Home > Domestic Diversions > West Coast Wanderings - August 2021

Angwin, California

On August 6 we arrived in Angwin, where Sandie's younger son Lief lives with his lovely wife Janeta, and sons Liam and Jensen, not to mention their golden Lab, Leila. Angwin is located high in the hills above Napa Valley; it's a most picturesque and pleasant area, although in recent years the terrible California wildfires have taken their toll. We sojourned in Angwin for several days, staying gratis in a pleasant apartment, as arranged by Lief with his stepsister Michelle and his dad and stepmom, Arnold and Bethel, who most graciously made the place available. While Sandie spent most of her time visiting with Lief, Janeta and the kids in their little house on Toyon Street, I took the opportunity to wander around Napa Valley and shoot pictures. I also accompanied them to visit the palatial estate on Crestmont Drive owned by Lief's deceased grandfather, Yacob Nashed, which is now in escrow pending its sale. This was a very fortuitous opportunity - although I had visited the house on previous occasions, I had never taken any pictures of it, and this was the last chance I ever would have to make a pictorial record of this extraordinary property for posterity.

61 files, last one added on Sep 16, 2021
Album viewed 26 times

Napa Valley, California

Although the time I spent in Napa Valley coincided with our sojourn in Angwin, I decided to devote a separate album to Napa Valley because the Angwin album was already too large, and because despite their geographical proximity, in a sense they occupy different worlds. Napa Valley is packed with wineries and overrun with tourists come to savor the delights of the grape; Angwin is secluded, serene, bucolic. Although I've been through Napa Valley many times, about twenty years have passed since my last visit and many things have changed; I wanted to record some of the changes as well as a few of the attractions I've missed on previous visits.

31 files, last one added on Sep 16, 2021
Album viewed 12 times

Rees Residence - Stockton, California

Sandie and I visit the residence of two of our favorite people in the world, JoAnn and Doug Rees, in Stockton, California. The visit was arranged by our treasured friend of many years, Diana Howell, who happens to be JoAnn's sister. JoAnn and Doug are longtime litterateurs, and a few years back they purchased an old but venerable house in a pleasant Stockton neighborhood, which house they then proceeded to renew and remodel into a veritable Utopia. They graciously let me shoot a myriad of photos of their property, and I have assembled the best of them here, with the only qualification that the SD card where photos originally resided somehow became partially corrupt, so that I lost most of those shot in the back yard; fortunately the cream of those I shot inside the house have survived.

28 files, last one added on Sep 17, 2021
Album viewed 14 times

Bend, Oregon - High Desert Museum

Sadly, our schedule only allowed us one day in Bend, but at least we were able to fulfill my long-cherished ambition to visit the Bend High Desert Museum, which I had never managed to do during all of my previous visits. The Museum had cosponsored (with Oregon State University) the venue where we viewed the Great American Eclipse of 2017, and our hosts Chuck and Elouise Mattox, who are members, highly recommended it and even furnished the passes for our visit, one of the privileges associated with their membership, in addition to providing us with the benefit of their company (always a delight) on our tour of the Museum. We were not disappointed. We only had one complaint - the Museum is so extensive that we wore ourselves out long before we could see even a large fraction of what it had to offer, so we'll have to go back again...and again...

48 files, last one added on Sep 18, 2021
Album viewed 14 times

An Afternoon in Edmonds, Washington

On the second day of our stay in the Seattle area, Sandie and I, together with Sandie's elder son Nick, visited Chuck and Elouise Mattox's daughter Sarah and her husband Mike at their fairytale house on the shore of Lake Ballinger in Edmonds, Washington, which turned out to be only a few short blocks from our B&B. Although Sandie and I had been to Sarah and Mike's wedding celebration in Bend (2001), we hadn't seen them together since then and we were anxious to renew our acquaintance. Sarah performs as a mezzo-soprano with the Seattle Opera, and Mike is a senior software developer formerly with Microsoft, now with Electronic Arts, Inc., a leading publisher of video games, and they tend to be rather busy people, so I was uncertain that they would have room in their schedules to meet with us. As it turned out, I need not have worried; they most graciously hosted us on the patio of their lakeside residence on a Saturday afternoon, and we spent several hours engaged in civilized conversation of a kind we can only experience with a very few people of our acquaintance (although, to be sure, we visited several of the others on this trip). And the ambience of the setting was amazing. We had a fabulous time, and we're most grateful to Sarah and Mike for their hospitality and their company.

39 files, last one added on Sep 21, 2021
Album viewed 18 times

Fremont District, Seattle

On Sunday, August 15, 2021 Sandie, Nick, Jane and I hopped into Red Sonja and headed for the Fremont District of Seattle. I was bent on visiting two sites in particular: the Fremont Troll and the Statue of Lenin, located close together on North 36th Street. After that, I thought, we could go wherever our fancies took us (that turned out to be the Gas Works Park, to which I've devoted a separate album). In the captions to the pictures presented here I could record only a small fraction of the essential facts available on these famous (or notorious?) attractions; for more adequate information on the Troll, see for example the Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Troll, and for the Lenin statue, a good account may be found at https://seattle.curbed.com/2019/8/27/20830552/seattle-fremont-vladimir-lenin-statue-history.

31 files, last one added on Sep 23, 2021
Album viewed 11 times

Seattle Gas Works Park

Although the Seattle Gas Works Park is properly part of the Fremont District, I have devoted a separate album to it because of the profusion of pictures I shot there; one album containing all the Fremont pictures would be very large and cumbersome. Also, the scenes are very different visually and topically, as you will see immediately.

15 files, last one added on Sep 23, 2021
Album viewed 11 times

7 albums on 1 page(s)

Random files - West Coast Wanderings - August 2021

Neighbors to the North5 viewsGigantic trees shade the residences on the north.

Janeta and Jensen at Crestmont2 viewsJaneta and Jensen, with Leyla intruding.

Hall Bathroom Wash Stand4 viewsThis first-floor bathroom sports a colorful floral sink.

Library cum Art Gallery2 viewsThe books share the library space with pictures and the mask collection.

Pet Haven6 viewsThe Museum kindly provides a shaded area with kennels for visitors to safely put up their pets while touring the Museum.

South View, Upper Level3 viewsA view of the Crestmont house from the south, on the first-floor level.

Napa Valley from Crestmont Drive1 viewsTelephoto view, looking west

A Side View of the Aviary2 viewsThe aviary at the Crestmont house, as seen from the southwest side.

Last additions - West Coast Wanderings - August 2021

Seattle Gas Works8 viewsThe Seattle Gas LIght company built this plant in 1906 and operated it until 1956, using coal and oil gasification technology..Sep 23, 2021

Capitol Hill9 viewsTo the left (east) of downtown is the Capitol Hill district, a hilly, densely populated area which is a center of entertainment and nightlife, and also of Seattle's LGBTQ community.Sep 23, 2021

Dominant Species4 viewsThe geese ignore the humans, whom they clearly regard as an inferior species, unworthy of their attention.Sep 23, 2021

Eastlake District7 viewsA view of the eastern shore of Lake Union from Kite Hill. The large white structure at center near the top of the hill, is St Mark's Episcopal Cathedral.Sep 23, 2021

Downtown Seattle7 viewsAs seen across Lake Union from the Gas Works Park. On the shoreline, in the center, is the Museum of History and Industry (Mohai).Sep 23, 2021

Nick and Jane on Kite Hill9 viewsI caught Nick and Jane as they were climbing Kite Hill and shot them against the background of the Aurora Avenue Bridge.Sep 23, 2021

City of Waterways7 viewsThis busy waterway is a part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal known as the Fremont Cut. The Canal enables water transport from Puget Sound to (surprise!) Lake Washington, via Lake Union..Sep 23, 2021

Canada Geese6 viewsThese geese are the same ones who show up on the golf course near our house in the fall and spring. The one in front is George, the next one is Georgia, the third is Geoff, then Glenda, and so on.Sep 23, 2021

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Event Horizon - Astronomical and Terrestrial Images