Tahoe Camping

We camped two nights at the NFS' Nevada Beach campground, a pie-shaped strip of land, the wide side fronting on US50, the narrow side, perhaps half a mile, on Tahoe beach, a mile and a half from South Lake Tahoe (the town). Rather little of Lake Tahoe is easily accessible, I surmise. At either end of Nevada Beach, fearsome signs, fences, pilings, and other structures let you know this is private property. Anyhow, we mostly walked around, to town, in the forest, on the beach. It's pretty, yes, but smoke from new California fires was beginning to show--we'd seen some in Pinecrest--and we wanted to continue our northeasterly course.

A meadow in the Nevada Beach forest service campground;
the whole place was "rescued" in the 1980s--it was going to
be yet another massive casino/resort--ensuring local access
to the lake; note menhir and stone circle (OK, yes, I seriously
miss Europe)

Really blue sky at this altitude, over 6,000 feet

Sign near highway 50

Still relatively clear water

Panoramic view

Two-seat power-boat parapente

But then things get ugly

Thus; I fully expected armed sentries, but the fence here was
merely that of a trailer park

Burning Man (why not Burning Person?) had just ended, so the
streets and highways were filled with playa-covered vehicles
of various sorts; here is one at the campground; note scratched
comment...

Eating well on Senior Thursday at the casino

Sierra Camping

We proceeded on, driving leisurely toward Lake Tahoe. The route we took included the impressive Sonora Pass and then another pass (Monitor Pass?) the next day. I think 15% is the steepest grade we have undertaken in our travels, so the 28% and less grades of the Sonora Pass were pretty thrilling. The big Dodge Ram truck handled them easily.

The pass was close to 10,000 feet; of course, we've been
higher in this vehicle, in Wyoming last winter

One of the steeper grades

To the east, more mountains

At length we got to the Kit Carson campground in Toiyabe NF;
the greatest of the mountain men, arguably

Our encampment

Another great Sierra view...with free wifi poached from a
"resort" down the road

After visiting a nice farmer's market in South Lake Tahoe, we
made it to Stateline, NV, and eventually another encampment.
at Nevada Beach campground, on Lake Tahoe

Vicki participating in the local culture 

Return To Pinecrest

Our grand-parenting stint completed, we moved on up the road to the Pinecrest Lake area, which we had reconnoitered last spring. Reservations are needed for the Pinecrest NFS campground, and it was Labor Day weekend, but we found a site in the nearly adjacent Meadowview campground, which does not require reservations. It too filled up quickly. Interestingly, there were numerous no-shows at Pinecrest. One of the Dodge Ridge employees (the concessionaire that runs the campgrounds) told us they generally have about a thousand no-shows per summer--a surprisingly large number, to me, that they apparently are willing to accept. Collateral damage, I guess. There is no penalty for not-showing except for losing your money, which for most people is probably just nominal. Oh well. Anyhow, we stayed several stays, mostly trying to walk off some of the vlaamse frites and other indiscretions of a summer in Europe.

At a Mi-Wuk Indian village site, a milling
rock; in Europe, we would have called them
"cup marks"

Pup tent; note the gigantic ravens...I mean, Crebain from
Dunland

Grand menhir of Dodge Ridge

On a south shore walk on the lake, a deck built over the
boulders

Looking back the length of Pinecrest Lake, the dam on the
right, the beaches and marina on the left

Busy place on the weekend

Back at the camper, one of Nature's little dramas...must
remember to buy bug spray next time we're in a store

Camping At Santa Cruz

For the last long weekend in August, we took Penelope on a camping trip to Santa Cruz, 40 or so miles south of Menlo Park. The Santa Cruz marina has a dozen or so campsites--rather more on the European model...a place to park a self-contained rig, water and electricity...but $52 a night, decidedly not on the European model--which we nonetheless found quite pleasant, and certainly within walking distance of beaches, the boardwalk, and so on. Our four year old granddaughter is quite the trooper. We walked five miles one day, six another, and four the last, with never a complaint. Of course it helped that there were fun stops throughout...snacks, lunch, seal sightings, the great sand beach and surf, a boat ride, sunset, and so on. Plus the weather was unbeatable...warm and dry and a just a little wind on the beach. And we ate well.

P at Aldo's, just where the marina ends and the jetties begin

Thus

Captain's Plate at Aldo's; P helped with the calamari and the 
fish; and the frites; I was not willing to share the coconut 
shrimp

Everywhere you look, something to look at

Heading home after a couple hours on the beach

On the marina's nice water taxi

Looking across Monterey Bay at Saturday sunset

Sunday morning apple crepes and smoked ham for breakfast;
thanks for the apples, Maggie

Whale-riding at Santa Cruz' historical museum

In peril on the sea...the harbor is loaded with paddle-boarders,
kayakers, and first-time sailing students; plus hundreds of
bigger craft; we saw more than a few near misses, but nothing 
really serious

Great place; we'll be back

Turner At De Young

Thursday I braved the Peninsula traffic and drove up to The City to see the de Young Museum's special exhibition, J. M. W. Turner: Painting Set Free. (Vicki is not quite the Turner fan that I am: "too many boats"). The exhibition focuses on the last fifteen years of Turner's long and prolific career (1835-1850), at a point, established and acclaimed, where he could pursue his own interests and inclinations and ignore the press and his legion of critics. I thought it was quite a well done exhibition, especially relating his works in water color and their relation to his oil work. With the later Turner, especially, it is largely about light and color, and I am always looking for the seeds of Impressionism--Monet spent 1870-71 in London and doubtless saw some of the later Turner--and I was not disappointed.

Great museum in the Golden Gate Park

Burning of the Houses of Lords and of Commons, 1834

The Bright Stone of Honor...(from Childe Harold), 1835

Ancient Rome: Agrippina Returning with the Ashes of
Germanicus, 1839

Light and Colour (Goethe's Theory)--The Morning After the
Deluge--Moses Writing the Book of Genesis, 1843; not so
sure of Turner's biblical scholarship here, but he knew color 
and wrote authoritatively of it

Peace--Burial at Sea, 1842

Approach to Venice, 1844

One of several "Sample Studies," smaller water colors by
which Turner endeavored to snare commissions; this, The 
Blue Rigi (a mountain near Lucerne)

Whalers (Boiling Blubber) Entangled in Flaw Ice, 
Endeavoring to Extricate Themselves, 1846; it was not an age 
for short titles

Whalers, 1845; OK, except this one

Perhaps the most famous item in the exhibition, Snow Storm--
Steam-boat off a Harbour's Mouth...well, the title goes on and
on, including Turner's claim to have been aboard (lashed to
the mast, of course)...an incredible painting, despite the title

Not without his critics

Norham Castle, Sunrise, 1845?

Europa and the Bull, 1845?

The Visit to the Tomb, 1850; Aeneas and Dido visit the tomb
of  Dido's husband; part of a series on Aeneas