Makena Beach

 We had lots of pool and beach time, but wasn't until our last afternoon when we went to Makena State Park for a little beach time and to watch the sunset that I remembeed to take a few pictures.

Haleakela

 We made the trip to the top of Haleakela on a clear day and the views were amazing, but mostly we took pictures of ourselves. It was a little chilly at 10,000 feet.

On the way down from the summit we stopped for a snack and nature walk in Hosmer Grove.

Maui October 2021

 We managed to jump through all the COVID hoops and spent a lovely week in Maui with the Bordelons. We did a few tourist things and spent a lot of quality time hanging out at the beach and pool.

We visited the Maui Ocean Center which is always fascinating

 

We took a tour on a dolphin discovery boat

We enjoyed a little shave ice

And admired the view from our lanai

Calvin even got up early one morning and bought the famous cinnamon rolls for us for breakfast.

To the coast

 We left the Bohemian highway after our trip to the redwoods and headed to Bodega Bay, made famous by Alfred Hitcock's movie The Birds. So naturally we had to try out the Birds Cafe and check out their chowder and artichoke fritters.

After lunch we spent a lazy afternoon exploring Goat Rock Beach

The next day we head south on the coast to spend a few delightful sunny hours on Salmon Creek Beach.

From the beach we headed to a walk in the redwoods at Samuel P Taylor State Park where we took the Pioneer Tree Trail. 

Poison oak is plentiful in this area, and Calvin pointed out every single poison oak plant on the entire hike.

Thanks to abundant caution we made it safely off the trail with no itches.

We decided to add another day to our trip and took the ferry from Vallejo to San Francisco. The ferry ride was great, 

but the early morning haze on the bayturned out to smoke from the fires from a shift in the winds.

The Port of San Francisco was busy with tourists, so we joined the crowd and wandered around for a few hours.

Calvin even found a moment to relive his glory days on the Pampanito.

Then we drove back to Reno to the freshest air we had seen in weeks.

Guerneville

This summer we have had giant forest fires burning to the northwest of us and the southwest of us.  On the rare occasion when the wind blows from the east the smoke will clear, but many days this summer our air quality has ranged from unhealthy to dangerous.  On those days we look at the map to find a place that is smoke free and head off on an adventure.  Several times in the past we have headed to the Russian River area to get out of the smoke, so that is where we headed again this year.

The smoke was so bad that driving west from Reno on I80 you couldn't even see the Sierra foothills just a few miles away.

It was a relief to get to Guernevill where the air was clear and the river was inviting.

Our first outing was taking a canoe trip on the Russian River.  We have done this several times.  This year the water was pretty low, but still deep enough for the canoes.

It was a perfect day for the trip.  Calvin spotted some ripe blackberries and had a little snack.

We also saw some river otters, who hid from the camera, and several herons.

The next day Calvin rode his bike along the Bohemian Highway from Guerneville to Occidental, where we connected and I met him at the Landpaths Grove of Old Trees, stand of old redwoods that was preserved from the loggers. We had a short ramble...being every so careful to avoid the poison oak.