Big Adventure '04


While I didn't even get a bite this first time out, Casey stayed busy, latching on to 4 fish that day, including the stingray above, and the 'keeper' halibut below. I had plenty of fun anyway shooting about a 100 more pics that day than I've got room for in this update.

Top right, Casey gets her halibut filleted. The next day, we barbequed with friends that were out on the charter boat with us. Bottom left is Casey about to get her first bite of her 'catch of the day'. It was delicious, and I've still got pounds of it in the freezer. After the barbeque, we went home for some rest, and shot a couple of pics from the 92 bridge as the sun was setting.

Our next fishing expedition started early in the morning, but we were bright eyed and bushy tailed, rarin' to go. As we headed out of the San Francisco Bay, we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge, with the early morning fog looming above it.

Our target fish for Sea Cruise II was salmon, and I managed to haul in 7 of them, while Casey got 2. It was a great day for fishing! On the way in, we passed a beautiful San Francisco skyline (top right) and Alcatraz (bottom left). Now I've got pounds of salmon in my freezer as well!

Now it's time to head North along I-5. We stopped at a rest stop somewhere past Sacramento, and grabbed a quick pic, then headed off again. As we neared the top end of California, Mt. Shasta loomed into view, looking just spectacular. We drove on through the night, and finally arrived at our Northernmost destination: Seattle, Washington, home of the Space Needle.

From the top of the needle, we got fantastic views of Seattle. Unfortunately, Mt. Rainier could just barely be seen that day. Next to the Space Needle is the Museum of Science Fiction, and we had to check it out. The outside of the place is in the pic second from the right above, but they wouldn't let me take any pics inside. It was still a WAY cool place, and Seattle was a blast. Next, we headed for the coast, and one of the most scenic drives you're likely to find anywhere in the country. The top right pic marks one of our first stops along the Pacific coastal route.

The Pacific Northwest along the coast line is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. These were shot in Oregon. Top left is a lighthouse. Next is a big rock we nearly drove by without even stopping. Instead, I turned around to get in a bit of exploring. If you look close, you'll see a little pink dot running around the rocks - that's Casey. They're REALLY big rocks! Turns out there is a cave that goes all the way through from one side to the other, so we had to do it. That wasn't enough for Casey though - LOL! She had to climb up to the top of that rock. Look close and you'll see her waving from the top of it in the top right pic.

Top left is a zoom to spot her at the top of that rock. Well, we could have fooled around there all day, but we had places to go and things to see, so off we went. We actually stopped at a lot of places along the way to take in some sights or have a little adventure. When we saw a life-size T-Rex on the side of the road, it was time to stop again, and we were sure glad we did. That's where we toured the Prehistoric Gardens, which was like a life-size walk-through lesson in evolution. Spectacular!

Another big rock caught our attention, and you'll have to look close for the pink shirt again, to really get an idea how big these things are! With that, we said goodbye to Oregon, and crossed into Northern California and the Giant Redwood Sequoia Trees - The biggest living things on the planet. Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe, greeted us at the Trees of Mystery Park. Casey posed with Paul. Believe it or not, his head moves and he talks to passersby.

The size of these giants speak for themselves. That tree in the middle shot above is called 'The Brotherhood Tree'. We took a tram WAY up to the top of the mountain there and saw an Osprey's nest. It was a long way off, and that's as much as I could zoom with my camera (top right).

Well, we were on an adventure, so instead of taking the tram back down, we decided to hike it. It was about a mile. Near the end of the trail in the park, there were lots of wood carvings. BIG wood carvings made from single pieces of trees that had fallen or been cut over the years. Second pic from the top right is the very end of the trail. It's a tree stump end that has little signs on it that tell what was going on in the world at each stage of the trees life, calculated by the rings. It starts with the Crusades in the year 1096 and ends with California becoming a part of the U.S. in 1850. Top right pic is the start of our next adventure along the journey: The Avenue of the Giants.

A 37 mile drive through a giant redwood forest is what you find on the Avenue of the Giants. We stopped a LOT. There were just so many incredible things to see there. The middle pic above is a tree you can drive through (if your vehicle is small enough - I didn't want to chance it and end up with a big scrape or dent). The tree house is made from a single stump, carved into the shape of a house. Inside, there are even shelves with books and so on carved out, all still a part of the stump. From there, we headed South again till we got back to San Francisco, where we took a breather at home and readied ourselves for the next leg of our big adventure: The coast South. Top right pic is Casey at Big Sur. Bottom left is one of us together there. We had to stop along the way at the tide pools we've come to love as well. It's one of our very favorite spots. We even found a starfish that day, then put him back to hopefully grow big and old.

The whole route along the Pacific was magnificent, and gave us memories to last the rest of our lives. If a picture's worth a thousand words, it'd take a million pictures to describe all we saw and wondered at along the way. Finally though, we made it to L.A., Hollywood and Universal Studios. Above are the Blues Brother's car and Jaws.

Naturally, we did a studio tour, where we experienced an earthquake in a subway station, complete with exploding tanker truck and a flood, King Kong tried to crush us, Jaws tried to eat us, a bridge collapsed beneath us, and the tour guide parted the waters of a lake like Moses so the tram could get through. LOL! Along the way we saw lots of TV and movie sets and houses, including Whoville and the Bates Hotel (above), and houses seen in the Munsters, Leave it to Beaver and countless others. Back in the park, Casey posed with Donkey, star of Shrek, who was, of course, Makin' WAFFLES! Other characters were around too, like Angelica from the Rugrats. We rode all the rides, and if you like coasters, check out their indoor one - Return of the Mummy. It was awesome! For 3-D, nothing beats the Terminator performance - ride - movie - experience - whatever you want to call it.

Universal Studios Hollywood is built on a mountain, and it would absolutely suck to have to climb up it to get from one ride to the next, so they've got this HUGE escalator system in place, and it's pretty neat looking too. Casey decided that her adventure included taking the stairs, and you can spot that pink shirt headed up them in the photo second from the left, above. She counted the steps as she went - 345. I'm glad I took the escalator! Another part of Universal Studios is this incredible, neon-lit street full of unique shops and clubs. The Hard Rock Cafe - Hollywood is there. The next day, we hit Hollywood Boulevard. One of our first stops was The Guiness Book of World Records Museum, where Casey tried on the body of the fattest man (top right).

There was a lot of interesting stuff there, including an Elvis she posed with. Next, we headed for the Wax Museum, which was across the street. Frankly, we thought the wax figures in the San Francisco Wax Museum were better resemblances, but there were some good ones, like Johnny Depp above. The top right photo is Casey at Grauman's Chinese Theater, where famous movie stars have their hand and footprints in the cement.

At the Hollywood Museum, we took a tour that included actual sets and props from Star Trek and Cheers. All up and down Hollywood Boulevard on both sides of the street are stars in the sidewalks.

Well, no visit to Hollywood would be complete without getting a pic in front of the famous Hollywood sign. We hiked a short distance up a mountain, not knowing if we were on the right track or not. Along the way, we watched for mountain lions and rattlesnakes, like the sign said. We didn't see any, but that didn't disappoint us at all! LOL! When we got to the top and went around a curve in the trail, there it was - the sign we sought. Satisfied, we spent the rest of the day and evening driving around Beverly Hills and up and down Sunset Boulevard and some of the other famous streets there, just checking out all the bizarre action that can be found there. The next morning, we set off for the La Brea Tar Pits, where thousands and thousands of fossils from about 40,000 years ago have been found. Second pic from the top left, the tar pits are still oozing and bubbling up methane gas and so on. Inside the museum are all the specimens to check out, from saber-toothed cats and wooly mammoths to mastodons and prehistoric birds. It was an awesome display and learning center, focusing on science, discovery and evolution.

After the tar pits, we headed next door to the L.A. Museum of Art. I guess it's an impressive collection, but I've been to a lot of major art museums around the country, and this wasn't one of my favorites. With that, we decided to head East on I-40 for a geology lesson. I watched the big, bustling city of L.A. get smaller in my rear view mirror as the Mojave Dessert stretched out in front of us. As the sun set behind our tailgate, the desert and mountain landscape lit up in orange and pink, then mellowed into shades of purple as I drove on into the night. When we got to Flagstaff, we checked into a motel, and I was asleep almost before I hit the pillow. The next morning, we had a big country breakfast at a greasy spoon down the road, and headed off in search of a giant hole in the planet - Meteor Crater.

It's hard to really get the impressive size of this thing unless you're standing there looking at it, but picture this: It's so big, you could set up and play 20 football games simultaneously at the bottom of it, while 2 million people sit around on it's banks. Look closely at the top left pic, and you'll see a representation of an astronaut standing next to an American flag (they went there to study geology in preparation for the moon landings). That astronaut suit representation is 6 feet tall. Notice the big, white, fenced-in area he's standing next to. Now look at the next picture, and find the white area (it's to the right at the bottom of the crater). Big, huh? I love this place! Well, that was just the start of our geology lesson, and we set off for the South Rim of the Grand Canyon next. The first thing we came to was a smaller canyon that adjoins with the Grand Canyon. We shot a couple of pics there, then set off again. We were getting close...

Now, I'm into photography, and I've seen some REALLY great photos of the Grand Canyon, so I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I'd see. I was WRONG! There is nothing - no photo - that can actually prepare you for your first breathtaking view of that enormous and beautiful chasm. We stood in complete and utter awe, speechless at the view that hit our eyeballs and flooded into our brains. We made a few stops at various lookouts, then decided to call it a day. We headed back to Flagstaff, where the motel rates are better than they are right around the canyon, and checked into a Super 8 that had an indoor pool. I went across the street to get a Gatorade at a gas station, and when I came out, there was the most amazing rainbow - I could see the whole thing, from end to end, and it was set against a darkening sky at dusk. I rushed back to the motel room to get my camera, and ran back out with it. By then, it was starting to wane, and I was afraid it would be gone before I could get back to the gas station for the full view. I spotted and old green car, set up and squeezed off a shot. As I prepared to do more, it faded away... The light was still good though, and the ground was wet, so I thought I'd take a little walk around the parking lot. Another shot of the Super 8 itself, and I headed back in to tell Casey about the rainbow she missed while she was in the shower. The next morning, we got up and headed back to the Grand Canyon. We took in a lot more views and hiked a few miles along the South Rim. Casey caught a tiny little lizard and carried it with her for awhile. It never put up any fuss at all, and seemed quite content to ride around on her hand. When we'd had our fill of hiking, she turned it loose and we headed back.

We saw a lot of helicopters and small planes flying overhead. We'd have loved to take a helicopter tour over the Grand Canyon ourselves, but by then our adventure funds were getting pretty thin, and we decided to head home. Along the way, I stopped to get a few last shots of that beautiful orange and pink landscape before the sun set for the last time on our big adventure of 2004.

Then the mountains turned purple, the sky dimmed to black, and the stars came out. I said I'd drive until I got tired, then we'd pull over somewhere and get some rest. But I never did get tired. My head was filled with the sights and sounds and smells of one of the most wonderful and fascinating trips I'd ever taken, and it was doubly good having shared in the experience with Casey at my side. I drove on without feeling tired at all, and as the sun began to rise again, I pulled into my driveway. It was like reading "The End" of the best book you've ever read for the first time. The epic over, the mystery solved, you close the cover and hold the book for a few moments more, savoring the journey you've taken, satisfied and content from the excitement and discoveries you've lived through. And yet, a little sad that it has ended... I hope you enjoyed my update and photos, and that I was able to convey a little of the joy I found this summer on the road, exploring beautiful places with my daughter. *Buck*