Japanese Tea Garden

From Shelter Cove we headed back east over the dreaded mountains and, after a night on Bodega Bay, eventually got on route 101 south for a brief visit to San Francisco. We'd been driving the little roads for so long I'd forgotten what 101 is like in these precincts...a mega freeway all the way to LA. The freeway took us across the bridge and into old friend San Francisco. Elder daughter Rebecca had lived in the Bay area for a decade or more, and on visits with her, and the better part of two years helping out with our grand-daughter, Penelope, we had seen much of what there is to see in The City...the cultures, the history and art, the architecture, great food and drink, and so on. But one thing we had never gotten to was the Japanese garden in Golden Gate Park. And that was our destination for September 26th.

Crossing the Golden Gate

We joined one of the excellent hour-long tours, focusing on Japanese
garden principles and on the history of this particular garden...and I'll
just let the pix mostly speak for themselves...

Digitus impudicus

Spare parts

Zen pebbles

Peace lantern

At the tea house..."we're number 1!"

Major take-away: fortune cookies are Japanese in origin, becoming
Chinese only after 1941

Honoring the major donor and developer, Makoto Hagiwara,
who died in 1925; his descendants, still caring for the garden,
were interned in 1942, and re-instated, only in part, a decade
later...

Lost Coast

In Humboldt County, California's Pacific coast highway heads inland for some distance: the coastal mountains are too steep and rugged for highway or railroad building. Thus, the Lost Coast, which, for most of its length, is not accessible by road, except for the seaside hamlet of Shelter Cove. We drove there on September 24th and stayed overnight at the campground. Though the road's exposure was seldom a concern, it was the worst mountain driving I have ever done. "Steep" and "rugged" are the adjectives most commonly applied to this area, and they don't begin to describe the terrain. We were glad to see this unusual place and also glad to see it disappear in the rearview mirror.

Unusual non-volcanic black sand on the beach at Shelter Cove

Wind

Lighthouse

Fishing the big waters

Lots of fishing boats in and about the small harbor

Fog rolling in

Fisherpersons' shacks

Tractors for launching, as in New Zealand

Green tunnel

Fog