Last dolphin shot, I promise

When I saw this in my camera, I knew I had to use this for the theme of under water.

On another note....CONGRATULATIONS, FELLOW BLOGGERS!! We are halfway through the year! Woo hoo!

Playful

I know that I already posted some leaping dolphin pictures, but they are so fun I thought I'd use another one. These common dolphins (not bottle nose, as someone asked earlier) were very playful, diving in and out of the our boat wake as we made our way back to the mainland from Santa Cruz Island.

Rural

Hard to believe that Santa Cruz Island, one of the National Park Service's Channel Islands, is just a short boat ride away from Los Angeles. Large and mostly uninhabited by people, the upper reaches of the island have a decidedly rural feel. Santa Cruz Island has a ranching history, and you can read more about it here if you are interested.

Motion Blur

While hiking on Santa Cruz Island, we had a chance to get high up on a bluff, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. A flock of pelicans cruised by. I thought it would be cool to catch flying birds from above. I tried to pan with them, but ended up with a shot for the theme of motion blur instead. Thanks to whoever dreamed up that theme! :-)

Awwwwwww!

An endearing sight on Santa Cruz Island was this Island Fox. He was hoping for a handout, but we had been cautioned by rangers not to feed him.

Flipper!

On our boat trip over to Santa Cruz Island, we encountered a large pod of friendly dolphins along the way. They, and the water, were all varying shades of gray.

Slick and slippery

One of our California day trips was to take a boat to Santa Cruz Island, one of the islands in the Channel Islands National Park. We'd barely cleared the harbor when the captain stopped to let us view these slick and slippery sea lions, hanging out enjoying the morning.

It soothes the savage beast

This man's musical talents also entertained visitors to Balboa Park.

Y is for . . .

. . . yellow!

Yes, yellow is a theme, but I've already yused it... ;-)

Literature

Jon is happy to pose with one of the greats of literature....

Best Friend

They say man's best friend is a dog. This woman, taking a walk in San Diego's Balboa Park, must think if one dog is good, then six must be GREAT!

Perhaps some fathers would enjoy this place

We took a day trip to Balboa Park in San Diego. This business building offers a variety of methods for calming the frazzled soul.

Happy Father's Day to all my blogging Father friends!

Seaside

Crystal Cove Beach on Newport Coast, California.

Let the games begin!

A young brother and sister set up a game of checkers in a lovely location. They seem oblivious to the scenery.

Some of my family members own time-share weeks in Newport Coast, California. We ended up here for several days. Photos from in-between (Colorado, Utah, and Arizona) will likely appear out of order...a bit later)

Because Steven is confused...

(wink...)   In past blogging years, I've posted photos from our annual summer road trip in chronological order. This year, I took a bunch of 3-exposure shots that I want to play around with in Photomatix when I get home, so I'm posting these kind of out of order. Hope no one thinks their internal GPS is out of whack...

(Steven...thanks for noticing that I jumped from Colorado to California with no explanation...)

Just another day at the office

My office can really be anywhere, when I'm teaching an online class.

Prickly

Some flowering prickly pear cactus in a field of yellow wildflowers.

The Letter U

In the Colorado National Monument, this sign leads the way to an overlook which peeks down into Ute Canyon.

 ...and here is some of what you see...

The Letter S

A sneak peek at Jon's Subaru, and the sublime scenery we saw on our late-afternoon sojourn through the Colorado National Monument.

Gates

It's summer! Time for a road trip!

Not all gates have .... er.... gates....

Slam on the brakes

This family was out to do some shopping at a local superstore...

Stripes

And man created fire

Jon wanted to try cooking a pizza on the grill. It was a fresh pizza - not frozen. We need practice - the bottom was a little charred - but it tasted pretty good. We'll definitely try it again.

Purple

Part of our weekend planting included two pretty purple clematis. We are hoping to train them to climb their way up our fence, giving us some pretty purple privacy.

The weekend

We spent most of Saturday afternoon tearing out past-their-prime spirea bushes and replacing them with hostas and other less bushy plants. Jon also filled some planters with flowers and this cool zebra grass. Ellen would have had a blast. :-)

School...

Summer school starts today. I've spent much of the last three weeks getting my online summer course ready to go.

Lousy photo of lousy spelling

The sign on this variety store was in the distance, so I had to resort to the digital zoom on my camera phone. Still captured this big goof, however...

Icy cold

Nothing like a cold drink on a hot summer day!

Wild wild suburbs??

It was pretty wild to see this wild turkey strolling across my front lawn yesterday afternoon.

Ahhh....spring

Nothing like a stroll around the park on a lovely spring evening.

Even a seedless watermelon has seeds

That sounds like the caption on a motivational poster.