Scene just outside the hotel we stayed at near Masters College
Myself, Grant, Rob, Megan, Bethany at Laguna Beach
Rob, Grant, myself at Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach looking North
Laguna Beach looking South
Crystal Cove near sunset
Union Station in L.A. where I boarded the Amtrak Coastal Starlight train
Leaving Union Station. This a semi decent pic of the train itself
A random bridge in L.A. on the way north
Houses
Random rocks/hill
More random rock formations
And more...
Houses, trees, and hills
Crops. Quite possibly a field of broccoli
I think this was a field of tomatoes
Clouds
Crops with hills in the distance
Oddly enough, this was taken while passing through Oxnard, California
I ate lunch on the dining car of the train. This is the lunch menu. I had the Angus burger
The beach from the view of the train
I'm pretty sure that is the Pacific Coast Highway
Surfers attempting to do just that, surf.
The beach again, with campers
A driftwood structure on the beach
A huge tree. Evidently planted for a little girl in her front yard back in the 1800s sometime
Hill
The lounge/observation car of the train
Valley between hills
Small pond/lake behind a small dam
Hills
House
You'll notice a couple small building at the top of the far hill. The one in the center looked like a church
A very unusual building in the middle of nowhere. It had USA on one side and the flag on the other. Looked like something on an Airforce base or other government installation
Bushes
More unusual scenery
And even more...
I like the lighting in this one. The structures are weird oil wells or something
More scenery
A random sand dune in the middle of nowhere. The beach was miles away
Hill, clouds, etc
The front of the train
I believe these were vineyards
Another pic of the train
The unusual thing about most of the houses/yards is that except for the actual yard, everything was very dry and dusty. The yards themselves were full of lush green grass.
This is the best pic I have of the Golden Gate Bridge. I drove over it exactly at midnight Monday night.
Vineyard in Sonoma Valley
This was late morning on Tuesday. The fog stuck around till practically noon.
More scenery while driving through Sonoma Valley towards the beach.
Trees
More trees...
Even more
The beginnings of redwood type trees
Cool pic of Sea fog rolling over the hills
Looking through a tree towards a river
Another pic of the river and clouds
First view of the beach after the train. I think this was at Jenner, CA. It was at the mouth of the river previously seen.
Same beach
The path I'm walking down to get to the beach itself
View of the beach from the beach. Driftwood and a buoy on the right
Same beach looking south
Crashing wave
Sea fog
Looking down on a beach from Highway 1 / 101.
Another pic of fog
A pic looking across a field towards what has become my favorite spot. The beach here was very rocky. You've heard of crashing/thundering waves. The waves here were doing just that. Very excellent.
Looking across the field towards the beach
Looking back towards the highway with rocks in view
The rocky shore/beach
Crashing waves
A view across the inlet/bay/whatever
A rocky projection. Get ready for probably the coolest beach pics of the whole trip.
Wow
A bunch of birds/seagulls on the rocks in the distance
A unique rock full of smaller rocks
Another unique rock
A lone bird on the rock
The beach
"Great cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California."
Seaweed
Driftwood
Shot of the beach taken from down at sand level
Stream through trees
Same stream close up
Same stream
Redwood forest
Drive Thru tree. The hole is 6ft wide, 9ft tall.
The rest of the drive thru tree. Quite tall.
More trees
The trees in the immediate foreground reflect the flash, but the background is about how all the forest pics looked. Most of the pics look a whole lot brighter than they actually were
Another beach
Very small tracks in the sand.
Redwood National Forest. A set of three redwood trees/trunks. I was next to my car and the trees were about 30-40 feet from the road.
Same trees as the previous shot, but this pic was shot from the other side of the road with my car in front. Shows how big the trees are
Redwood trees
Redwood trees with ferns and such in the foreground
The next few pics continue to be from Redwood National Forest
I took this standing on top of a redwood tree that had fallen over. The steps on the right were there so you could get over the trunk. The size of these trees is amazing.
The base of the tree I was standing on in the previous pic. This base was 10-15 feet across
Same spot looking at stream. You can see the tree base on the right
Redwood trees again
Close up of a purple clover like plant with pine needles and such
Still in the Redwood forest
Tall tree
Beach from the Redwood forest
Looking down at a cool World War II radar station. They built two buildings and disguised them as a farmhouse and barn
The fake farmhouse. Each building was made from concrete blocks. You can see the windows are fake. The dormers were fake as well. Looking through the dormer window you could see the roof and shingles there as if the dormer wasn't there.
The fake barn.
Looking inside the fake barn.
A beach
This was the mouth of a river. There was this cross overlooking the beach/river mouth.
Saw this and had to take a picture. It isn't the one from the commercial, but is close
Beach
A mountain stream
Same stream looking upstream
Trees and rocks
Southern Oregon on the interstate. Mid morning on Thur. Trees are turning color and fog is still present.
Farm in the distance.
Another pic from the interstate.
A very old Corvette that passed me on my way to Mt. Hood.
A pic of Mt. Hood
Trees beside highway on the way to Mt. Hood.
Mt. Hood
Again, Mt Hood
Snow!!!! :)
Mt Hood
Taken from the parking lot in the middle of the mountains where I took the following pics of Mt. Hood.
Mt Hood through the trees
Mountain stream in the foreground. Mt Hood in the distance.
Close up of Mt Hood with trees in the foreground
Focusing more on the mountain stream. It is clear from this and following that this is a fairly significant river during the spring melting and such.
Looking away from Mt Hood at the stream
Down directly by the stream towards Mt Hood
Again, same location
Later Thur. looking at the Columbia River.
This, previous and following pics are taken along the Columbia River Gorge.
Beacon Rock. 848 feet tall rock by the Columbia River.
Explanation of Beacon Rock.
Half way up Beacon Rock. It had a nice trail you could climb up to the top.
Looking up at the switchbacks taking you to the top.
Looking East down the Columbia River. You can see a dam in the distance.
Looking down from halfway/two-thirds up the rock.
On the way down the rock. Looking down at the switchbacks. There were 50 switchbacks total.
Dup. This will probably disappear.
This is Friday. Looking at Mt. Rainer with a cloud blocking the summit.
The cloud slowly moving away.
The cloud almost gone
Top of a pass near Mt. Rainer. This is actually a cloud, not fog. It was quite wet and rainy.
Back in Seattle/Redmond. Had to do the requisite pilgrimage to Microsoft headquarters.
Spruce Bouls. Basically cancer/tumors on spruce trees. This is on the beach in Washington west of Mt. Olympus
More spruce trees
This beach was lined with driftwood all up and down the beach
This and the next set represent a 360 degree picture of the beach.
To the left of previous shot
Again to the left. The thing to notice is how clear and distinct the horizon is as compared to the pictures of the California beach.
More to the left.
Looking down the beach towards the south.
Looking straight down the beach
Looking at the 'cliff'.
More left.
Looking at a break in the cliff where a stream came forth.
Looking towards the north
Looking back straight north.
The only seashell I brought back. This beach was the only place I saw any seashells. I think I also broke my camera two shots later trying to take a macro shot of it. It won't stay turned on anymore.
