Tag Archives: flora

Monday, June 15

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If I count days from May 5, when we landed at Heathrow, today is day 42 of our trip. (Obviously if I count from May 4, when we left SFO, it’s day 43. I’m going to bet readers could figure that out too. We are all so smart that way.)

I have to acknowledge that we are a people of privilege: so many can’t manage to do a trip like this. So I must remember to be very grateful. I also have to realize that any trip could our last, as we never know what the next day will bring. So again, I’m grateful.

Acknowledgement over ‘n out. But gratefulness is not over ‘n out. Ever.

Once we were dressed we went upstairs to get our coffees. We won’t pay £17 each for a breakfast here, but the coffee is free all day so that was fine by us. We made them (just one of those automatic machines) and took them back to the room with us as we figured out what we were doing.

Once coffee was done and we’d decided on our agenda we headed out. Dan suggested we grab breakfast nearby, so we did that first. Nothing close to £24!

Then it was over to the tube where we went, with one change, all the way to Richmond to visit Kew Gardens. And yes, Dan figured out the directions. Whew!

The Kew Gardens are huge. We obviously couldn’t see everything there, but we did see quite a bit. We went into most, if not all, of the houses … from tropical (so humid) to desert, and in between. The plant life at the garden is pretty amazing. (But their roses aren’t nearly as wonderful as what I find in San Jose, I must say!) We wandered and wandered. At one point we headed toward the “Redwood Grove”. What we found was one redwood (I think Dan said it was a coastal one). That was it! But there were other large-ish trees around. In any case, we spent a whole lot of time at the gardens, and I will just share photos, a video, and leave it at that.

(I’ve now managed to upload more photos and I think that’s enough. No one needs to see all the photos I shoot!)

We did have a nice, inexpensive lunch at the gardens. Exciting, I know.

From there we walked to where a boat would take us all the way to Westminster. It was a nice, relaxing ride, and it felt good to get off our feet for over an hour. We’d never done a Thames boat ride before, and I’m really glad we did this one. I wouldn’t mind taking another going the other direction, but we’ll see if we can fit that in. And yes, more photos without explanation. (I’m feeling tired and feeling a bit discombobulated right now — more on that later.)

Getting off the boat and heading out into the crowds was rather like culture shock. We had been in nature for so many hours and suddenly we could barely move. I’m so glad we aren’t staying anywhere near that area.

It was time for dinner so we went to a pub we’ve now been to twice already. I wanted to be able to go to the bottom floor (two flights down) because I had great memories of eating there on our first trip together to London: that time we met up with Jan and Greg and ate at the same pub! Yummy food was enjoyed.

Then back to the tube for an easy ride and short walk (because we went Dan’s way!) to our hotel.

But now for the tired and discombobulated bit. First of all, we did walk a lot, so of course I’m tired. But when we got back I told Dan I was going to take a shower. I had noticed a paper bath mat sitting on a shelf, but checking the shower floor I thought it wasn’t too slippery. WRONG. I started the shower and almost immediately fell to the floor. That is one dangerous shower. Fortunately nothing was broken and I got that darn paper bath mat and put it on the floor. What a dumb thing, though: it was falling apart by the time I was done showering. I think they should rethink their bath mat idea!

Now it’s time for me to listen to at least one recording I’m to study, and then off to sleepy land.

15,099 steps, 6 miles, 5 flights climbed

Wednesday, Death Valley Trip

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Well gee, let’s wake up even 15 minutes earlier, shall we? Yep … 4:15. Painful for this girl, but so it goes.

We got ready, packed up, and Dan loaded the car. Then off we went. Bye bye Beatty.

First stop: Mesquite Dunes. I was surprised to see tons of brown eyed primrose, and another flower I think is another sort of primrose. It’s always amazing to see what can grow in the dunes. I took some shots of the big picture but even more of flowers with my macro lens.

I tend to run out of steam before Dan, and today was no exception: I headed back to the car long before he did. I got a good amount of reading done.

Once Dan returned we went up a gravel road and set up breakfast. Fighter jets roared above us … so much for a quiet breakfast! I shot a few more photos because why not?!

We went to Stovepipe Wells to see if they had a DEVA wildflower book but found nothing. Books must not be popular for tourists.

Then it was goodbye Death Valley.

We decided to go out a different way. The brittlebush was plentiful.

We made our way to Father Crowley Point, where fighter jets practice above what is called Star Wars Canyon.

I walked around to see if I could find flowers. A higher elevation meant fewer flowers, but I did find some. When I went back to Dan he was chatting with a guy. As we stood the younger man pointed … a jet. It flew right past us! The noise was deafening. Dan may have gotten some good shots. Sadly I was just frozen due to the surprise … really shock! … of it all.

We stuck around a good long time but didn’t get another low flying jet.

Driving on Dan opted to take a dirt road detour on the way to Saline Valley.

There were a lot of Joshua trees, and this one was the first we saw.

More dirt road, another tree, among many …

Back to the main road, highway 190. Soon the Sierra Nevada came in to view.

We drove past Owen’s Lake a the tiny town of Olanche, and started looking for a spot to set up lunch. it wasn’t a tremendously scenic spot, and we opted not to get out our chairs and table, but food was eaten.

Next up was a rather ho-hum under one hour drive to our lodging for the night. Hello Ridgecrest.

But OH! A king-size bed is quite welcome, as was a hot shower and change of clothes. I’m a clean machine.

Then it was feet up (clean feet!) and get this blog entry going.

Finally, it was time for dinner. We had a couple of ideas in mind. The first place we were planning on checking out was a French restaurant called Mon Reve. We got there, walked in to see if there was a menu posted, and … well … never mind! We were seated and that was that. Forget the other choice! The server was also, I’m sure, the owner. He did the serving, and his wife, I believe did the cooking. It was just a lovely spot and we really enjoyed a relaxing, end-of-trip meal. (My meal is pictured: salmon and scalloped potatoes.)

Back to our hotel we went, for some reading and rest.

Tomorrow we are homeward bound, although you never know how many detours we might take.

Goodnight!

Slip Sliding in Sintra

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I had purchased tickets in advance for the Pena Palace and the Moorish Castle and today was “our” day to go. This meant we actually woke earlier than the past two days. After coffee and getting ready we left the hotel, with a bit of time to spare, but not much, to catch our train.

Except I realized, after getting outside, that I forgot the tickets! Yep, crazy me. And we both forgot to lock the safe. So back we went. (Turns out I also had the tickets on my phone and I could have used those, but we DID need to lock the safe, so I’m rather glad I thought about the tickets.)

By the time we got to the train there were no seats available, so we stood for the whole ride. Thankfully it was a smooth ride and aside from the very loud accordion player who blessed us with his music for a while it was just fine.

It was interesting to see other parts of Lisbon. Clearly poorer parts. Tons of buildings that remind me to the projects in the US. Not all is perfect in Portugal, just like any country, I’m sure.

When we arrived in Sintra we stood in line for a shuttle. Or so we thought. Wrong place … we instead had to walk for about an hour to get to the shuttle, as one guy who was trying to get us to hire him to drive us said. But hey, we are fit and can do a walk, right? So we turned him down and started the walk.


And then the rain came … which convinced us rather quickly that we should get an Uber instead. (It’s never a good idea to grab the guys who pursue you at airports and train stations, as we learned once upon a time in Amsterdam. They might scam you.) The Uber driver was quite helpful, pointing out where a trail was for the Moorish Castle, and then he took us to the palace shuttle spot. The line was so long and so slow we eventually decided to walk. Oh, and we bought a couple sandwiches from a vending machine. (After getting into the palace we learned they have cafeterias there. Oops!)

The walk wasn’t bad, but did go uphill a bit. I think this is preparing us for our upcoming walking holiday, though, so I’m sort of fine with uphills. (Downhills, on the other hand, are NOT my friend.)

And the palace! What a crazy place. At times it rained. At times we were in fog. And it was pretty chilly. And windy. Really crazy weather. (We are hoping all the weather we’ve had here means we’ll have less of the crazy stuff when we do the walk.) But back to the palace … it’s just a fascinating place. Photos will show things in bright colors and no discoloring, but the walls are full of various kinds of what I’m assuming is mold or mildew. I even took a few close ups of the stuff.

After finishing with Pena Palace we went back down and found our way to the Moorish Castle.

Part of the walk down was on a trail and the rain meant we had a muddy walk, but we got to our destination and headed in. The first part, going up to the castle, was quite pretty.

The castle itself is in ruins, but is quite impressive. We went up one stairway and were on the top of that side. Even for Dan one area was too windy! We then turned around and saw we could walk from one side of the top of the castle to the other, much higher side. But yours truly couldn’t do it. The wind was simply too much. It felt like it would blow me off the top! So we went down and around to climb the other side. But nope, the wind there go crazy enough I couldn’t go to the top there at all. Dan did go, though, and I am assuming I’ll see his photos at some point. As he was still at the top I went to a place where I’d seen some flowers I wanted to shoot. Then I went further down to find a sunnier, somewhat wind-protected spot and enjoyed myself there. Upon his return we went out of the castle area.

Then we had to hike back down a trail. It was muddy and slippery, and some of the stone stairs were quite awkward. Dan kindly would point out some tricky areas and occasionally helped me get down particularly high and slippery spots. And then Dan slipped, landing on his knee. I’m so grateful nothing was broken, but he was bleeding, and his pants were torn. Darn! Expensive pants, too. But it could have been much, much worse, so we both know he got off pretty much in the best possible way.

The walk down soon got easier, and we ended up going through an area that had identification signs for a lot of the foliage, and there were little waterfalls that we just lovely. As we exited we saw the sign for the place.

Finally we were back in the town. It’s really quite a pretty little place. We treated ourselves to a spot of Ginjinha — they say it’s medicinal, after all! And we saw people going and coming from a particular area so we went to see what that was. Turns out that was the third place I’d considered visiting, Quinta da Regaleira, but I’d not purchased tickets. I’m glad I didn’t: we simply didn’t have the time or energy for it!

We walked back to the train station, enjoying more of Sintra sights.

We arrived to the station a bit too early, but I was fine with sitting and waiting for the train. When it finally arrived we got on quickly, grabbing seats. Hooray! Both of us dozed a bit on the way back to Lisbon, clearly weary after all the walking.

For dinner we went to a place just around the corner. It was clearly a tourist sort of spot, but they had tapas and we were fine with that. Mostly it was nice to be close to the hotel.

As we walked back it started drizzling. I guess we might have to get used to the rain. We bought little desserts to take back to the hotel, and enjoyed them in the quiet of our room.

Tomorrow we head to the next town, so the morning will be a slow one of relaxing and then packing.

Goin’ Home

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Thursday meant we had to head back home. I was sad to leave, but I suppose I’m nearly always sad to head back to the house, even while I think we live in a lovely area. I just enjoy travel so much!

Before going home we did take the June Lake loop. There just wasn’t anything that caused us to stop and pull out the cameras, so one iPhone shot will have to suffice.

We also took a VERY brief detour so Dan could shoot some clouds. I didn’t get my cameras out, but I did shoot a bit with the phone, including a bit of a typo on the sign, as I’m sure you can see.

Then we went over Sonora Pass to get home. We barely stopped, and I only had the phone out for this view.

From there it was only one more stop in the mountains, somewhere near the Dardanelles, and then the obligatory Starbucks gotta-stay-awake bit. Finally, back to the house and back to work.

Wednesday, Continued …

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After spending time in our exciting motel room we went back out to shoot around 4 PM. The first spot was one we planned on returning to when it was a bit later and the light would be better, but still, we stopped and I did a bit of shooting.

As you can see, we had color and we had bare trees. I like ’em both!

At this point I think we ran into Charlotte again … or at least close to this time. She was enjoying some water reflections, I think. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with from her travels!

Then I managed to pull out the macro lens, amazingly enough … but those photos will wait for another time, as I might use them for my “daily flora” photos and I don’t like to post things twice!

But what a wonderful day we had, and it was our last full day in the area. Thursday we packed up, but of course that didn’t mean we didn’t stop anywhere, so I’ll post a wee bit more about that later.

Monday, October 9, 2023

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Okay … we did get up at 5:15. And I didn’t whine. I do believe I deserve an award of some sort. Dan had some motel coffee (yuck), and I was actually ready to go so I didn’t hold him back when he was ready.

We headed to destination number one, a bit near Mono Lake. The trees were lovely. So was the view!

Eventually we headed back down, and we met up with some friends to have lunch. What fun to see them! No photos of us all together, though: guess we aren’t the selfie generation, eh?

We headed out again, and Joe and Velda followed in their own vehicle. We all got out at one lovely spot and I even managed to get a photo of Dan and Joe. (Sorry, Velda … I missed catching you!)

From there we drove on up the road, and I just marveled at the beauty! Took a few photos, too.

From here we said goodby to Velda and Joe and drove elsewhere. Some viewers will recognize the spot, I’m guessing. I have more images from Monday on my other cameras, but I will have to look at those at a later time, so these last two are it for the day.

Then it was, again, off to dinner. Because we’d had a nice lunch we opted to eat in our motel room. We always bring food along, so we pulled out crackers, cheese, and other goodies. I went to open a wine bottle and … UGH! … the corkscrew broke. Well it was Dan to the rescue … off he went to the store within walking distance to buy a new corkscrew. He got back and went to open the bottle. AND that corkscrew broke! Heh. Guess I wasn’t supposed to have wine that night. So beer, which was what Dan initially was opting for, it was!