Folsom Lake is being drained 9 inches a day

It is that time of year again where boat owners are being told to take there vessels out of the rented slips for the year at Folsom Lake, as the lake continues to be drained 9 inches daily.

Our Golden Doodle Roxy loves the lake, so she won't be sad to have less boats to share the lake with.

Remember a few blogs ago I mentioned I had bargained with Bill to turn around to let me take a picture of a windmill so he wouldn't have to make the trip to take one near home? Well tonight, after leaving the lake I convinced him to take an alternate route home so I could get this shot. I think I will try again with morning light.

Monterey and Carmel

My sister Mary Beth and I just got back from five days in Monterey and Carmel. It has been about 17 years since I have been there and was surprised that things haven't changed much. The biggest change would be the closure of my favorite place to have breakfast (The Tinnery in Pacific Grove) for one and the addition of a mall, attached to the Monterey wharf.

Here are some pictures taken in Pacific Grove.

Around the corner from the tree above is a park. The two pictures below capture critters taking over someone's picnic area. The squirrel is going through the backpack in the first picture and in the background of the second picture you will see a seagull trying to open a sandwich bag snatched from the backpack. And the last picture is one of about thirty pictures I took of squirrels. We couldn't believe how big these guys were. 

What is a trip to Carmel without taking the 17 mile drive? We pulled over near Spanish  Bay to check out the beach. Since the beach is on the coast and at sea level, after reading this sign I was trying to figure out where I would go if there was an earthquake.

I have this strange fascination with rock art. I see stacked rocks randomly placed everywhere I go. My husband Bill likes to knock them down so I couldn't resist this self portrait of building one (it was already there, I was just going to add to it). My sister Mary Beth asked me not to post any recognizable pictures of her, but if you look towards the ocean you will catch a glimpse of her.

Of course Pebble Beach would have a Rolex clock

Our last stop was at my favorite tree, the Lone Cypress.

We had our share of fish during this trip... shrimp tacos, shrimp scampi, shrimp salad, shrimp omelet...... so we had to have one of our meals at Bubba Gump's.

The Monterey Aquarium hadn't changed much so if you have been there before I wouldn't recommend going again. It was over priced and crowded.

Can you find Nemo?

You can rent kayaks and get up close and personal with the seals and sea otters.

These were taken at Cannery Row

I always  bring my daughter Lexi a shot glass when I travel. I think she is too polite to tell me to stop, so I decided I will just take a picture of them instead.

On our way back from dinner at Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing we stopped at Marina Beach. This guy was trying to catch the wind.

Ooopie...  He didn't quite make it (he ended up tangled in a fence).

Sunday drive to Davis Ranch

It has been so hot and we have been so busy that I haven't had the time to enjoy getting out with my camera... so we packed up the car with all our gear and headed off to Davis Ranch to get some Sloughhouse corn and chili peppers for salsa.  We decided to take Latrobe Road from El Dorado Hills. On our way towards Rancho Murieta Bill took a quick left onto Forest Home Road (near Ione). Bill has been using my Nikon D5100 and wanted to photograph these horses so I decided to grab my camera for the shot below.  I will try to coax him into starting his own blog to post his photographs.

The next picture will be the first of many times I saw something today and had to ask Bill to turn around so I could go back for the shot. I couldn't believe this one piece of property had a corvette graveyard. The picture shows four corvettes, but what you don't see are the other three across the driveway.

Just before you get to Davis Ranch you pass through Rancho Murieta. I love the fact that a bridge was constructed for golf carts to cross the river to get to the next hole. I had to climb up on a chain link fence to get this shot. I bet I was a sight for drivers passing by.

We made it to Davis Ranch so I took a picture of the wax peppers that I didn't buy. We did get some Sloughhouse corn (the sweetest corn around, just as good as Brentwood corn), which we had for dinner and some jalapeno peppers for the salsa.

There is a windmill not far from our house that I had been trying to figure out how to get close enough to it to photograph. As we were heading towards Grantline Road I saw this windmill and told Bill if he turned around so I could photograph this windmill he wouldn't have to take me to photograph the one by our house. I don't know if it was my whining that got him to turn around or that he thought it would be a good compromise. 

We had such a great day!!!!