Waves at Sunset

Waves at Sunset, a photo by HarryCjr on Flickr.

While apparently I think one of those two photos in my last post are eye catching it seems this one is more popular, by far, from other peoples view. Even my wife thought this photo wasn't as interesting, though she isn't enamored with the Sea Fence either. The more I look at it though the more I really like it too!

Sea Ranch Photos

Here are two photos I took while visiting Sea Ranch recently. I can't decide which one is a better angle for the shot.

Click through to my flickr site and take a look at each a tittle larger and see what you think. The Light box view is a pretty good way to view photos on flickr.

California Mission Mosaic School Project

End of year school project and final report was about California Missions. Each student selected a mission to do a report on.  Anna selected Santa Ines. Instead of doing a typical model out of cardboard panels or creating a story board to go with her report we decided it would be nice to make something we could keep and display for years to come.  So, Anna made a 3'x5' tile mosaic.  We will mount this on the wall out by the pool and deck. It weighs 80+ lbs so, getting it to her school took a bit of effort.

Watch at YouTube

YouTube on Roku!? Not anymore.

I guess I missed this somewhere along the way but apparently if you own a Roku and have an existing install of the Private / unofficial YouTube channel then your still able to access YouTube on the device, but if you haven't installed the channel then new installs will not work. Apparently the developer of the channel used a video stream option that leaves out the adds. I was hoping I could add the Google Play movie channel to my Roku and rent movies from Google just like I do from Amazon. If Google prevents this then they are hampering the uptake of their movie streaming service.

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!