the fog rolls in

This was my first trip to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.  I had always wanted to visit but never made the time and never thought I’d ever live here.  But a great opportunity came up at Target and I was offered a position based out of Portland, OR so we were here in late September for the first time trying to get familiar with the city and find places to live.  It has been about a year since then, and living in the PNW has been nothign short of amazing!

On this trip, we took a couple days to do some travel to Mt. St. Helens then down the coast through Astoria to arrive at Ecola State Park and this great view overlooking Cannon Beach just as the sunset.

I just visited this location again over the past weekend which prompted me to pull this photo out from the archive to process and post.  It was really foggy this weekend, some neat photos from in the surrounding rain forest are stil to come.

Find it here:  45°55’11”;   N 123°58’31” W

spread your wings

Have you been to the 17 Mile Drive on the California coast just south of the Monterey/Carmel area?  It’s quite beautiful and everyone should go there if they have the chance.  The drive starts just south of Monterey and winds it’s way through the golf resort of Pebble Beach.  There are neat pull outs all along the drive but you have to pay $12 for the privilege of entering the private road but in return you get a map that calls out the pull out and scenic areas which humorously sometimes tries a little too hard to be creative in comeing up with a description for the pull outs.

This stand of trees is just south of the Lone Cypress.  Have you seen the Lone Cypress?  If you are a fan of golf (I’m not), you would recognize it as the tree logo for the Pebble Beach golf course.  Well, leave it to the wonderful lawyers to try to take people to court to stop them from photographing, painting, drawing, whatever of this beautiful landmark.  Ha, read more about that here and here.

Find it here:  36°33’44” N;  121°57’19” W

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

It’s a beautiful drive up the Pacific Coast Highway along the California coast from Monterey to San Francisco.  This particular weekend, it was rainy with nice dark moody clouds, deep green hillsides, and misty fog sitting in the low areas in between.  It seems like there almost isn’t a bad spot to stop and take a picture along the way.

Find it here:  37°10’60” N;  122°23’23” W

Let it Flow

 Sunset at Zuma Beach in Malibu, CA.

Find it here:  link

Venice Beach - Harry Perry

Taken during my first trip to Venice Beach, CA. Surprisingly, after all the time I’ve lived in Southern California, I’ve never been there.  We went there to look at modern design homes spurred on by some pictures we saw in a home architecture book.  I had heard that this place was “eccentric”, but walking down the boardwalk was more so than I had expected. This is a photo of Harry Perry a local street performing musician on inline skates.

Find this here:  33°59’23” N 118°28’34” W

Huntington Beach Pier

I’m not a beach person and don’t spend much time hanging out there (not even when I lived in San Diego) but I happened to be in Huntington Beach for a work meeting/dinner with Target at Duke’s on the start of the HB pier. We got done just before sunset and since I had my camera in the car, I grabbed it and headed down to the beach. The light just after sunset was really cool and not many people were on the beach because it was windy. I set my tripod up right at the edge of the water and took these pictures just before a larger wave almost washed my tripod and camera out. Nikon D300s and a Nikkor 14-24 lens.

Find this here:  33°39’23” N   118°0’17” W