Super Bowl Sunday

What do you do on Super Bowl Sunday?  Do you watch the game?  Do you use it as an opportunity for an adventure knowing most people will be at game watching the game?

Brown Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Sora

I've done both.  Sometimes Jim hosts Super Bowl parties and I go over to his house to watch the game.  I'm more likely to do that if a local team is involved.  We don't have cable at home but we have an HD antennae, so I can watch the World Series, the NBA Finals, major golf tournaments and a number of NFL games.  That's about all there is for sports on regular television anymore.  I'm not all that into watching sports anyway.  I like listening to sports on the radio.

Willet & Marbled Godwit -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

One of the great things about summer road trips is finding baseball broadcasts while driving.  I'm a Giants fan, so I'll listen to their games whenever possible.  Padres.  Dodgers.  Angels.  Diamondbacks.  Rockies.  Mariners.  I've listened to all of their broadcasts.  Hanging out at the campsite drinking a beer with the game on while cooking up a little dinner, tough to beat that scenario.

AT&T Ballpark, San Francisco, CA

OK, I'm way off topic.

Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday.  The San Francisco Forty-Niners hosted the Super Bowl down in Santa Clara.  I don't know why they aren't called the Santa Clara Forty-Niners now, their stadium is roughly forty miles from San Francisco.  Whatever.  I headed over to the City to watch the game at a party at my friend's house over there.  I left early thinking the traffic might be bad.  It wasn't.  No problem, that gave me a chance to take some pictures.

Formerly Simpson Bible College, San Francisco, CA

Simpson Back in the Day

I got together with my wife at Simpson Bible College in San Francisco in the mid-eighties.  That's where I met my friend Jim, also.  It was a small college with just over two hundred students.  I stopped by for a few pictures.  I'm not at all into religion anymore (nor is my wife or Jim), but this place is still kind of special.  The entire school and the dorms were in this one building.  It would not be an exaggeration to say this was a tight little community.  The current occupants of the building (the college moved to Redding in the late eighties) have paved over every square inch of the place, but it used to be an attractive campus.  Oh well.  It was still fun to see the old building.

Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA

I headed out to Ocean Beach before making my way to the Super Bowl party.  We've had wonderful winter weather lately, but that was nowhere in sight on Sunday.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky.  I hate blue skies when taking pictures.  Nothing to be done about it, though.  The Great Highway runs along Ocean Beach and some of it has crumbled into the sea in the last couple of decades.  The dunes I took this picture from extended out much farther toward the ocean thirty years ago,

Man, I'm old.

Mark's Back Yard, San Francisco, CA

Anyway, the Super Bowl party was fun.  I didn't watch much of the game.  It was a fun day, all in all.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline

November 8, 2015

I kept it local this weekend.  I did a little shopping (gloves) and got out for a few picture at the MLK Shoreline.  Nothing too spectacular.  As you can see from the picture above, a small storm was rolling in.  It gave us our second rain of the year, the first that felt like an actual storm.  In fact, it was the first rain that had a stormy feel to it in over a year.  Nice.  Hopefully it was the first of many.  California sure needs it.

Some Kinda Yellowlegs -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Snowy Egret -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Brown Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Most of the winter birds haven't arrived yet.  I don't think it will be long, though.  I saw a could of surf scoters, a few northern shovelers and a lone bufflelead.  I am ready.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Alameda, CA

Pacific Grove Golf Links

Golf!

Black-tailed Fawns

Saturday Sam and I joined Jim and his father Jim, Sr. for a round at one of out favorite golf courses: Pacific Grove Golf Links.  It's a municipal track on Point Pinos.  I've seen it described as one of the best municipal golf course in the country, and you won't get an argument from me.  Harding Park and the Presidio in San Francisco offer more difficult golf challenges, but Point Pinos is one of the Pacific Coasts most spectacular locations.  What Pacific Grove Golf Links lacks in challenge--from the tips it's a par 70 at 5,732 yards with a rating/slope of 67.9/113--it makes up for in scenic beauty matched only by the Monterey Peninsula's finest course like Pebble Beach and Cypress Point.

Black-tailed Deer --  Pacific Grove Golf Links, CA

You cannot play a round of golf at Pacific Grove without encountering deer.  These are urban deer who are accustomed to being around people.  That makes for some nice opportunities for photographs without even working for them.

Pacific Grove Golf Links, CA

Black-tailed Deer

There's nothing special about the front nine.  The holes are packed tightly into a few block of housing real estate.  I do not like housing development courses, but Pacific Grove isn't that kind of course.  It predates that awful approach to building golf courses.  While the front nine routes through real estate land, few houses actually line the course.  The course borders are often streets rather than back yards.  The back yards that do line the course never seem to come into play.  Well, except for one particular back yard that juts into the course at a hard right angle.  It shouldn't be in play if you're hitting the ball right, but the hole isn't visible for a lot of approach shots on this particular par five so that nasty corner comes into play more than it probably should.

Pacific Grove Golf Links, CA

This course is all about the back nine.  These holes are all out on the point, unprotected from the elements.  The ocean can be seen and the wind elements felt and heard on every fairway.  The holes wind through the dunes which will come into play on wayward shots.  That's the kind of sand you don'tr want to be in.  It is heavy and unforgiving.

Pacific Grove Golf Links, CA

Pacific Grove Golf Links, CA

Pacific Grove Golf Links, CA

The back nine surrounds the Point Pinos Lighthouse on all sides.  It's a cute little lighthouse that makes a nice centerpiece for the dune holes.  How many golf courses have their own functioning lighthouse?  Ha.  I thought of one other: Harbor Town in South Carolina.  Never been there, but that's a course I'd sure like to play.

Pacific Grove Golf Links, CA

Sam and I had planned to go whale watching after the round of golf, but the excursion was cancelled due to high winds and surf.  That was a bummer.  I took Sam to Moss Landing instead to see the raft of sea otters.  Not as dramatic as whales, but still pretty cool.

Sea Otter -- Moss Landing, CA

Sea Otter -- Moss Landing, CA

Sea Otter -- Moss Landing, CA

We saw more brown pelicans than I've ever seen in one place before.  It's hard not to like pelicans.  They look so awkward but sometimes I wonder if they don't take themselves a little less serious than most birds.  We also saw a golden eagle on the other side of 101.  That made for a pretty good day of both golf and animal sightings.

Brown Pelican -- Moss Landing, CA

Brown Pelican -- Moss Landing, CA

Alameda / Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline

The Birds Have Returned

Well, it looks like summer is officially over.  The estuary is once again brimming with birds.  A large flock of scaups has taken up residence off shore.  There are hundreds of them out there.  The hawks and owls are back.  The shore birds are slowly increasing in number.  I've been making semi-regular visits on my way to and from work to track the progress.

Red-tailed Hawk -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

I'm pretty sure the red-tailed hawk I saw was the same one that was here last year.  It's not the prettiest bird by any stretch.

Burrowing Owl -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Cooper's Hawk

I've seen a burrowing owl on several occasions over the last couple of weeks on different mounds.  Usually I see him/her on #2, but this morning it was on #3.  I took a few pictures before it disappeared quickly into its den.  I thought I had startled it, but then a young cooper's hawk buzzed the den within a couple of seconds of the owl's disappearance.  I guess you've got to be careful when you're only as big as a large potato.

The hawk settled down on a tree nearby.  I couldn't get a good picture before it flew off, though.  It kind of bums me out that a cooper's hawk would try to eat one of these little owls.  We've all got to make our way in life, I guess.

Burrowing Owl -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Great & Snowy Egrets -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Egrets are year round residents.  Brown and white pelicans aren't always present, but I'm not sure what their timetable is.  Just passing through?  They're fun to watch.

Brown Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

California Towhee -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Brown Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Brown Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve

September 7, 2014

In better light that picture above would be extraordinary, wouldn't it?  If I was a serious photographer, I'd stake that site out to get that particular shot in the right light.  I might back up a little to try to get more of the dead cypress trees into the shot.  Then again, I like the way the rocks are set up in this shot,  I might just keep it as is.

Whaler's Cove, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, CA

I spent the day at Point Lobos.  Love that place.  Great views.  Great wildlife.  Great trees.  It's one of the world's beautiful places.

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, CA

Harbor Seal

Challenging light was the theme of the day.  Bright sunlight.  Dark clouds.  Shady trees.  You name it, I was probably dealing with it.  After battling the redwoods last week I was hoping to get off with an easy day.  No such luck.  Still, no complaints.  I don't think a rough day can be had at Point Lobos.  There's always some kind of magic in the air there.

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, CA

Colombian Black-tailed Deer -- Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, CA

Colombian Black-tailed Deer

A bumped into a young buck in the cypress grove.  He was a little nervous of me at first and remained a little wary throughout our encounter, but he ended up moving closer to me and crossing the trail only a few feet in front of me.  I didn't move one way or another.  I would never approach a wild animal, mind you, but I'm never quite sure what to do when they approach me.

Colombian Black-tailed Deer -- Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, CA

The Old Veteran -- Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, CA

I usually stop to get some pictures of the Old Veteran tree.  It's so much cooler than the more famous Lone Cypress on Seventeen Mile Drive.  Still, it's just a tree, and not even approachable.  It sits on the side of a cliff and there two spots about ten feet apart and two people wide on the opposite side of the cove that have clear views of the tree.  That's it.  Pictures are either taken from the left spot or the right spot.  On this particular day, clouds had obscured the sun by the time I reached the old tree, which you can kind of tell from the pictures.

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, CA

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, CA

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, CA

Brown Pelican

After for struggling with the light for a few hours at Point Lobos, I decided to change up the venue with the last hour or so of sunlight available.  I drove to Pacific Grove to catch the sunset on the beach there.  The situation was a lot better.  Almost immediately after getting out of the car I saw a whale (a humpback I think) just off shore.  I also saw sea otters and a couple of flocks of brown pelicans.  I watched the sun set then drove home, listening to the Giants game on the way.  Not a bad day at all.

Pacific Grove, CA

Pacific Grove, CA

Pacific Grove, CA