Davidson Woods

May 2, 2017 Auke Bay AK
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 18, 1970
We’re tired after our first day of touring and birding the Juneau area. The generator and furnace are on. Anne is frying fresh salmon. All is well. We were surprised to wake up to sunshine this morning. The forecast was for storm. Some of that came through the night. The seasonal employee we met this morning told us that here forecasts are only suggestions for the weather. It seldom follows them. I told him we changed our plans because of it. He said that was wise.

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTWe’re tired after our first day of touring and birding the Juneau area.  The generator and furnace are on.  Anne is frying fresh salmon.  All is well.  We were surprised to wake up to sunshine this morning.  The forecast was for storm.  Some of that came through the night.  The seasonal employee we met this morning told us that here forecasts are only suggestions for the weather.  It seldom follows them.  I told him we changed our plans because of it.  He said that was wise. We first stalked the secretive Varied Thrush.  A few of them inhabit our campground giving their unusual song of long-spaced single notes of varied pitch and quality.  They can be tough to find because  they stop singing when you approach.  So as not to prolong the endeavor we briefly played a recording of the song and had one fly close looking here and there for his rival as we enjoyed watching him.  Then we began our “long drive” to Eagle Beach.  One can drive only about 80 miles around Juneau before running out of roads, so there are no long drives here.  The ride “out the road” goes the farthest, all of about 38 miles.  We went about half of that to enjoy walks along the channel, through the rain forest, and to the Shrine to St. Therese.  The “shrine” as it is called here includes cabins and a trail that follows a pedestrian causeway to a high island that houses a chapel made of local round granite cobbles.  Along the trails one finds stations of the cross under porcelain roofs.  Charming.  Behind the chapel at the point facing the bay is a life-sized porcelain statue of Christ upon the cross.  Behind him the path leads to a rail overlooking the bay.  Across the bay are the Chilcat Mountains all pointy and enshrouded in puffy snow fresh from last night’s precipitation.  What a sight! Below were coastal birds.  Hooded and Red-necked Grebes joined Marble Murrelets and both Red-breasted and Common Mergansers in fishing.  Bonaparte’s, Glaucous-winged, Herring, and Mew Gulls did their best to steal their catch.  Perched above were various Bald Eagles.  I prefer to call them White-headed Sea Eagles, but that name will not catch on.  Here we nickname them Alaska Seagulls.  Common as dirt they scavenge and steal as they can or pluck live sushi from the surface of the bays.  Returning to the mainland we found a dozen extravagantly attired Harlequin Ducks along the rocky shore with common Mallard.  This is what Alaska birding is about! We stopped and ate lunch at Eagle Beach where a glacial stream makes a delta upon the bay.  There we saw more birds and more mountains.  A wind had come up to make the weather seem cold to us.  It was 46 degrees however and an obviously native Alaskan took his children and dogs out in short sleeves.  We felt like such wimps. We returned to camp to pick up our computer and drove into town to find the McDonalds and Wifi.  Along the way we passed the Mendenhall River and looked upstream to see the face of the famous Mendenhall Glacier.  It ends at a lake a few miles from Juneau.  It was probably a tidewater glacier only a millennium ago.  Today it is probably the most visited American valley glacier.  Cruise ships come to Juneau and the buses go to the visitor center.  From there the visitors walk up to the lake to look across at the wall.  Tomorrow we may take a more remote path to the ice itself.  The guidebook warns against climbing the ice.  It is very slippery. This evening it rains again.  This is a rain forest.  Tomorrow we venture forth again to visit the Mendenhall wetlands and the glacier itself.
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May 1, 2017 - Auke Bay AK
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 18, 1970
We’re situate in a lovely NFS campground ten miles from Juneau Alaska. Arrived by ferry at 4:45 a.m. this morning. Our literature said the campground opened today, but we found the gate locked. We called the office to remind them of the opening. A ranger knocked on our door at Noon to tell us it was open. He remarked on our A.T. sticker and said he had through-hiked the trail in 1984.

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTWe’re situate in a lovely NFS campground ten miles from Juneau Alaska.  Arrived by ferry at 4:45 a.m. this morning.  Our literature said the campground opened today, but we found the gate locked.  We called the office to remind them of the opening.  A ranger knocked on our door at Noon to tell us it was open.  He remarked on our A.T. sticker and said he had through-hiked the trail in 1984. The morning was sunny and a balmy 47 degrees.  Some 60 or so school children arrived for a field trip just as we began walking the lovely trail to Point Louisa.  We were charmed to see them.  They scarcely bothered the birds.  Their picnic lunch ended up in the shelters when the showers arrived.  Now it is cold and rainy.  A storm is forecast for tomorrow.  We will grin and bear it.  We need a day in town anyway. The ferry ride through the Inside Passage was marvelous.  The campers were loaded first, so I had the ship to myself for a while.  Poor Anne was nearly the last auto to be loaded.  Both of us chatted with other passengers while waiting for a reunion.  Perhaps we made friends of all 147 of them during the voyage.  The group included a few tourists but mostly Alaskans and people going to work in Alaska.  There were a few of the subsistence folks.  They are easy to spot.  Alaska is the last frontier, or so they say. We started picking up new year-birds almost immediately and did reach the 300 mark before leaving Washington waters.  The last three were Common Murre, Ancient Murrelet, and Tufted Puffin.  Yeehaw! Watched Bellingham recede behind us and then in the evening saw the robust and prosperous City of Vancouver emerge in front.  The skyscrapers rose behind an enormous pile of coal ready for transport to China.  We had taken our dinner at Noon in camp on the first day of our voyage and enjoyed a supper of our own sandwich that evening on the ship.  We found the little cabin comfortable.  The night seemed dark, but when I turned off the lights and looked out the cabin window I saw that the sky gray and not black.  We may not see a black night again until July when we return to Washington state. The ship passed Prince Ruppert as we slept and we we in wilderness all of the second day of the voyage.  We passed many white frosted green mountains on either side and crossed two sections of open water.  In the second we encountered substantial seas that sent waves of spray across the windows of the observation deck.  A young fool disregarded the captain’s advice and stood for a time on the open deck.  He became drenched, no worse.  The ship groaned a bit each time the bow fell and made spray after crossing a big swell. Someone yelled whale and I raised my binoculars to observe a humpback whale dive with raised tail.  Pods of Risso Dolphin scooted past looking like miniature killer whales.  We prepared a second supper on board from canned chicken and Thai sides in the microwave in the cafeteria and watched the recent Star Wars movie in the theater before retiring. Yesterday, the ship made three stops.  We set alarms because we were told we would have to move the car during the first stop at Ketchikan.  That was great because we could use it to drive around the town.  There we found a great omelet in a local breakfast shop.  Yum, yum.  All worked out well, but one of the two wake-up alarms failed.  The ship operates on Alaska time.  In a sense one never leaves the United States on the Alaska Marine Highway.  Upon boarding you are on Alaska time.  But the telephone persisted in being an hour ahead.  We got used to that and so set the alarm an hour ahead (on Pacific Time).  The clock alarm we set to Alaska time.  Of course, on the second morning we entered Alaska waters and the phone reset itself, but it did not adjust the alarm time.  So, it rang an hour late after we were already up and off the ship.  No problem.  My silly old alarm clock worked just fine without complications.  On the third day we passed through various narrows (fiords) between hills and mountains.  Narrow water falls gave spray from a thousand feet.  On this day we bought the ship’s supper, Anne salmon and I pot roast, as the ship entered the truly narrow Wrangell Narrows.  The 407 foot long vessel passed within twenty feet of the channel markers as it moved slowly snaking between rocks and flats.  We went ashore briefly at Wrangell and walked downtown to see it.  With only 45 minutes for the visit we walked quickly.  These towns share a common history.  First came the seekers of fur and gold.  For some that led to a brief boom.  Then came fishing leading to another boom that went bust upon the arrival of statehood when the residents outlawed fish trapping and the like that were ruining the fishing.  Meanwhile logging arrived and cleared much of the forests.  Today the economy is a blend of mining, logging, fishing, and tourism.  The economy is doing well for the folks who enjoy a harsh climate. By evening snow was in the hills as well as in the mountains.  The land and trees no longer look like Vermont.  This is a different sort of place already.  The cold clear water rushes with the big tides along rocky shores.  Big trees float in the water and line many of the banks.  The forest trees, except the alders, are cone shaped to shed snow.  The alders are just breaking their buds.  The land, the vegetation, the buildings, the boats, and the people all seem rugged. We reached our point of landing this morning very early and so were up at four o’clock.  There was plenty of light.  We unloaded the vehicles separately, hooked up, and drove to a 24 hour grocery in Juneau.  The fridge had to be turned off on the ship, so we needed new perishables.  I wanted to go to the washroom and went in ahead of Anne.  She noticed the rig shaking.  I walked right through our first earthquake in Alaska without noticing it.  It was only a small one.  Seems to be the talk of the town.  All set we went to find our campground.  We’re the only campers.  It is lovely.  We’ve reserved three nights.  Will probably move to an RV park in town at the end of the week for more niceties but can decide later.  The agent said that this site is now open until the 26th.  I don’t think we will be kicked out.  The rate here is $10.  The rate in the commercial park is $40 and it has no view.  But can we tolerate the cold wet weather for more than three days?
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April 30, 2017 - Inland Passage AK
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 18, 1970
I report on our three day day sea voyage from Bellingham WA to Juneau AK. It is called inland but we crossed two open water areas. The first was merely rough. During the second the ship climbed great swells and dropped its bow with a groan. The next wave crashed against the bow and sent sheets of spray across the bow and over the windows of the observation deck. At least one wave must have drenched the windows of the bridge above.

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTI report on our three day day sea voyage from Bellingham WA to Juneau AK.  It is called inland but we crossed two open water areas.  The first was merely rough.  During the second the ship climbed great swells and dropped its bow with a groan.  The next wave crashed against the bow and sent sheets of spray across the bow and over the windows of the observation deck.  At least one wave must have drenched the windows of the bridge above.  The ship also passed through straights including the famous Wrangell Narrows where it snaked along the channel within yards of channel markers.  We watched ducks and loons swim or fly to get out of our way. The cruise was a small adventure.  I boarded with the camper.  Anne drove the car.  The crew loaded the campers first and I had the ship almost to myself at the start.  Anne boarded two hours later.  Our vehicles joined tractor trailers, new ocean boats, campers, and cars on the vehicle deck.  There they slept while we traveled.  Twice a day we could visit them.  Other folks had to go down to care for their animals that are not allowed on the passenger decks.  We had stayed in camp until 1:30.  Made a dinner of brats.  Broke camp and stopped for gasoline and propane.  Drove to ferry terminal.  Picked up tickets and parked in line.  I was loaded early, but Anne had to wait until 5:30.  I walked about the still quiet ship observing loons, eagles, ducks, oystercatchers, and Mom waiting.  I picked up the cabin keys and found it comfortable.  The ship quietly moved off the dock shortly after Anne’s boarding.  We watched Bellingham shrink behind us and finally saw Mt. Baker in all its glory Just another snow-covered volcano.  Rhinoceros Auklet, Tufted Puffin, and Common Murre were added to our year list.  Perhaps we reached 300 year-birds before we left American waters.  Near Vancouver we passed a grand Holland America cruise ship.  The large modern city basked in the twilight.  An enormous mountain of coal was stacked for loading.  I suspect it is going to China.  The skyscrapers twinkled as darkness settled in. Though it seemed dark, the sky seemed only dusky when the lights were turned off.  I doubt we will see another dark night until July.  We were tired and retired early the first night on the ship.  From time to time I would awake to the vibration of a train and then realized it was the vibration of the ship’s engine driving us at almost 20 miles per hour north and west to Alaska. Our ship was the first of the Alaska Marine Highway line and built in 1963.  It has been refurbished and the furnishings seem new.  Originally 353 feet in length, it is now 408.  It may hold 499 passengers, but only 146 souls joined us to southeastern Alaska.  We enjoyed their conversation and stories.  Most were Alaskans or folks going to work in Alaska.  A few were subsistence folks.  We found only a few other tourists.  They will come later. On the second day we enjoyed the cruise.  Now landings on that day.  The trees shrank and the snow extended half way down the mountains.  In the afternoon we passed waterfall after waterfall plunging down the walls of the fjords.  There we many pleasant conversations.  Folks watched us watch the birds and asked about them.  
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April 27 - Bellingham WA
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 18, 1970
The rain has stopped and it is 54 degrees in northeastern Washington. Lately it has been warmer in Alaska. Good thing we depart by ferry for Juneau tomorrow evening. Will arrive May 1st. Hard to believe the time has come. We called to find that the snow is gone from the coast. That was great news. Ten years ago we arrived to find it reaching the shore.

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTThe rain has stopped and it is 54 degrees in northeastern Washington.  Lately it has been warmer in Alaska.  Good thing we depart by ferry for Juneau tomorrow evening.  Will arrive May 1st.  Hard to believe the time has come.  We called to find that the snow is gone from the coast.  That was great news.  Ten years ago we arrived to find it reaching the shore. Washington has treated us well but it has been cold and wet.  Lots of flowers and new leaves dipping with moisture.  We’ve passed ahead of many of the migrating birds, but Marsh Wrens and Common Yellowthroats have started singing along the water.  Already Bald Eagles are everyday sights.  Many of the geese are ahead of us, but huge flocks of ducks are assembled along the coast and moving north between meals.  We’ll see many of them from the ferry.  The bays to the west are lovely and the islands seem towers.  The vegetation suggests Maine, but the trees are larger as the climate is less brutal.  The deserts we visited on this expedition are now almost forgotten though there is a different sort of desert not too far to the east across the high mountains that look so formidable and remain mostly hidden in clouds.  There is talk of clearing tomorrow.  That might give us a view of the high peaks from the deck of the M/V Malaspina.  We went shopping yesterday and this morning to stock up for southeast Alaska and the Yukon Territory.  We also need food for the three-day ferry ride.  Don’t want to take all our meals at the cafeteria.  We are well and walking on most days with or without ponchos.  Our old camper is serving us well.  Looks like it will get us to the boat after a long cruise here by way of San Diego.  We enjoy the small space. Washingtonions are chomping at the bit to get out of their houses.  They are complaining loudly of the cold.  We, going to Alaska, chuckle about that.  We're ready.
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April 23, 2017 - Bonney Lake WA
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 18, 1970
Raining this afternoon and rather cool. We’ve become hardened for Alaska. Still we had one fabulously clear day traveling from near Mt. Hood to here at the foot of Mt. Rainier. At first had the one snowball in our rear view mirror and later faced the somewhat ominous Rainier looming in front of us.

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTRaining this afternoon and rather cool.  We’ve become hardened for Alaska.  Still we had one fabulously clear day traveling from near Mt. Hood to here at the foot of Mt. Rainier.  At first had the one snowball in our rear view mirror and later faced the somewhat ominous Rainier looming in front of us. We tour and walk mostly between showers but sometimes with rainsuits or umbrellas.  We are traveling north with the spring.  Daffodils at every stop from San Diego to Seattle.  In Oregon we took one fine day to see the wonderfully tall Multnomah Falls and other features along the enormous canyon of the Columbia River.  Then we turned south to loop around Rainier across snow covered slopes.  At first the peak was hidden by clouds but as we crossed its shoulder the icy lobes fingered toward us from the hoary crown.  Finally we turned again and coasted down to our campground.  Did not see the peak again until the day we left.  Escaped the rain, cold, and bare trees by driving to Portland where we walked about the Magnolia and Rhododendron garden that was in full bloom despite the gray weather.  Rained every day we were in Oregon except the last as we left. Here we visit old friends of Anne.  On this Sunday afternoon we are sharing wine, smoked salmon, and other snacks.  Wonderful.  Tomorrow we are on to Bellingham at the border with Canada.  We will stay there for four nights to regroup and tour.  Our ferry tickets say April 28.  I guess we are in Alaska next week.  Amazing.  Took us two and a half months to get there, but there we go.  Tomorrow we have to sneak past the congested gold rush towns of Bellevue and Redmond.  Bellingham will be quieter.  Alaska is a different world.  How has it changed in ten years?  We will let you know.   
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April 16, 2017 - Eugene OR
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 18, 1970
We are camped in the Pacific Northwest. The natives complain that spring refuses to come. Weather continues cold and rainy despite the cherry and tulip blossoms. The rivers are flush and the ground soggy. After a few days of gray fog I became depressed. Then, arriving here after leaving Ashland OR the sun emerged and cheer returned.

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTWe are camped in the Pacific Northwest.  The natives complain that spring refuses to come.  Weather continues cold and rainy despite the cherry and tulip blossoms.  The rivers are flush and the ground soggy.  After a few days of gray fog I became depressed.  Then, arriving here after leaving Ashland OR the sun emerged and cheer returned. In Ashland we visited family and friends.  Enjoyed the comfort and joy of these acquaintances but spent less time birding.  That may have been fine because the neo-tropical migrants seem not to have arrived and many of the water fowl have departed.  The few birds we have not yet found here are playing hard to get.  A walk later this Easter morning may reveal them, but we may miss a few of the Northwest specialties.  We are, after all, skirting the edge of this region. Here too we stop mostly to visit family.  Were last here six years ago.  It is far from home.  So, there is a reunion, a brunch out yesterday and dinner together at home this afternoon.  Tomorrow morning we continue north to the slope of Mt. Hood east or Portland.  There for a few days we will look up upon the snow and try to make a loop around it through the mountain forests and along the gorge of the great Columbia River. This is volcano country, perhaps the hottest part of the lower 48.  Enjoy all the cones.  Between Red Bluff and Ashland was the monster Shasta.  The weather favored us and the clouds opened upon our approach to reveal the massive vanilla ice cream cone surrounded by smaller bumps.  Ashland itself is surrounded by intact and blown-up cones.  Not really much to worry about, but it does make you think.  Next stop Mt. Hood.  After that Mt. Rainier.  One after another.  We will be very happy if it is raining only half of the time.
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April 6, 2017 - Red Bluff CA
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 18, 1970
Rain and more rain. What gives with this California. I should not complain. It has been a week since the last rain-out day in Half Moon Bay. Unfortunately the forecast is for wind and more rain tomorrow.

April 9

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTRain and more rain.  What gives with this California.  I should not complain.  It has been a week since the last rain-out day in Half Moon Bay.  Unfortunately the forecast is for wind and more rain tomorrow.  April 9 The rain didn’t stop the birding.  Before dawn we drove two and one half hours to Sacramento to join “birding buddies” and explore “the patch” of one of them.  Saw some 63 birds.  We opened a few nest boxes to sneak peaks at sitting owls and ducks.  Great weather for ducks.  Before the rains arrived we made two visits to Lassen Volcanics National Park.  The park road is closed after the visitor centers which are at the north and south entrances.  On the first day we drove in at the south entrance.  Snow banks of ten to fifteen feet created a canyon for the road.  The visitor center seemed a glacier and we easily walked up a snow ramp and trudged to the nearest hot springs a mile away.  The smell of sulfur permeated the atmosphere and the roaring boil created mist in the bright sunshine.  We wore sun glasses to prevent snow blindness.  Worried we would step through the hard surface, but it stayed intact until our return for lunch.  The second day we drove to the north entrance and the campground and visitor center just beyond.  Walked around a lovely lake that was thawing.  There the elevation was lower and the snow was partly gone.  The patches along the trail there were tougher to walk across, but we were plucky.  Lassen loomed white above, impressively.  It last erupted in 1915.  Now it seems quiet, but the USGS watches it closely. Yesterday, chains were required to reach the park.  For our last hike we drove half way to park at a game lands in parkland with patches of oak and Coulter Pine.  Saw a golden eagle lift off a perch and float across and over a slope.  Every shrub and many herbs were in bloom.  The streams were flush, the lower slopes emerald green, and the upper slopes white with fresh snow. Here in the Central Valley the horticulturalists are sharpening their shears and cutting away.  One storm brought wind as well as soaking rain.  In the park in which we are camped a tree came down opposite us and branches are everywhere.  We may throw one from our roof when roll up our slide-outs. We’re on the road today, moving to Ashland OR where it is also wet and a bit cooler.  We hope not to get ahead of the spring, but it is slow incoming this year.  Was e-mailing a gal in Alaska about reservations this week.  She remarked that “it has been a hard winter here.”  We are less than a month from arrival.  May it be warmer in May.
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March 31, 2017 - Half Moon Bay CA and San Francisco
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 18, 1970
In some ways similar to San Diego. Lovely land, turbulent sea, splendid weather, and crazy traffic. Enjoyed four nights in San Francisco proper with Alex. Visited Golden Gate Park and the West End and admired Alamo Square from above. The park remains closed but the sods we saw planted last fall are firmly established after a winter of rain. The other hills, Bernal and Corona and those outside town are also brilliant green with hints of other color from the multitude of flowers. The orange green and scarlet Allen’s Hummingbirds are zipping among the
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTIn some ways similar to San Diego.  Lovely land, turbulent sea, splendid weather, and crazy traffic.  Enjoyed four nights in San Francisco proper with Alex.  Visited Golden Gate Park and the West End and admired Alamo Square from above.  The park remains closed but the sods we saw planted last fall are firmly established after a winter of rain.  The other hills, Bernal and Corona and those outside town are also brilliant green with hints of other color from the multitude of flowers.  The orange green and scarlet Allen’s Hummingbirds are zipping among the blossoms and the Pacific Wrens producing a zippy and colorful song from the bushes.  On the day after our arrival, when we stayed in our rig here in Half Moon Bay a storm shook the house and brought waves of rain along the coast.  That evening we picked up Alex at the multi-colored complex of buildings in the Facebook campus and whisked him and us into the city.  The sun came out after that, first with clouds and then clear sunshine. San Francisco town was much as we had left it after our visit last fall.  Our jogs through the Panhandle Park passed missing benches that have yet to be replaced “because of the rain.”  Californians will have to discover how to operate when water falls out of the sky.  The rest of us do.  The Golden Gate Bridge remains iconic with its great towers and strand of highway across the great inlet.  So many new apartments under construction are now occupied, for lease or sale, or coming to market.  Considering how much our son’s company has grown, more may be needed. The food remains wonderful and extravagant.  Anne bought products of the sea to create a wonderful cioppino.  We shopped at Bed Bath and Beyond and worked on household projects with Alex.  He rises “late” so Anne and I catch a bus to the sea shore at dawn and return to see him off to work.  All activity is make-shift, a break from our usual schedule of running to target destinations each day when on our own.  As I write this we prepare for our last day’s visit.  We will drive with Alex back to San Francisco, and finish all projects.  He will take us out to dinner and we will say good-by.  Then we will return to Half Moon Bay, a place we have scarcely seen on this visit, and pack for an early Sunday morning departure.  That may be good as we plan to take the rig north across the city and the bay bridge to Oakland.  Then we will work our way out of the Bay Area and into the northern central valley.  There it will be warmer, at least during the day.
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March 24, 2017 - Half Moon Bay
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 18, 1970
Arrived last evening after a week in San Diego and a short two-day drive here. Spent one night in Lost Hills in the Central Valley. Watched a glorious sun rise at Kern National Wildlife Refuge near there yesterday and found our first American Bittern of the year making like a stick in the middle of a levee road.

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTArrived last evening after a week in San Diego and a short two-day drive here.  Spent one night in Lost Hills in the Central Valley.  Watched a glorious sun rise at Kern National Wildlife Refuge near there yesterday and found our first American Bittern of the year making like a stick in the middle of a levee road.  We had weathered an intense thunderstorm after making camp there the afternoon before.  Raining again here all day.  All it does in California is rain.  The hills are emerald green, think Ireland, with patches of yellow, white, and blue blossoms.  The reservoirs are full except for those they don’t want to fill so as to provide flood protection when the snow melt rises next month.  We have settled into a modest but still expensive RV park situate between multi-million dollar homes and a golf course.  There is a trail to the beach and we may watch the wide Pacific from our dining room window.  This morning it was slate; now it is battle ship gray.  I’m hoping for blue when we return from a few day stay with Alex at Alamo Square in San Francisco.  We packed this morning and will miss our little abode on the road, but will have fun in town.  Tonight we will celebrate his birthday in restaurant.  Tomorrow I will bake granola and peanut butter cookies to replenish our stocks of home-made baked goods.  Perhaps I may even bake a small loaf of bread to remind myself what it tastes like after so many weeks of store food. It being cold and stormy in San Francisco we wonder if we are moving north too soon.  Canadians in our last campground had planned to go home but stayed after seeing this winter prolonged.  We have ferry tickets to Alaska and are committed.  The equinox has come and spring should follow.  We hope.  Meanwhile, San Francisco is always cold.  We know.  Our next stop will be in the Central Valley where nights are cold and days are hot.  Again, we hope.  But that is not until the week after next.  We’re ready for adventures in S.F.  The wind howls and the rain falls.  Lovely.  The weather lets us catch up on our chores and allows the birds to catch up with us on their trek north.  The first orioles have returned to California.  More coming. We have seen some 260 species of birds so far this year (in the United States) and that is without a visit to Florida or south Texas.  Only one “life-bird”, a Streak-backed Oriole in Arizona.  Hoping for a few more in Alaska.  Many delightful views of birds we see rarely and many adventures finding them.  Bet we find a few more year-birds in San Francisco in places like Golden Gate Park and Lands End Park.  Also many strange birds too in this fair city.
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March 19, 2017 - San Diego
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 18, 1970
Hard to find much to complain about here. San Diego is almost as different a place as is Pheonix to an easterner. The traffic is awful, there are many quirks, and the desert is near at hand, but the weather along the coast is very pleasant, except when it is foggy or smoggy.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTHard to find much to complain about here.  San Diego is almost as different a place as is Pheonix to an easterner.  The traffic is awful, there are many quirks, and the desert is near at hand, but the weather along the coast is very pleasant, except when it is foggy or smoggy.  We arrived at this Mission Bay RV Park after dry camping along a lake in the desert last week.  Made a detour across a last desert flat between rugged mountains called Anza Borrego State Park.  Rumor had it wild flowers would be in bloom there.  They were.  The hills were dappled with color, lines of sand between gray, blue, yellow, and greens sharing tints of all the other colors.  The ocotillo bushes were dark green and covered with leaves.  These will be shed when the drought returns.  The tips of the branches were coral as buds had formed and some had opened into pink flowers.  Dazzling Costa and Anna’s Hummingbirds stood on post defending these resources.  On the ground were flowering mats and tiny plants with large or tiny blossoms emerging from the sand.  Asters, lillies, primrose, and snap-dragon type herbs were in abundance.  LIzards scurried.  Going northwest we faced a wall of mountains.  Eventually the road began its ascent and our motor home towing auto went chug, chug, chug up and up and up.  The slopes became at first dry with rock and sand dominating our sight, and then, turning over a ridge and around a corner we were in a green prairie with grass and scattered pines.  Fences and cattle appeared.  The air conditioner went to off.  A couple of tourist towns came and vanished as the hills turned even more green and the road became four-lane.  Many cars appeared.  The speed increased.  We descended among hills covered with fine homes and entered a “freeway” and roared toward the coast.  We arrived at Mission Bay where the city has a large park around the water. A disappointment is that this park seems to be public or at least public lease with too many rules, some silly.  It is within a park and on a peninsula surrounded by vacant and collapsing houses.  Seems that was lease land and the city decided to end the leases.  Some homes were removed but most of the houses, some “park models” but others fine homes built in place were abandoned.  Signs warn to keep out.  It is a ghost town.  Within the rv park are many very happy RV’ers.  Many are Canadians.  They remark how awful the weather is in Alberta.  When I mention we are from Pennsylvania, they say, “oh weather is bad there too.”  I return the compliment and say that there were those who scoffed at Pauxatany Phil’s prediction this year, but the ground hog is always right. Here we have birded and found the famous and tiny California Gnatcatcher.  We walked a couple of miles through Border Field State Park to the southwest corner of the United States.  We could not drive.  The road was flooded and closed.  At the border an ugly old fence there extends about a hundred yards into the Pacific.  On the other side is the beach at Tijuana.  A year ago we walked about the same distance to watch the water of the Rio Grande flow into the Gulf of Mexico.  That was a much more pleasing sight.  Here, the residents complain of a horrid spill of “something” into the Tijuana River in Mexico.  This stream flows across the border and drains into the Pacific south of San Diego proper.  The birds enjoy its estuary.  So did we despite the fragrance and the knowledge that there were eyes upon us as we walked alone on this section of beach south of the Tijuana River. We invited John to supper on Friday and joyously celebrated St. Patrick’s Day evening.  Today we all picnic at David’s after a hike in the eastern hills.  I tease Anne that we are now saved having a sibling farther than ourselves from the center of Woods gravity.  Yesterday we joined San Diego Audubon for a Sea Watch at La Jolla.  We ended up very near where Chris once lived.  A fabulous place to watch sea and amphibious creatures, fish, fowl, and flesh.  Of course the dawn was foggy.  The wind was down and the sea lions roared.  Cormorants nested on the tops of cliffs.  We saw their eggs and chicks.  A snowy egret stood quietly among them hoping a parent would be negligent so it could snatch a small chick.  Gulls and terns coursed the shore and shearwaters fluttered far out to sea.  A peregrine falcon was perched on a pine and a newly arrived hooded oriole sang from the top of a tall palm. Three hours later the wall above the cliffs and beaches was lined with people, bathers, scuba divers, sun worhippers, tourists, venders, shoppers, joggers, bikers, and lovely dressers.  We had made our good-bys as the group broke up.  A three-hour parking limit had ended the affair and we were ready to return to camp for lunch.  The sun was shining.  The temperature was 68 degrees. So hard to complain about San Diego.  
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