Stone River Boys warm you up..

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The Tommy Castro Band

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What a great countryside beautiful venue, what a great weather day.

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Doug & Carol

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Charlotte & John

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End the day by driving backwards into Petaluma. Enjoy the rock-a-billy band Mother Truckers, From Austin, Texas - who happen to be going to Europe to end their "Van Tour". They are playing on September 18th at the "Blues Garage" in Ishernhagen, Germany. Do not miss it if you like loud, hard Rock. (It is a bit of a drive if you happen to live near Kaiserslautern, 486 kilometers. Ishernhagen is near Denmark, in northern Germany, where they happen to be finishing their tour.)

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A Day in the City of San Francisco

A trip to the City of San Francisco via the Ferry from Vallejo. One of my favorite things to do in the whole wide world.

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Carol likes to read the paper, especially the Food & Wine section. I get bored after the Business section is scanned - prefer to people watch. Lots of people using their smart phone to tether to the intranet on their computers. The ferry would be a great way to commute.

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I just cannot get over all of the wonderful architechtural details in the City. I keep taking pictures of features that I want to remember.

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We walked by the Club Fugazi on the way to Pier 39 from Lombard. It is still there and looking like fun. It has been only a couple of years since we last saw it so we are going to "Wicked" instead.

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A view of the City, Coit Tower in the background, from one of the many high spots.

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The famous view from the top of the Crooked Street.

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This is a world record for me... Note that the parking cost is quoted in 20-minute intervals. Is there no end to the gouging of humanity? Oh boy, am I becoming ever intolerant in my old age;)

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A very pretty ceiling in one of the indoor malls that happened to have one of Erica's favorite Spanish shops in it. Cannot remember the name of it though.

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I met a couple of work buddies down at China Town.

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Carol found a restaurant that I wanted to try again for lunch. I think that this is the second time I had their white rice chicken kun pao. The soup was not that great but the kun pao was good.

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We skipped the Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista as we were still full

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We stopped at the Ghiro for their daily, one-time-only please, free sample. Today we had milk chocolate with yummy runny caramel in the center.

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Please please please... someone wake me up when a tourist group of beautiful blonds from Sweden decide to take pictures sitting next to me. I gues he was taking a break from his good book by Mark Mazower.