San Francisco drive-by....

i'm going to call it a drive-by because we didn't get out of the car much in our short visit to San Francisco. I loved this city, it's cool quotient is off the charts!

healthy spirits indeed..

bar hopping with someone who doesn't drink is kinda difficult so I was greatful for this brief stop at the Wild Side West bar in Bernal Heights .... grls on the wall

market flowers

more signage

this one is for my kiddo

building art

on The Embarcadero we found many cyclists and Alcatraz but no cheap seafood

we were directed to breakfast options on the street over from our hotel, and it turned out that this was THE street for commerce, and even more signage!

we went down Lombard St., known as the "crookedest street in the world" because of it's eight sharp turns on a 40-degree slope! kinda hard to shoot from the window..this is what I got

city,city,city

the Bay Bridge from downtown

green building

the Golden Gate Bridge from Crissy Field, portent of the fog we will soon encounter in the background

leaving San Francisco...

hitting the coast!

We left Upland in the wee hours, to avoid traffic thru Los Angeles. We had a campsite reserved a little north of Monterey, so we got on the 1 at Santa Monica and began our 4 day journey up the Pacific Coast Highway.

after two weeks in the dry heat, it was quite a shock to get to the beach and find it too chilly.

the brown pelicans that I enjoy watching so so much

the PCH

we saw this pretty "beach grass" all along the coast

in Monterey someone pasted the pages of Steinbecks "Cannery Row" on the seawall



Zion National Park, Utah

more red rock! we drove thru this park, stopped in at the visitor center, took a dip in the North Fork Virgin River and headed on to Upland, CA. Spring thru fall, Zion Canyon Scenic drive is only accessible via shuttle buses, so we didn't see many of the "features" but the drive was nice.

The Checkerboard Mesa is pretty wild. found this on Wiki...The Navajo Sandstone is a geographically widespread, pale tan to red cliff and monolith with very obvious sand dune cross-bedding patterns. The sandstone crumbles easily and is very porous. Cross-bedding is especially evident where Jurassic wind directions changed often. The crosshatched appearance of Checkerboard Mesa is a good example.

There's a cool "one way only" tunnel at the East entrance of the park, it's pretty long and dark! While driving thru you get brief glimpses of the canyon thru these tiny "windows".

crazy lines in this park

a hawk on the wind

a little more Grand Canyon

so while I was building sculptures and talking to the campground birds, Gina went for a hike into the canyon.

this photo was taken at 10 am

the trail...



not sure about this one,

on to the Grand Canyon

The sunrise was beautiful at Lake Powell, we went swimming before 10 am, the water was nice

while we were walking on this bridge just before entering Grand Canyon NP, we heard Anna Pigeon say that the temps at the North Rim were way cooler.....oh yeah uh huh!

I was beginning to get weary at this point, not enough showering, not enough real bed ...I honestly felt like watching tv. Campsite at the North Rim..

eat..

 Anyway we were at the Grand Canyon! I went for a short hike with Gina on the first day there and saw the crack, it was really hazy out and somewhat lackluster!

I got up early on the second day hoping for better light and encountereed a deer who was not much scared of my presence...the light was still not great

the white-tailed squirrel was always in my peripheral vision

my love got red dirt pores at the Grand Canyon and I built a sculpture I call "the north rim"