Winter Beach Getaway!

Spent Sunday afternoon in Point Reyes, CA! The weather was great so we decided we needed a beach day, and drove out to Drakes Beach. On the drive down we had to stop and take a photo of these big freaky woolly long horn cows.

The temperature was perfect and we strolled along the beach looking for "sea glass". We came across a first for us, huge Elephant seals sunning themselves on the beach. I managed to get pretty close and take some photos and a short video of one of the seals.

Of course after enjoying the beach for a few hours we had  to hit our favorite restaurant in Point Reyes, Cafe Reyes for a good dinner before heading back home.
For us a visit to Point Reyes is always fun no matter the weather or time or year.

Cyanogenmod 7.2 - Android 2.3.7

Last weekend I upgraded the software on my phone to Android 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) via Cyanogenmod 7.2.0 RC1. Thanks to the developers over at XDA-developers.com who keep cranking out updates for my old HTC Eris. I didn't plan on doing any more upgrades but after dropping my phone and having some issues with the photo gallery I decided it needed a refresh and that was an opportunity to try a newer build.

Log Cabin Vacation

We just spent the last week before school in a vacation home in Junction City, CA.  Julie found a VRBO on the hillside just above the town. While the drive there was pretty long especially going straight up I5 then winding along 299 out of Redding, the time did pass quicker than I anticipated. This vacation was the first time we have deviated from choosing a costal location with easy beach access. The closest we had come to this kind of location was our Santa Barbara vacation (4/2009) which was still only 20-25 minutes from nice beach access.

Well we arrived at the cabin with a few hours of daylight left.  As we walk in the door we are greeted with a song from Big Mouth Billy Bass hanging on the wall!  During the rest of the week Billy entertained us with a little ditty often. So, we headed in, unpacked and headed out for a walking tour of the neighborhood.  The lots were large enough that you could only see a couple of other homes.  As we walked around the neighborhood, hoping to find convenient access to the river, we discovered all the neighborhood access was on private property.

I started the following morning with a run around the neighborhood, being greeted by a curious dog along the way.  Then we investigated the "town" of Junction City where we picked-up some lures to fish with and headed west along 299, which parallels the Trinity River, until we found a good access point called Pigeon Point to setup on the river and play and relax. After a couple hours we drove west on 299 to Willow Creek looking for an ice cream stop and ran into this big creature:

Bigfoot was a popular figure in all the little out croppings (too small to be called towns) up and down along 299. To the right is Anna posing with Bigfoot in Willow Creek. On the way back we found another shaded fishing hole we called Shady Bend (since it was shaded and at a bend in the river).

The following day we we headed back to shady bend and Anna took a shot at fishing.  It only took a couple of times reeling in the line before she caught her first fish!

... more to come ...

N 38° 5' 7.206", W 122° 48' 22.0608"

N 38° 5' 7.206", W 122° 48' 22.0608" Our favorite place to visit in our favorite area of California! This was our honeymoon place and frequent vacation spot over the years since.

Real Life Mermaids

My daughter Anna is taken with Mermaids and the Ausie TV series H2O Just Add Water. So, I went searching and found these two (1, 2) 20/20 epsiodes on two women who make a living performing as Mermaids and being activists for the sea. Wouldn't it be cool  to hire a mermaid for a  little girls party!

Iridium Flares, Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station

Check out Heavens Above and their Android app very cool! There's an Iridium Flare close by tonight. The ISS and Space Shuttle final mission STS-135 will be passing over head in just a few days. Should be visable with just a pair of binoculars!

Critter Cam

Recently I posted this link to a webcam pointed at a spot in our Backyard where we've seen evidence of a critter. We originally thought it was a skunk. Last night we found footprints around our pool that look more like Racoon.

I've had the camera pointed at a corner of the yard where the critter was doing it's business. Since I knew this was a place it had been.  Now I've found muddy footprints around the edge of the pool so I'm going to move the camera to see more of the pool and deck area.  Maybe I'll finally capture it on camera with this new position.

P.S. camera password was sent to a few friends via email and posted on facebook for friends and family.  If you  are a friend on facebook you can find the camera password there.


Update: Caught the critter.  It was a raccoon! Here are the shots.


Now that we know what it is I've taken the public webcam down.

Soul Surfer

Just got home from watching Soul Surfer at the theater!  Great movie, moving, inspirational!  We took Anna and she couldn't stop talking about it afterword. The shark scene is brief, and not gory or the focus of the movie.  It's really abut how she recovered and triumphantly returned to surfing while discovering a more fullfilling outlook on life. After seeing the movie I'm thinking about getting the book. Check our her web site for devotionals, music video, and more.

Zero Day

Just picked up this Thriller in Kindle format for only $11.99 for my phone and / or computer.  Seems pretty good sofar! Check out Mark's site for the book too. If you order through the links on his site he gets a little back for the referral. He has also posted a video of a possible movie trailer somebody put together for the book.

Gingerbread

Just installed the latest XDA Developers Android build 2.3.3 Gingerbread on my phone. Smooth sailing so far!