Roaring Camp Railroad and Queen of the Night, July 2019

Roaring Camp Railroad and Queen of the Night, July 2019

A post about redwoods and my fancy flower.

Roaring Camp up in the Santa Cruz mountains is a tourist spot for doing old timey activities like riding steam trains.  They blow out extra water/steam once in awhile to remove build up inside the machinery.

Totally open cars let you enjoy the redwoods on the trip.  The conductor gives history, stories, and train info.  

At the top of the mountain you stop for 15 minutes then head back the way you came.

Panning for gold.  Way harder than you think it is from watching it on tv, ask the guy for help to make sure you get your gold flakes.  Our little guy is super obsessed with treasure so we did this activity twice.  He also has a rock collection, so we picked out a 'few' of the nicer tiny pebbles we came across.  I remember loving my rock collection-why are they so fascinating to kids?

The blacksmith was working on the day we visited.  Our whole group watched the metal heat and cool, being shaped by the blacksmith for about 30 minutes.  

The folks are super friendly and willing to chat.  I thought the whole trip might just be the train, but we easily spent the morning and would have no problem making it a whole day.

Great way to spend a few hours with family and friends.

Back at home...

I love my fancy night blooming flower!

Each flower blooms for one night.

This year I missed the bulk of the flowers

but luckily got to see (and smell!) the second batch.

Just starting to open

about an hour later

Next morning

Love these guys!!

Angel Island bike camping, July 4th 2019

Angel Island bike camping, July 4th 2019

Our friends got a camping spot on Angel Island for July 4th and invited us - yeah!!  

It is always a great trip when we go bike camping.  We strap our giant tent and cushy sleeping mat onto the bikes.  Train up to the city, easy ride on the Embarcadero, fun ferry ride, on the island go up one big uphill and there you are.  

Campsite on the top of the island!

We spent part of the afternoon basking in the sun at the lively pier.  Great people and seal watching!  Can you spot the seals?

Yeah, I never get pictures of them.  Even though five of them spent a good 15 minutes in and among the boats, this is the closest I could get-LOL!

After setting up the tents we took a relaxed tour of the island on the tram since none of us had ever done it before.

As the pictures for the day go on

you may notice that there is more and more fog.

Which is not a problem....

except it was the 4th of July and the island has PERFECT viewing of the San Francisco fireworks!

So much so that there was a special tour group that came out just for that purpose at great expense.  And then it was so foggy we could not see even a trace of color!  Well, it was fun to hear them and we didn't have to travel anywhere, just fall asleep in our tents.

The morning continued to be foggy.

But with many fewer people until the first ferry arrived.

Great time was had by all :)

Montreal Botanical Garden 2019

Montreal Botanical Garden 2019

OMG I love tulips!  They don't last super long, but I buy them anyway.  We came in through the front entrance of the Montreal Botanical Garden and here they all are!  So many awesome colors!!  I'll just sprinkle the tulips in between all the others.

Wow wow wow

Tons of folks wanted the trees in bloom pictures.  Could not have been more perfect.

Not sure what kind of tree this is.

The petals are so long and floppy.

More tulips!  Brilliant red!

More tulips!

We did eventually get out of the tulip garden.  

We spent considerable time in the Alpine area looking for the dragon asleep under the waterfall.

Also, Juniper berries.  The Neighbor had a cocktail recipe that called for Juniper berries and we almost used random ones found around the neighborhood.  But it seemed like a bad idea since so many Evergreen berries look alike :)

Another favorite area were the Chinese gardens.

Spent more time looking for dragons.  This is a sea serpent pavillion so we knew we were on the right track.

Love patterns!  This is especially clever I think.

There were 3 different pavilions.  Nicely set up with plenty of space to see everything. 

Cherry Blossoms!

We stumbled on the play ground that is not even mentioned on the map!?!

Mini hut made out of sticks.

Giant line of logs to be used like balance beams.

Final shot of the tulips.  I just love them so!