An Autumn Sunday Drive

Since last weekend was so amazing, I thought I would chronicle a little road trip we took last Sunday afternoon. We woke up as usual with no plans for the day other than a little house cleaning, laundry and a minor repair job in one of the outside horse shelters. My hubby had to replace a 4x4 post which is one of the main supports of the roofline. The horses have decided that this makes a lovely butt-rubbing post - one of many I might add - but needless to say, it's a little rough on the supporting structures of our old outbuildings. And then we headed out of town on a little country road that takes a very direct route although a much-less-travelled one.

This lovely little road meanders through and over the foothills of the Coast Range Mountains. This little stream used to empty itself into a mountaintop lake called Meadow Lake where there was an exclusive Gentleman's Club/Resort that's been gone for well over 50 years now. The dam was destroyed allowing drainage of the lake and has never been rebuilt. There are several small campgrounds along this route and it's a favorite spot for local hunters. The fall foliage was absolutely stunning and driving through here was sort of magical...

These are the first pictures that I've shown on my blog using my new camera. I'm still in learning mode for sure, but it seems pretty straightforward. I love, love, love the zoom, zoom, zoom. It is too much fun!! The colors are very true to life as well. So far, so good.

The road near here was quite damp with moss growing on it. Quite treacherous in the winter, I would imagine.

And here is our little poochie, "Annie". She is a bonafide momma's girl. She goes to the clinic with me everyday and on many days we go to local parks and go for walks. Annie looooves walks! We've recently discovered a new park for walking and it's very forest-like with a stream that winds throughout and little foot bridges and hills and even squirrels. Annie loves squirrels too. I don't think the feeling is mutual...

This was a cool, old barn we spotted at the base on the beach side of the hills. I just love old barns.

And this is a picture of the same barn using the wide angle, instead of the zoom lens. Have I mentioned how much I love the zoom!? Notice how blue the sky was - amazing for late October!

And here's a picture of the lovely ladies we passed by as they were enjoying this delightful fall day. Ahh, the very image of contentment - no worries, no deadlines, no political commercials...

And here, we've arrived at the beach!! This is the beach at Tierra del Mar where we used to live. In fact, this was "our" very own beach. We loved living here. That big, long finger of land that you see in the distance there, is Cape Lookout. A marvelous hiking trail goes clear out to the very end, and is a perfect place to do some whale watching or even more spectacular, storm watching.

And this is our old house. We lived here about 16-17 years ago. It looks like they've recently replaced the cedar shingles, but when we lived here, they were weathered and grey colored. See all those windows that face the ocean? Magnificient views!! And that deck was a great place to sit and read a book or just gaze out across the beach. It was a very peaceful place to live. One time during a storm when the tides were particularly high, the waves were within a few feet of lapping at the posts that the house is built on. It's hard to tell from this picture, but the house is built on stilts over the garage. The local fire department had gone from house to house and had everyone ready to leave at a moment's notice. Awesome storm!!!!

Here's that wonderful zoom, zoom put to good use again. I just love that pale green color of the surf just before it crashes down and becomes white and frothy. You can just get a glimpse on the far right of this picture. Such a calming color. Wouldn't it be so much fun to fly over the waves like these seagulls?? Just imagine...

Look at that face!! Ya just gotta love dogs - the sheer exuberance of running along a beach!!

From here, we took yet another backroads route towards home, stopping by the Casino for dinner...where we proceeded to stuff ourselves silly. Ooh, why do we do it to ourselves??? I was so full, I'm pretty sure I resembled a beach ball and just rolled my way outa there.

Annie however, thoroughly enjoyed her very large piece of prime rib confiscated just for her!!

Life is good - just ask the dog.