The Year in Pictures: August 2007

As the calendar turned to August, our summer camping trip continued northward along the Big Sur coast. We made an extended stop at Point Lobos, on the south side of the Monterey peninsula, to revisit an old girl-scout destination of Audrey's. The skies were characteristically gray--and the poison oak was literally everywhere you looked--but we still had a great time exploring the tidepools and hiking along the rocky coast. There wasn't a whole lot of marine life visible, but the seabirds and poppies were plentiful. Indeed, both boys insisted on a photograph with a particularly majestically perched gull (see blurry white blob in the background, as the poor light made me and my camera rather depth-of-field challenged).



Following a nice few days visiting Audrey's folks in San Jose--including a special family trip to watch The Simpsons Movie (Spider Pig!)--we turned the family truckster back south, passed through scenic Hollister (where we failed to see both Abercrobie AND Fitch), and stopped for a couple days at Pinnacles National Monument. As expected, the daytime temperatures were quite a bit warmer than along the coast, but not unbearably so. And the swimming pool at the campground provided a nice refresher after a long day of fantastic hiking up into the volcanic pinnacles themselves. Moreover, the campground was rather empty of people but teeming with wildlife, including deer, feral pigs (whose origins date back to either the Gold Rush or the Spanish, depending on whom you ask), and bobcat! We kept our distance from the latter--and she from us--but it was still a great encounter.



From Pinnacles we continued south, but also backtracked toward the coast. Following a very welcome pit stop in King City, and a memorable lunch of pizza and Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale on draft, we made our way to Morro Bay and Montaña de Oro state park. The camping was better than Pinnacles, but the hiking--at least not the trail we chose--was worse, and we were all starting to long for our own beds back home. Nonetheless, we did spend some fun time wading in the water and climbing the rocks at Spooners Cove.

The Year in Pictures: July 2007

Summer! We started the month with our annual visit to the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix bicycle races. I'm indefinitely "retired" from the road racing scene, so only the two boys represented the Morris family in competition. And both did themselves proud. Here is a rather serious looking Tony awaiting the start of his heat:


Just a few days later was another landmark of summer, the Westchester Fourth of July parade.


Then it was time to travel. First it was a few days up in the Sierra Nevada visiting Pappy and otherwise frolicking in the woods while avoiding the poison oak. (Plus there was the annual waiting for the garbage truck.)



Upon returning to Southern California, we then headed further south to North County San Diego, where we mixed in visits to Legoland and the Wild Animal Park with visits to local brewing landmarks Pizza Port in Carlsbad and Stone in Escondido.



And if that was not enough, we took off at the end of the month for our main vacation, a two-week camping trip through central California, up to San Jose and back. We took the coast route up north, first camping for a night in Ventura at McGrath State Beach, followed by a night above the crashing waves of the Big Sur coastline at an old favorite of mine, Kirk Creek. We were fortunate to be treated to ideal weather, and also to snag a perfect campsite where the boys were able to scooter to their hearts' delight.