A Very Nice Weekend

...and the beauty of it was, we didn't drive all over half of California.

Ms Darlene came out again on her birthday so we visited her new favorite place in the world...Sausalito.   It's the town just across the Golden Gate from San Francisco, home of jewelry and fashion shops and trendy little Trip Advisor restaurants. We spent hours, Saturday, just walking around, amazed at the people who, like us, were out to see what others were gawking at.

That along with a trip up Highway 1 toward Stinson Beach and back toward the overlook at the Golden Gate filled the day.  It was great but the full moon shining across the bay made it a special event.

Sunday, we ate early at the Hollywood Cafe at a sidewalk table.  It was really great with large breakfast portions at a reasonable price and the service was just outstanding.

The rest of Sunday saw us walking up and down the streets from Ghiardelli Square to Pier 39 and lots of places in between.  That afternoon, we took an hour long boat ride out underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz Island.  We were told that 90% of San Franciscans have not been under that bridge.  (84.7353% of statistics are made up.)  As for a tour of Alcatraz, that's just not something I want to do and have to think about the pure misery of the prisoners on that rock.

Anyway, here's some pictures.

Sammon!

It probably occurred to me a couple weeks late but this past weekend, I thought it might be nice to check out the salmon run on the Stanislaus River.  Up north of Oakdale, California near Knights Ferry was where I thought was the more optimal place without having to drive through half of California.

I had it all to myself on a nice cool morning and with my back to the sun, the golden trees were simply magnificent.

Arriving pretty early Saturday morning, I took the trail down the Stanislaus for a mile or so.  Along the way, I was puzzled by perhaps a hundred buzzards in the trees.

I stopped to ponder them, taking a few photos before I settled in to check out some fall flowers and the bees and butterflies that found them attractive.

After doing my best to annoy the insects, I continued down the river and could hear a light roar from rushing waters.  This would be the Russian Rapid.

As I approached the water, I understood why the buzzards were roosting in the trees nearby.  In the water, there was one huge salmon that had died but not floating yet.  I watched the small rapids for quite a while and never seeing a fish jump in the attempt to go upstream.

 Apparently, I was a couple of weeks late and the main salmon run had already run it's course.  That's pretty much appropriate for me.

Returning back near my starting point, I was able to see several dozen large salmon under the large concrete bridge.  Some were a beautiful reddish color while some were gray showing white spots caused from a hard fight upstream from the ocean.  Parts of the skin were literally coming off right there in the water.

Reading up on the migration; once a salmon hatches out, it goes downstream to the ocean where it stays four or five years then begins it's migration back to where they were born.  Once they spawn, this is where they die and complete it's life cycle.

On the Stanislaus, the migration stops just above the old covered bridge, being stopped by a water control dam.  It was a nice day, walking the woods, fields and climbing over the rocks there.