Central Coast, April 2005

In April of 2005, we took a quick bike trip up to the San Luis Obispo area. We rode our bikes along the bluffs at Montana de Oro State Park. If you click on the pictures, you'll be able to see Felice on the bluffs to get a sense of scale:





Acting on a tip in the local newspaper, we headed up to the Shell Creek area, east of San Luis Obispo, and managed to catch the peak of a spectacular wildflower display. This was an "El Nino" year of record rainfall, and the rain triggered acres of flowers. The whole area smelled like honey:

Tahoe and Eastern Sierra, September 2004

We took a drive up to Tahoe for some mountain biking. When we got there, the aspens were just starting to turn:



There were some terrific singletrack trails on the North Shore:




After several days of riding, we headed back home down Highway 395. As we drove south, a storm was coming in from the west. We took a very windy and cold hike to Parker Lake (near June Lake):



The next day, we headed up Rock Creek toward Mt. Morgan. The weather was very changeable, sunny in the morning:



And snowy in the afternoon:



As we were leaving Rock Creek, the snow was really coming down hard. This shot is not doctored; if you click on it, you can see that the trunks of the aspens are in focus. But the leaves are shaking in the wind, and the snow is slanting down:

Costa Rica, July 2003

In July of 2003, we spent in two weeks in Coast Rica. It was the rainy season, but that was the only time that we could go. We started out with a fairly rugged tw0 day rafting trip on the Caribbean side:



The water was muddy but clean; in some of the calmer areas, we were able to get off the raft and float in the river:



We stayed overnight at a primitive lodge in the jungle:



Along the way, we passed several waterfalls. Ben jumped from one of them:



We then moved over to the Pacific side near Manuel Antonio National Park. Plenty of wildlife in the trees:



And plenty of wildlife on the riverbanks:



We went bodyboarding during a thunderstorm -- these waves look bigger than they really were (only about 3 feet):



The sunsets were gaudy. This picture is not retouched:



Neither is this one -- that's really the way it looked:



We then spent several days up in the Monteverde rain forest -- a very adventurous drive, with potholes the size of bathtubs. Felice seemed to enjoy the zip line: