California Coast

This will be a picture heavy post without too many words.

We stopped in Pismo Beach, which is a sweet little town with a nice pier.  I like being able to shoot from above, which is a great angle to document guys with metal detectors.

Morro Bay is another pleasant town.  We were blown away to see these sea otters rafting at the end of the day so near to the town.  The wide angle lens doesn’t make them seem so close, but they were right there.

Next stop was the amazing elephant seal beach just near to San Simeon.  These seals have been coming to this location since the early ’90s.  Noisy and smelly (but in a very nice way).  Remarkable to be so close to these creatures.

They are molting at this time of the year and aren’t particularly active.

Next up, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park near Big Sur.  Well worth a visit.

It is Spring out here and wild flowers are everywhere.  This looks to be some sort of iris.

This spectacular field is just off Highway 1.  We came around a corner and this scene took our breath away.

California poppys.  Cris says they are the state flower.

Point Lobos State Park is a wonderful place to hike and get close to the ocean.  The trails are  extensive; it would be easy to spend a whole day here.

I had never been in the redwoods before.   This same photo has probably been taken a million times, but who could resist.  Big Basin State Park is just north of Santa Cruz.

Since I’m in California, I can get away with the word awesome.  Truly amazing.

Had a nice walk yesterday from the Exploratorium up to the Golden Gate Bridge.  Finally saw “The Changing Face of What is Normal” exhibit and will post some shots and my reaction soon.

Pia and Flying Angel Seafarers Club

I spent a fantastic couple of hours with Pia Massie walking around the completely non-touristy parts of Vancouver.  We started in Gastown and went to the area that is mostly inhabited by addicts and street people.  She really knows her way around and it was fascinating.  Her latest work is a documentary about Canadians of Japanese descent who were forcibly moved from the area just after Pearl Harbor.   Everything was taken from them and they and have never returned as a community.  There are still remnants of their lives if you know where to look, as in the name underneath a doormat at the entrance to this building.

We ended up at the Flying Angel Seafarers Club, which is as close as one can get to the port without encountering pretty heavy security.  Unless you knew it was here, you might never find it.  An amazingly beautiful building and since there was a sign on the front that said open, we went in.  A volunteer named Frank gave us the grand tour and we learned a ton.  Here is a link.  I was especially taken by this book which is in a glass case at the front of the building.

Here is a description of its purpose.

Very touching. /  We fly home tomorrow.  Thanks Pia for the tour.  It was great fun.

Day Peckinpaugh / Erie Canal

I was mostly crazed yesterday.  Sometime over the weekend, I either lost, misplaced, or had stolen some important mail.  I was preoccupied by it most of the day.  So much so that at about 2 o’clock I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep.  For some reason, I decided to mess around with my web site instead.  I had been wanting to update it fore a while, especially the projects page.

Several years ago, the New York State Museum rescued the Day Peckinpaugh from imminent scrapping.  It was in Erie, PA, and by some miracle Craig Williams got a hold of it just before its demise.  Most amazing was that he found someone who had actually worked on the ship while it was still an active hauler, and who knew his way around the engines.  So they fired them up and started the journey from Erie to Waterford, NY.

The Peckinpaugh was built in 1921 and when it was retired in 1994, it was the last working freighter on the Erie Canal.  I think I remember hearing that it was hauling concrete at that time.

I got the chance to be on her for much of the trip across New York State on the canal.  It was late October / early November and the weather could not have been better.  A really interesting group of people too.

 

John Callaghan was the skipper, and you can see by the concentration on his face that it was an intense job for him and his crew.  The ship travelled mostly by her own power, but on occasion tug boats came in to help out.

So, at the end of the day, I still hadn’t found the mail, but at least I felt good about getting something productive done.  To see more from the trip, check out the “projects” page of my main website (joncrispin.com) by clicking the link on the right (Jon’s main site).