Monday, September 26, 2011

Winding roads through the California Mountains

is not for the faint of heart. Especially when my DH 
is channeling his inner Mario Andretti.
 We did stop at a lot of "vistas".
And getting out of the car as he screeches
to a halt at the edge is not for the vertically challenged.
 We blew through the town of Julian which we
visited the last time.
It was raining then, so no photo ops really presented itself.
So........we did a drive through.
 Julian is famous for its apple pies. 
Don't the storefronts look like they should be in a western?
 I was anticipating gunslingers, but found mostly bikers
and horse and buggies.
 These flowers were at a casino (and the name escapes me)
while DH was playing blackjack.
I was entertaining myself with flowers and panaromas.
Which is all good.
 We then blasted down the long and winding roads once again.
Once again imitating Mario,
we headed to the Hale Observatory on Mount Palomar.
We blew into the parking lot with minutes to spare.
Gasped our way up the walkway (remember we are 1 mile up)
walked up the 109841923841947 steps
to where the telescope lives, just in time 
for the lights to be shut off.
It was closing time.
 Does anyone know what that is? We saw them
on the mountain roads on the way down, from the mountaintop.
 Since we were on a roll in making things in the nick of time.
We decided to head to sea level and check out the
sunset on the Pacific Ocean.
*Dramatic pause* waiting for my ears to catch up.
And my camera battery died. A race to the car and a quick
switch. And wa-la - sunset!

8 comments:

Pamela said...

These pictures are beautiful Lynn!! :)

Marlene said...

Gorgeous photos. I remember driving around through some of those treacherous windy roads in the mountains of California a few years ago. Spectacular sights!

Linda Beeson said...

You seem so like me while on a trip, taking pics of anything and everything! Fun stuff.

Katherine said...

Fab photos.....did you stop for apple pie? And how many steps - thanks for sharing all those lovely pics with us :)

Pat said...

Awesome pics Lynn!!! I would love to visit that little town!

Monica and the team said...

lynn, these are amazing photos! you are such a worldly traveler! thanks for sharing your adventures!

nfaband said...

Looks and sounds like you're having another amazing California trip, lovin' the photos too.

April Says... said...

that's a lotta steps. I see we use the same kind of math method *snort*

GO MARIO GO!!! ;)