Sunday, July 15, 2012

Day 13 - Santa Cruz

Today was spent at the family reunion and today's activity was a hike along the bluffs at Wilder Ranch State Park. The ocean views along our short two and a half mile hike were pretty spectacular though being Sunday, there were quite a few others on the trails.

The clouds came and went the entire day. Overall, it has been much colder here than expected. And the reunion is one day shorter than I had planned in my itinerary. I will now be leaving here Tuesday afternoon instead of Wednesday. This will give me a bit more time to reach Baker City.

Our group moved pretty slowly on this walk giving lots of time to appreciate the bugs and thistles and to look for geocaches along the trail. I think we found about six caches on this short walk and my nephew really started to get into it once he found a couple. He thought that it would be a great activity for him during the summer as it didn't cost much to get started.

There were a number of sea lions sunning themselves on the rock outcropping. The color of the ocean really changed during the day depending on cloud conditions. Also, I just noticed today that the 50mm f1.8 Nikkor has no vibration reduction as do the kit zoom lenses. I think I rely on that feature a bit too much.

After our walk and a light lunch, we had a behind the scenes tour of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center by a family friend. We followed this up with local ice cream. If nothing else, this family eats well...

6 comments:

  1. Lovely pictures Richard. It looks like you are having a great vacation! Ice cream! the best adventures end with ice cream. Ride safe!

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    1. These reunions are always fun and, you're right, all good adventures include ice cream. I had the rocky road which was made with "housemade" (they don't claim homemade) marshmallows. Very good!

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  2. Gorgeous colors of the ocean. I love the bee/thistle picture too. So bright.

    What a great hike. With as much as you walk I bet that was an easy stroll for you.

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    1. I must admit that I enjoy walking along the ocean. I love the smells and the views.

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  3. Love the ocean views, fabulous hike. See you in Baker City, if not before en route.

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    1. It was a really nice hike along the bluffs. And the color of the water was a beautiful blue/green.

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