SONOMA BALLOON FESTIVAL

My sister and I went to the Sonoma Balloon Festival on Saturday June 28th. We got there real early 5am !! Unfortunately I did not get any photos of the balloons as they got flames of propane shot into them in the dark cause I could not figure out a setting on my new camera at 1st. I was real disappointed. Oh well, next year. It was probably not the best year for the festival either, for the fog was very thick and the balloons never did lift off. But I guess that gives a lot more time to get good close up photos. The best part was the children's play area they set up on the inside of a balloon. The adults were having just as much fun as the kids !!

SAIL

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Petaluma Car Show

VIVA LAS VEGAS

So I know I have not posted in a long, long time. I have been revving up on my photography skills. Here is a picture I took last week while in Las Vegas with my fabulous new camera. After much research I purchased an Olympus E510 and I love it. Got this great night shot without even using a tripod. I could have never done this with my old Kodak. Also I suscribed the online photo website smugmug. They are not as user friendly as flickr, but they showcase your photography so much better. So what do you think?

NEW CAR !!

Well I finally did it. After my old Chrysler Sebring was driven into the ground, literally, I bought a new car. Well it is not really new, it is a 2006 Toyota RAV4 but it only had 9,000 miles on it. I have had it a week now and love it. Today it was 76 degrees outside and I drove it to Lake Berryessa. This is my 1st non-American made car, my 1st 4 cylinder and my 1st SUV. It handles real well and performed amazingly well on the windy, uphill road to the lake.

LUPINE ON THE WEST SIDE OF LAKE BERRYESSA

Giant Redwoods

Over the three day weekend I went to Armstrong Woods State Park near Gurneville. ded. The park has miles of trails, picnic areas and is never crowded. Some of the Giant Redwoods are over 1400 years old.

Giant Redwoods
Originally uploaded by ktinsd

Domaine Carneros

It was a beautiful three day weekend and I had a visitor from San Diego come up for the weekend so I played tour guide. This is the view of Domaine Carneros where they make Taittinger Champagne a favorite of mine. This was taken from the back balcony of Artesa Vineyards which is about 4 miles west of my house. On the horizon is a glimpse of San Francisco Bay. Click on the photo to see larger view

MUSTARD TIME !

Today was the perfect day... to do anything outside. It was about 70 degrees and beautiful in the Valley. OK, so I know I get carried away with pictures of mustard, but it is the most beautiful time of year and it doesn't last long enough. So I drove up to Yountville and took these photos just off of Hwy 29.
My favorite road near Napa is Yount Mill Road shown in these photos. It is a country road very close to Napa that has very little vehicle traffic and is frequented by joggers and bicyclists.

Visit to Grist Bale Mill

Today was the most beautiful day in Napa this year. The rain is gone for at least a week and it was sunny and warm. I went for a nice drive up Valley (that is a term the locals use) and stopped by the Grist Bale Mill just North of St. Helena. It is a California State Park and the site of a water powered mill built in 1846. The giant waterwheel is 36 ft high and powered my water from Mill Creek. It is a nice wooded park just west of Hwy 29 and a great place for a picnic of a local bottle of wine and goodies from Dean and Deluca which is right down the street. The park is also the site of the first church in the Napa Valley and the Pioneer Cemetery and has hiking trails.

Sailing Thailand

I AM here... really

So I have been totally amiss about keeping up my blog. Maybe this can be my New Years resolution. This is my 1st full winter in Napa and if I didn’t know any better I would think I was in Seattle with all the rain we have had. I think there has been only 2 days of sun since Christmas. Makes it kind of hard to get out and about and take pictures of anything interesting. I have been looking at “Daily Photo” blogs from other cities and I might try doing that soon. Many cities throughout the world have blogs where people post a photo of what their world look like that day. I could handle that. I don’t always have something interesting to day, but I can usually find something interesting to photograph. There are two daily photo blogs for San Francisco http://pfranson365.blogspot.com/ and http://sanfranciscodailyphoto.com/
In the mean time since I do not have any new photos, I will share a photo of the cat that I adopted a few months ago. His name is Hobbs, although I never call him that, don’t like that name, but he is the sweetest most lovey lap cat. It is nice to have a cat again after being without for 10 years.