Pouring My Art Out

Detours: A California adventure… part 8; Boys, birds, beaches, and some bushes…

Posted on January 7, 2018 by pouringmyartout

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We have made it to the morning of the second day of my three-day, detour-filled California road trip adventure. My first detour involved going out of my way to visit my cousins in Santa Cruz… which is decidedly not on the direct route back from the San Francisco Bay Area to San Diego.

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This little outing, which required me to backtrack North on Highway One, over ground which I had just covered the day before, could be considered my second detour.

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My three cousins and I took a long walk out to the Northern California coast.

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We enjoyed views of the Pacific Ocean from some cliff tops.

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It was quite lovely.

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Campbell and Clark enjoyed snack time quite a bit.

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There were quite a few birds about.

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Taking pictures of small children and birds is challenging. They are always moving.

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You just have to hope for the best.

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Every once in a while, you get lucky.

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I think this was a segregated beach.

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Or maybe it was just birds of a feather flocking together.

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I love trying to take pictures of birds in the air. I will be honest, and admit that I cropped some of these photos to get rid of all the extra blue sky.

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It makes it look like I am a better photographer than I actually am.

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And yes, as the title of the post implies, I did take some pictures of bushes.

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There was something interesting about them.

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And I do like Spanish moss… which I think is really some kind of lichen… maybe…

Posted in dogs and other animals, My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged art, beaches, birds, california, humor, kids, nature, Northern California, photography, travel | 4 Comments

Detours: A California adventure… part 7; One day down…

Posted on January 7, 2018 by pouringmyartout

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Here we are, at the end of the first day of my three-day, detour-filled California road trip adventure.

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I know, I didn’t post yesterday. I got the flu… with a migraine… wheee…

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I had a great time, visiting that beach with all the tide pools, in Santa Cruz in Northern California.

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My little cousin, Campbell, had fun too.

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I spotted a mommy otter with her baby.

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I love otters.

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I love a full moon, too.

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You will see more of this little guy tomorrow… uh… I mean, the tomorrow of this day, not the tomorrow of today… if you see what I mean.

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There is a nice sunset in there… somewhere…

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Not the best pictures I ever took of otters.

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They were pretty far from shore.

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But still… otters!

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Good night, moon.

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Good night, stupid telephone wires, enemy of all photographers.

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I have not tried the paddle board thing yet. It looks relaxing… and sort of boring.

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Okay, I am going back to bed. See you soon… I hope.

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life, sunsets | Tagged art, beaches, california, humor, kids, Northern California, otters, photography, tide pools, travel | 41 Comments

Detours: A California adventure… part 6; With friends like these, who needs anemones?

Posted on January 5, 2018 by pouringmyartout

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Yes, I know it was a bad joke. Or pun… or whatever.

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I try to make my titles interesting, to increase my readership. You might also have noticed, in the title, that this is part 6 of a series. That is why I am not going to explain again why I was on this beach in Santa Cruz in Northern California.

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Because you should already know why I was there, who I was with, where I was on my way to, where I was coming from, and many other interesting details that make this a good adventure.

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You should also know that I am partial to the green anemones.

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I don’t know what this stuff is, so I call it ‘sea moss’.

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A humming bird finds the mother lode in some aloe flowers.

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I hope you like the aloe flowers…

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They are going to play an important role in an adventure I had the following day.

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That is a nice picture of some drift wood… or a drift tree…

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Soak it in… especially if you live where it is snowing.

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Hey, cousin!

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I have one more post of photos from this, the end of the first day of my three-day, detour-filled adventure.

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I hope you stick around for the rest of the story.

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Because it is worth hearing about.

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Otters!!!

Posted in flowers, My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged adventure, animals, beaches, california, flowers, humor, nature, Northern California, otters, photography, the sea, travel | 6 Comments

Detours: A California adventure… part 5; The reason for my first detour…

Posted on January 5, 2018 by pouringmyartout

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There is one of the reasons I took the detour that started off this three-day, detour-laden road trip. My little cousin, Campbell… pronounced ‘camble’ for those of you who were wondering.

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Yes, I stopped by Santa Cruz on my way from the San Francisco Bay Area back to San Diego… which is really not on the way at all. But it does account for the cool pictures of the Northern California coast that you have been looking at.

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So, here I was, at the end of the first day of my journey, at a beach with some awesome tide pools!

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I love tide pools!

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Oooooo… baby kelp.

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And this beach had a lot of tide pools. It was like the ocean’s front porch.

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Anemones… anemoni???

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I like the green ones.

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Sun rays.

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There is my cousin, Mallorie. She is an awesome mom! And yes, she has two sons. We will see the other one tomorrow… because I spent the entire next day having adventures with my cousins.

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I don’t know why people stack stones, but these stones are stacked in a particularly nice spot.

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Okay, I actually have at least one more post of pictures from this outing, because I don’t like to add more than 12 or so pictures to a post. See you later, I hope.

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged beaches, california, family, humor, kids, nature, Northern California, photography, santa cruz, tide pools, travel | Leave a comment

Detours: A California adventure… part 4; Birds and beaches…

Posted on January 4, 2018 by pouringmyartout

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It is time to leave the lighthouse… which you can just see the corner of, over there to the right… and continue on the first leg of my epic, detour-filled, three-day jaunt along the coast of California.

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I guess I didn’t drive too far before I found another place to stop and take a picture or two… the lighthouse is still in view, further North, towards the Bay Area.

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There were more birds than people on most of the beaches I stopped to look at.

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That would rarely be true in Southern California, even in the winter.

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Uh… maybe that is why Alfred Hitchcock set the movie ‘The Birds’ in Northern California.

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This is what you call a ‘rugged’ coastline.

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Lots of birds.

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Yup.

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The horizon was lit up by a long rip in the clouds.

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In my next post, you will learn why I took this first, planned detour, and we will have some fun… I promise.

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That is a good picture of some kelp beds… those long, wavy, floaty, green-brown plants of the sea. If you can skin dive or scuba dive through kelp without hearing the theme song from the movie ‘Jaws’ in your head, then you must not have seen the movie.

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged art, beaches, birds, california, humor, nature, Northern California, outdoors, photography, travel | 2 Comments

Detours: A California adventure… part 3; The not-so-Pacific Ocean…

Posted on January 4, 2018 by pouringmyartout

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The definition of ‘pacific’ is; ‘peaceful in character or intent’. This is patently untrue of the Pacific Ocean… particularly in Northern California. We are continuing our driving adventure down Highway One, heading South on the California coast, between San Francisco and San Diego.

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I have taken photos of this lighthouse on other trips, and shared them here, but I never drove out the little road to visit it before.

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This is the Pacific Ocean of Northern California. Not the white beaches and palm trees of the southern end. This is a rocky coastline, full of shoals and reefs and submerged hazards. This is cold water that will kill you with hypothermia in a short while. This is kelp beds full of Great White sharks. This is fog and mist and sudden squalls and raging storms.

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My most interesting… of the many… near-death-experience stories in my life occurred along this coastline. You should use the search bar and type in variations of ‘near death experience’, and ‘drowning’, and read that story. Go on, we will wait for you by the lighthouse.

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I said, in this series, that we would talk about the sea, that volatile, crazy mistress. A lighthouse is the perfect setting for that conversation. Because lighthouses aren’t just cute photo ops. They saved lives, back before GPS and satellites. They still do.

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This is a sea that will turn on you in a heartbeat.

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Her calm beauty one moment can swiftly turn to howling insanity.

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Her gently caressing waves and alluring swells can become towering walls of black water dragging behind them foaming white tresses. The soft breezes can whip themselves into the frenzy of a wailing Banshee.

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The rocks that are home to sea bird and sea lion wait to to stove in the beams of the unwary.

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You can love this mistress, but you should never turn your back on her.

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I have been a sailor. I have loved this sea, but I have also feared her.

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To the left in that photo, in front of the lighthouse, rests a large chunk of the side of a schooner, built in 1883. She perished on the rocks right below the lighthouse. The placard beside this remnant explains how the lighthouse keeper of the time waited impatiently for the wreck to break up. There is nothing more disheartening to passing sailors than the sight of a wreck, cast upon the rocks… right below the very lighthouse that was built to save such ships from that very circumstance.

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged california, humor, lighthouse, nature, Northern California, outdoors, pacific ocean, photography, the sea, travel | 4 Comments

Detours: A California adventure… part 2; The wild edge of America…

Posted on January 3, 2018 by pouringmyartout

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So where are we going, exactly, on this epic, three-day, detour-packed adventure down the coast of California, I hear you wondering?

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Do not be in such a hurry, fellow traveler!

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Like all good adventures, this one will unfold before us as we journey onward.

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For now, all we need to know is that we left San Francisco behind, and, a very short time later, we were on the coast, heading South.

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I passed by numerous little towns, fishing towns, artsy towns, touristy towns, but I didn’t pass by any good views of the sea without pulling over to take a photo for you.

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And I have done this drive before, and shared the pictures, and I don’t like to show the same thing in the same way if I can help it.

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We will talk more of the sea. We will talk about her moods. We will get to know her well.

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For this is not the Pacific Ocean of the Southern California coastline.

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This is a raw and wild sea, prone to fits of anger.

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This is a sea to treat with great respect.

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Because, though her face can be charming, there is a devil in her heart.

Posted in My art, Stories of my life | Tagged art, beaches, california, humor, nature, Northern California, outdorrs, pacific ocean, photography, travel | 3 Comments

Detours: A California adventure… part 1; Goodbye San Francisco…

Posted on January 3, 2018 by pouringmyartout

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I left my mom’s house on New Year’s Eve, after the Christmas madness, the house full of too many people, family drama, people getting sick, the double Christmas dinner, the exhaustion and post-Christmas letdown… and I stopped on Treasure Island in the middle of the bay to take a few quick photos.

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The grey skies almost matched my mood. I hate leaving the Bay Area. But this time, I was excited as well. It usually takes me about 7 or 8 hours to get back to San Diego, but now, I was on the first of many detours, and heading for an epic adventure that would require three full days of nonstop action.

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Goodbye, Oakland Bay Bridge, that passes through a tunnel cut right through the heart of the small mountain on one end of Treasure Island.

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Goodbye, San Francisco, the scene of so many adventures in the past.

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Goodbye, Golden Gate, the four-way passage to adventures for so many millions of people, locals, tourists and sailors alike.

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Goodbye, Transamerica building, once the tallest and most iconic building of the city.

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Piss off, Sales Force monolithic building, looming over the city like Sauron’s dark tower.

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You will never add anything to the beauty of the view. At best, you will be ignored and looked down upon.

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Goodbye, fog and mist and cloud, that add such depth and mystery to the places I love.

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And goodbye, Alcatraz, where so many criminal dreams were once put on hold… except the most basic human dream… to escape to somewhere better.

I hope you join me on my adventure. There will be cute kids, animals, flowers, awesome pictures of the Pacific Ocean, unexpected detours, and a few planned… well, more-or-less-planned… detours. I took a couple hundred photos over the three days. I will probably delete quite a few, but no promises. And I will still be doing other weird posts in between the continuation of this story. So, uh, see you around, I guess.