Images by John 'K'
Life as seen through my lens…
A slight detour…
Posted by on March 7, 2007
My drive between home and the office involves 25 or so miles on 2 freeways, some busy streets, and some lovely scenery, but at times it gets really busy (especially on a Friday). When I first started doing this commute, I researched some alternate routes for when the freeways get really bad. I can drive between home and the office without touching a freeway; it adds an extra 5 miles and 15 minutes to the journey, but when the freeways are bad it can result in an actual journey saving of up to 45 minutes. The thing is though it’s a slow boring drive through a big chunk of one of the towns between home and the office.
When I researched the alternates, I noted another road that could be used, however feedback from some folks who know the area led me to believe it was really not a viable alternative – it’s a slow windy road that hugs the side of the mountains, and for a lot of its length is single lane with passing points. So I discounted this as an option.
18 months on, I found myself with a really bad Friday drive home, no time pressures to be home quickly, and I felt like exploring a bit, so I decided to abandon the usual non-freeway route home and try this other drive that for the past 18 months I’d considered was not a viable commute route home. It was a lovely sunny day, and I really didn’t want to be bored from the usual non-freeway route or frustrated with the freeway traffic, so I headed for the unknown 3rd option.
Well it was amazing. This road was like some of the little windy country lanes found in the less well developed countryside areas in England (the sort of roads I used to love cycling and then later motorcycling on back when I was younger and still in the UK), but with two differences. 1) the drivers you do run into on this road are a lot more courteous than the typical car driver you run into on the little country lanes in England, and 2) the scenery was stunning.
The left hand side of the road (as you drive from the office to my home) needs no barrier, as it’s up against the side of the eastern foothills for the Diablo mountain range. The right hand side has occasional barriers, and a spectacular view down into a valley, and for a good length looks down onto a reservoir.
The road swings around many hairpin bends and winds through the foothills, and I found myself at almost every turn looking at a wonderful and new image of the countryside that had for the past 18 months been hiding quietly behind those foothills as I drove past on the freeway. Because I was so busy taking in the scenery and enjoying the challenge of driving the road, I lost track of time, so when I popped out at the other end back onto some more familiar roads, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it hadn’t taken me any longer than driving my usual non-freeway route. It also didn’t really register until later that along the whole drive I hadn’t encountered a single vehicle coming the other way.
2 weeks later, and I found myself in similar circumstances, and this time I had my camera with me, so I took some pictures (see my photo albums). This time the road was a little busier; it seems that a few other people had decided to do the same thing as me, but even so the number of vehicles was very low, and they made no impact on the drive time for that part of the journey. This time I also had a close encounter with a deer (which decided to play chicken with me and which I missed by about a foot at most).
So I won’t be driving this road every day as when the freeway is flowing normally it is still the quickest way home, and I certainly won’t be driving this road when it is wet or icy as I can see it being very dangerous, but if it’s a nice day and the freeway is bad, or even if it is just a nice day and I’m not in a rush to get home, I can see myself driving this way home a lot more….
Presidents of the United States, I thank you… :)
Posted by on February 20, 2007
This last weekend was the weekend after a mid-week Valentines Day, and also Presidents’ Day here in the United States of America. As such, I, like a lot of folks in America, planned for a long weekend away. As we didn’t do anything particularly special last year for Valentines Day, I’d booked a long weekend that would allow Jan and I to complete one of our goals to have driven the complete length of California’s Highway 1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_1). We’d driven the whole southern section of it and a short part of the northern section in previous vacations and trips, but the northern costal section between Bodega Bay and Leggett remained to be driven and we’d always wanted to finish that drive. Then around 2 weeks ago Jan and I had a big argument (the likes of which we hadn’t had for a while), so during the efforts to patch things up, we looked to use this weekend trip as a way we could strip away some of the pressures of life that had led us to have the argument, and rediscover the feelings we knew we still had for one another.
So.. Friday – we had a couple of friends to visit for the day. They were in the area for the long weekend to see the greater Bay area and San Francisco, and they popped in to see us on the Friday. We went down to Monterey Bay, spent ages in the aquarium, and then went to watch the sun set off the Pacific Grove coast. The weather was beautiful, and the sunset was spectacular. We then headed back home, grabbed the rest of the family, went for dinner, and sent our friends packing to their hotel with smiles on their faces ready for them to enjoy the rest of their weekend together in San Francisco.
Saturday we had a leisurely start, set off for our planned weekend away early in the afternoon, got to Bodega Bay late afternoon (despite the masses of traffic heading into San Francisco for the start of the Chinese New Year celebrations), got checked into the bed and breakfast (very quaint place – lots of art – see http://www.bodegabayinn.com/), then went to eat. There was a little place just over the road from the B&B, called the Seaweed Café (http://www.seaweedcafe.com/). From the name, and from outside appearances it looked nothing special; we expected it to be a typical coastal town café. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Inside was a beautiful, small, very exclusive restaurant, and we had a gorgeous meal, spent ages chatting with another couple on a similar weekend expedition who had also taken the chance and come in without a reservation (we were put on a shared table), and then headed to bed, well fed and happy.
Now the weekend weather forecasts for Sunday and Monday were predicting clouds and a 30-40% chance of rain, so when we woke to bright sunlight streaming through the skylights in the bedroom we were pleasantly surprised. We got up, washed and dressed, had some breakfast (it was a B&B after all!) and started the drive up the coast along the stretch of Highway 1 that we hadn’t yet driven…. 7 hours and way too many stops to count later we made it to Sunday night’s destination – http://www.howardcreekranch.com/ – a virtual time-warp back around 100 years. The place is a converted ranch farm; with such a wonderful rustic peaceful feel that we really didn’t want to leave it. It was so secluded and quiet, and the folks who run the place are so friendly, that we just felt right at home there. So we popped back down the road to the nearest small town, grabbed some take-away food, took it back to the B&B, ate, and then strolled out to the beach to admire the beautifully clear night sky. I thought we had lovely night skies where we live, but this was just amazing – sooooo many stars…..
Anyway – an early night and relatively late beautiful sunny morning later (had to be up at 9am for breakfast though – that not to be missed; farmhouse cooking like I’d never had before), we somehow managed to drag ourselves away from the place (we’ll be back there for sure) and started the drive back to reality. We finished off the last 20 or so miles of the Shoreline Highway north to where it meets Highway 101, and then drove a very beautiful route back through redwood forests, across the north shore of Clear Lake, down through the Napa Valley, then back into the Bay Area and home, again with more stops than I can count.
On a personal level the trip seems to have done what it was intended to do; Jan and I seem so much closer as a result of this past weekend that it is like we’ve gone back in time 20 odd years. The girls didn’t let us down either, and we came back home to no dramas and nothing messed up. We managed to get a few ‘firsts’ in on the trip too – some I won’t go in to here, but it was funny seeing Jan’s reaction to her first time eating caviar at the restaurant on Saturday night, and I can’t remember who said it was, but 43 is NOT too old to be acting like teenagers in the back of a car! 😉
There is a collection of scenic pictures from this long weekend now added to my photo albums.
The Queen comes to San Francisco…
Posted by on February 4, 2007
Today we got to see the largest ship to ever sail in to the San Francisco bay. At just before 4pm local time the Cunard cruise liner Queen Mary 2 entered the bay, accompanied by what looked like hundreds of smaller vessels, and many helicopters, and to the delight of thousands of onlookers (including myself, wife and one of my daughters [the other one didn’t want to come and watch, saying "but it’s just a ship Dad"]) sailed under the Golden Gate (with about 30 foot clearance on the low tide).
She proceeded to sail past the crowds lining the shores of the bay, past Alcatraz, to moor up to the north of the Bay Bridge, before docking at San Francisco’s Pier 27.
What spectacle – nice to see the British can still produce something that can capture the imagination of the world in this day and age!
Welcome to 2007
Posted by on January 2, 2007
Well somehow I have survived into another year relatively unscathed by things.
Life has continued to throw some interesting challenges at me, money continues to be a bit of an issue – as fast as I clear up one problem and recover from it another set of big bills comes up and resets all the work I’d put in to sort out the previous problem, and I know I only have a few months to try and pull this one back before there’ll be another batch of demands….. but at least this time I see some light at the end of the tunnel – I’m a bit further through it going forward than I’d be looking at were I to just turn around and go back from where I came, so I’ll muddle through. It’s nothing I haven’t faced before – just was hoping not to be facing it again this year…. oh well. The bike will have to wait another year I guess.
At least from a personal level things could be a lot worse. My eldest daughter and her family were over to visit for 3 weeks and went back to the UK after Christmas. They seem happy, and the boys (my 3 grandsons) are all growing up fast. Even the youngest (who is now 3) seemed so much older than when I last saw him. They are all doing fine though, and a bit better off into the new year than they would have been had they been paying for more of the trip themselves. I’ve put a representative selection of pictures up to cover the fun from those 3 weeks – it’s a large collection, but any less wouldn’t do the trip justice. Needless to say things have seemed a bit quiet since they went back to England.
My other daughter still back in England is also doing fine. She’s visiting for Easter with her boyfriend, so we’re looking forward to seeing her then. We spoke with her at Christmas, and things seem to be going OK for her – guess we’ll get the whole story when she visits, as she tends not to be too talkative on the phone.
For those of us over here, December saw my wife start a part time job, working in the teaching profession, so she’s happy that she can put a lot of her knowledge from her years working in the UK to some use, and also happy that she’s got a reason to be out of the house a bit more during the week.
My youngest daughter is into this year’s basketball season and is losing a lot of her free time to games or practices, but she loves it. She does however need to make more of an effort at school, especially with getting homework in on time and completed, otherwise her grades could see her off the team. She’s doing generally well in class, but not completing projects or homework is pulling her grades down badly. We as parents need to keep a better eye on that, but she also needs to make more of an effort – she is 16 after all.
Our elder daughter still spends more time than is really good for her on-line, but less time than she was at the start of December, and she does at least acknowledge that it’s an area she needs to work on more; just doesn’t seem to have the will power to do it herself. She’s also become involved with a guy she met on-line – things seem serious, and he’s visiting us this month, so should be interesting – no doubt I’ll have some things to report on after it happens, but for now he seems nice enough fro the interactions I’ve had with him, and in the on-line circles where they met he is well regarded, so we’re hoping it works out well for them.
My wife and I… well.. what can I say? She says she’s happy and for the most part seems to be, but there are times when I feel she’s holding something back. It might be she feels insecure about us because I am spending time chatting to friends I have on-line. If that is the case, she should know that it is nothing more than friends talking (and helping one another out with a few problems). I’ve spoken to her about things and have told her what’s happening, and I hope she trusts me enough to believe me. If however there is an element of doubt there, I wish she’d say something, as I’m sure those concerned would be more than happy to put her mind to rest if she won’t accept it from me. If there’s something else that’s bugging her, I hope she’ll share it. It may just be that she’s feeling the impact of having our eldest daughter and family visit and then go back home again… On the other hand, if there really is nothing and it’s just my paranoia, then perhaps her response to this will be what I need to see that. I know I’m happy so long as she is, and at the end of the day I want to do what will make her and keep her happy.
As to those friends I chat to on-line, there are a husband and wife where I chat to both regularly – they’ve had their problems, but seem to be working through them, and I truly hope for them that things continue that way into 2007. There’s a separated wife whose husband hit her with divorce papers in the run up to Christmas, and who has been coming to terms with that at a time where she should have been having much nicer things to deal with, so she’ll be having a less than ideal start to this new year. Then there’s a husband and wife where it looks like things aren’t going so well, so I have been doing what I can to offer advice and support as best I can, and to them I hope they can sort out their differences and do what is best for them and their children and move on gracefully to something better in 2007.
Talking to them, and seeing some of the stuff they are dealing with, has helped me see even more clearly that what I have with my life and family is very special and dear to me, and regardless of some of the challenges that come our way, I want more than ever to see things work for us long term; not that 27 years isn’t long term already, but we are only in our 40s and so have much more ahead of us, and I would love for that to be together. Time will tell.
So I start 2007 in a reflective mood, but with hope for the future. There are some challenges ahead, but I’ll deal with them as best I can as they come up. I know where I want to be, and I’m making the journey towards that end much as I would a long distance car journey – some basic planning up front, but taking the journey mile by mile, dealing with what I encounter as it happens, and continuing on the journey, and much like a long journey I hope I’ll reach the destination – perhaps a bit late, perhaps after a bit of a detour, but barring some major catastrophe that I cannot foresee, I can’t see me not getting there.
Time plays tricks…
Posted by on December 11, 2006
How is it that 3 weeks can feel like a lifetime, and too short, all at the same time?
We have my eldest daughter and her family visiting us fro the UK for 3 weeks for Christmas – they’ve been here 5 days already, and in that time we’ve had my youngest daughter turn 16, and have spent some time in San Francisco. With all the preparation for my youngest’s birthday, and with our visiting family members recovering from jet-lag, we’d really not done too much from an activity perspective with them, but have spent time with them at home catching up on things. I’d last seen them 16 months ago, and the boys (my grandsons) have really grown up in that time.
Back in the UK, they lived fairly close to us, so we used to see a lot of them, and after 5 days it almost feels like nothing has changed and that the past 16 months have just been put to one side; however because the boys have changed so much it feels strange.
I’ve got some time off work over the next couple of weeks – unfortunately this is a busy time for us at work so couldn’t take all the time I would have liked, but will make the most of what I can get. Now we have the birthday stuff out of the way, we can concentrate on other stuff, like Christmas, and having them see some of the places we have here and why we wanted to move here, and at the same time enjoy our time together.
So with that in mind, yesterday afternoon we took a family trip out to San Francisco (as it’s only an hour away). The boys have a short list of ‘must do’ things they want to do while they are over here – one of them was to see ‘the wiggly road’ that is Lombard Street, and they also wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge, so we went and did the tourist thing. They’ve been on the Golden Gate, have been driven down Lombard Street, rode the carousel on Pier 39, saw the sea lions, and got a few souvenirs. Not a full day in San Francisco, and there’s more for them to do when they go back later in the week, but after all of that they were pretty much worn out (they’re still adjusting to the time zone difference).
It was a lovely day out – the weather was kind to us, and I’ve popped a few pictures up.
Images by John 'K' 