California Travels

Petaluma, CA

In May we visited Petaluma, CA and stayed at the Elks lodge. We were here two years ago and found it is a great central location to visit the wineries and other small towns.

The pictures to the left were taken in the Historic downtown.

There is a great restaurant called Central Market they have a great happy hour which starts at 5:30 p.m. and ending at 6:30 p.m. and on Sunday from 5 to 6 p.m. Those who come can enjoy free pizza at the bar, $1 oysters, $3 beers and $5 wines.

Bodega Bay

Bodega Bay is a picturesque fishing village on the Sonoma Coast. We really enjoyed it’s quirkiness. If you drive a little further inland you come to the little town of Bodega, where Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds was filmed.

Ferndale, CA

Our next stop was Ferndale, CA which is one of my very favorite places. The Victorian architecture is beautiful. There are wonderful shops and restaurants.

Eureka, CA

Eureka, CA is another town we have visited twice. It has a Victorian-era Old Town district with carriage rides and a great working seaport.

The Carson Mansion, constructed in 1884-1885, is a three story, eighteen room Queen Ann structure with a tower and basement. It was built by William Carson who made his fortune in lumber. It was turned into a gentlemen’s club called the Ingomar Club in 1950.

To the west of the Mansion sits another grand Queen Anne known to the locals as the “Pink Lady.”(see pictures below). The home was built in 1889 by William and Sarah Carlson as a wedding present to their son John Milton Carson.

The Clark Memorial museum located in the historic downtown area is packed with so much history. Nealis Hall displays one of the world’s largest and best collections of northern California Native American basketry and regalia. We were lucky to see these ladies making the baskets.

The Redwood National Park

The Redwoods are majestic giants. We were in awe the entire time we were there.

Whew this was a long post, but I had to cover a lot to finish up our California travels. My next post will be about the beautiful state of Oregon. Thanks for stopping by.

Published: August 23, 2017

Categories: Travel

2017 Travels Begin

Our 2017 travels got off to a slow start as we bought a new( to us) RV. It is a 2007 Monaco Executive, we went from 38 ft. to 44 ft. Since we live in it full time the 6 extra feet really makes a difference.

Our new Home

We left Casa Grande, AZ and went to San Diego to visit family. We have a new great nephew that we had to see and we love that area. Then we traveled to Petaluma, CA where we stayed at the Elks RV park. We wined our way around the beautiful wine country in Sonoma, Napa & Calistoga.

One of my very favorite winery’s is the Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga. It is a true castle with 107 rooms on 8 levels above and below ground, that cover approximately 121,000 square feet. The details and building techniques are architecturally faithful to the 12th and 13th century time period. Among many other features it has: a moat; a drawbridge; defensive towers; an interior courtyard; a torture chamber; a chapel/church; a knights’ chamber; and a 72 by 30 feet great hall. We took the wine tasting tour and it worth every penny.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The next winery we visited was Francis Ford Coppola winery.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We had dinner on Tuesday night at what is called A Tavola. It is served family style, where the waiters come around to your table and serve you. The wait staff is dressed and act like a big Italian family. One is dressed in his pajamas carrying a prop cigarette, he said “I just woke up and did not know we were having company”. Another member starts to play the accordion. It was so much fun and the food was wonderful, there were so many courses we lost count all for only $42.00 per person (not including liquor).

The museum displays the beautiful Tucker car from the movie Tucker: The man and his Dream.

Upstairs is the Godfather’s desk.

This next winery is the Ferrari-Carano Winery. The gardens were so beautiful.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The last two California winery’s we visited were Cast Winery and Wilson Winery. They both had wonderful wine and beautiful vineyards.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In our next post I will show all the wonderful places(other than wineries) we visited along the coast on highway 101.

Published: July 20, 2017

Categories: Travel, Winery

Montana Part 3 – Livingston

While we were in Montana we visited Livingston which is along the Yellowstone river, surrounded by beautiful mountains. It is a great little western town with around 7,000 residents.

We attended the 4th of July parade & rodeo.

This was my first time shooting pictures of a rodeo, so some are not as clear as I would like.

During the intermission we got to see these beautiful horses perform.

This was the beautiful sunset during the rodeo.

Published: November 20, 2016

Categories: Travel

Montana part 2

In June we visited Yellowstone National Park. The park is so breathtaking & beautiful I cannot describe it with words so I took a million pictures. I hope that you enjoy them.

This was an awesome sight with the water flowing between the lava.

A bison stirring up the dust

Jaywalking animals of Yellowstone

This mama bear & her cubs ignored all the onlookers, and just crossed the road right in front of us.

: Elk

: Elk

: Bison

The Yellowstone lodge was beautiful. The craftsmanship was unreal.

Published: October 18, 2016

Categories: Travel

Montana Part 1

On June 1, 2016 we arrived at Yellowstone’s edge RV park. The park is about 30 minutes from the North entrance to Yellowstone Park. This RV park was by far the nicest we have stayed in. The park was beautiful and the owner’s Chan & Pam Libbey made you feel like family. The park is right along the Yellowstone river.

: These pictures were taken

: at different times during

: our stay

We visited this really cool resort called Chico Hot Springs Resort & Day Spa.

: Inside of the lodge

: Really cute saloon with great food

: Noe meets one of the horses

: Old barn on the way to Chico

Pat with a fishing guide floating down the Yellowstone river

Beautiful sunset pictures looking out from the RV park.

Published: September 30, 2016

Categories: RV campgrounds, Travel

Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Idaho Falls & Rigby, Idaho

In May we camped at a state RV park in Rigby, Idaho called Jefferson County Lake RV park. It was a very nice park with a lake. The lake was very low but still nice. There were lots of trees and spacious spots to camp.

When we visited Idaho Falls, ID we got to see the beautiful memorial they had displayed for memorial day.

Idaho Falls

We drove to Jackson Hole, WY, it was beautiful. It is definitely a tourist town with lots of shops. It was very busy but we enjoyed it.

Pat and Noe checking out the antler arch

The Wort Hotel

This was some of the surrounding scenery on the way.

We came across this old building and I had Pat turnaround, this happens often, so I could take pictures of it. Old buildings are one of my favorite things to photograph. I always wonder what it’s history was.

Published: August 22, 2016

Categories: Uncategorized

The Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

The Grand Tetons are spectacular. We visited the park in May this year.

We took a full day to drive the main loop, here is a link to the map.

Below are pictures of the Mormon Row Historic District.

Published: July 19, 2016

Categories: Travel

Bryce Canyon, Utah

In May we visited the wondrous Bryce Canyon. We camped in the beautiful Red Canyon campground. There were no hookups and the cost is $15.00 per night.

We were surrounded by beautiful red rock formations.

When we first went into the Bryce Canyon national park, we pulled into the visitors center. We went in and received information on the park. These are pictures of the lodge and surrounding cabins.

I was interested in the wavy roofs of these buildings.

Then we walked around on a trail which led us to the canyon overlook. We were not prepared for this awesome sight. It literally took our breath away. The winds along the rim are very strong.

The odd shaped pillars are called hoodoos.

We spent the rest of the day touring the park and stopping at all the overlook sites.

Sheep Creek

Ponderosa Point

Ponderosa Point

Black Birch Canyon

Sheep Creek

Sheep Creek

Natural Bridge, elevation 8,627

Published: June 30, 2016

Categories: RV campgrounds, Travel

Sedona, Arizona

We also visited Sedona last year. What a beautiful area. The red rock formations are incredible and everywhere you look is picture perfect.

We visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross which is a Roman Catholic Church built into the side of a mountain, absolutely beautiful.

The next area we visited was called Red Rock Crossing.

There is a beautiful park with Oak Creek running beside it. There is a large area with flat rock formations that have great reflections in between the rocks when it rains. This picture was taken then flipped around.

Just outside of the park there was this crazy guy at the end of a driveway.

In the town of Sedona we visited the Tlaquepaque arts & crafts village, which has lots of interesting art work and landscaping.

There were some mariachis playing in the courtyard.

Published: June 14, 2016

Categories: Travel

Cottonwood & Jerome Arizona

Our first stop for our 2016 travels was the thousand trails RV park in Cottonwood, AZ. We got settled and then started exploring the area. This was also our first stop in 2015, so I will include pictures from both times.

The downtown area of Cottonwood is really cute, there are lots of good restaurants and breweries.

We discovered a really unique mining town called Jerome. It is “America’s Most Vertical City” and “Largest Ghost Town in America”. This is one of my favorite things to photograph, old buildings with such history. We actually visited two times as there was so much to see and photograph