At first, we thought the line was stuck under the boat. The line seemed unyielding, and RV had to let some of it loose a few times to bring it in. As he reeled in, the rest of us were anxious to see what was holding down the line. Whatever it was, it swum back and forth under the boat, leading RV to both sides of the boat while keeping a grasp on the fishing pole.

When it finally came up closer to the surface, we could see that it was a Stingray! It flapped around from the surface, trying to set itself free from the line. It was fairly huge, and before we could get a net around it, the line snapped. Goodbye, Stingray! Goodbye, bait fish!

Correction: It was a Bat ray!

RV hadn’t brought the crab snares, so we definitely were not expecting to see a Dungeness crab, but there it was holding onto the frozen fish bait RV had used. You can’t keep Dungeness from the Bay anyway, but RV tried to lift it out of the water for the rest of us to at least catch a glimpse. The crab let go though, so no pictures!

What RV did end up landing was an average-sized adult leopard shark! It put up quite the fight before it finally gave in and let itself be reeled in and netted for the photo opp. Before holding the shark up, RV took the hook out of its mouth. He said that it blinked at him. :p

He looks so proud of himself, doesn’t he?

I’m proud of him too! Before the trip, I totally made fun of him for wanting to fish for our lunch. I told him that the entire group would starve if we waited on fish from him, but at least he did provide a bit of entertainment and excitement for the day!

We spent the last hour of the trip wondering what this monster was up to. It moved much faster than we did, so we watched it go by and maneuver through narrow channels.

It was a fun day, even when I was holding on for dear life as the wind kicked us around! I’m very lucky to have friends who belong to a sailing club, and I’m hoping that we get to go again some time! More sailing day photos: here.

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The idea is to pick a letter, go for a walk, and take photos based on that letter. When I selected my letter, I had a few ideas, but when it came down to the deadline, I ended up sticking to things around the house. Nothing too fancy.

KitchenAid - a beautiful mixing machine!

Kurbağa - Turkish for “frog” – gift from S – his nickname for me was “Kurbish” – little frog

Kidde and Kitty [a little fuzzy as we were both in motion]!

Visit the other participants here!

“K” is also for my latest obsession – Kylie Minogue’s recently released album, Aphrodite. I’ve been listening to it OVER and OVER and OVER again. Yes, it’s definitely inspired a random living/dining room dance party!

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Saturday: It was a day of BBQing in the East Bay.

For BBQ #1 in Walnut Creek, I prepared a white wine pineapple sangria and a rum-filled watermelon. It was my first time making both, and they turned out pretty tasty. The sangria was red, white, and blue with the addition of apples and blueberries! The not-so-secret ingredients : fresh pineapples and peach sparkling wine. They made all the difference.

In the evening, we headed to the Richmond marina for BBQ #2. I had prepared burger patties [again, first time!] for the grill, and again, success! The onions, garlic, chives, and feta I’d mixed in made the burgers extra tasty. We also combined the sangria and rum-infused watermelon remaining from the first BBQ for the second one.

There was a small fireworks show over the water after the sun had set too.

Sunday: Because it was a license-free fishing day, I agreed to go ocean fishing with RV and Victor. The water was choppier than usual, but we were still able to catch a few fish. We didn’t catch the limit like our previous fishing trips, but we came out with better fish.

My prize fish was a 3.5-lb. Vermillion Rockfish, which is probably the largest rockfish that either of us has caught. RV finally caught a Lingcod that he could keep. It was 5.5 pounds! It was Victor’s first time out there, so he was still learning the ropes. He was able to catch two for the day, so that was pretty good, considering how bad the conditions were.

Monday: We drove up to Tomales Bay Oyster Company for oysters and another day of BBQ goodness with the sister and RV’s coworker + his girlfriend. There were a lot of people who had the same idea, so it was a good thing we arrived earlier in the day [before noon!]. We ordered a bag of 50, eating some raw and grilling the rest.

I didn’t shuck any oysters, so I’m very glad I went with a few people who were willing to take over the shucking duties. We also brought other goodies to grill! So tasty and so fun!

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I’ve not yet replaced the lavender, but the basil, dill, and mint seem to be doing well! They’re pictured in that order from left to right. The dill went a little crazy after the first few days. The mint is still slowly catching up.

Perhaps my brown thumb is more of a yellow thumb…

I can’t wait until these can actually be used for cooking! It’s really annoying to buy a bunch of something at the grocery store, only using a little bit, and then having it just go bad within days. With the fresh herbs, at least the rest will still be alive on a plant! With that in mind, I should really plant cilantro/coriander too!

What else is relatively simple that I should try growing?

Suggestions please!

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Unfortunately, the purple one [containing lavender] is no longer. In one swift motion, the cat knocked it out of my hands as I was rearranging the pots. It hadn’t even begun poking out of the dirt yet. The dill and basil are sprouting beautifully though, and the mint is taking its sweet time.

Every weekend has been busy, and we haven’t taken the time to clear out the weeds in the tiny backyard [definitely not the selling point of the house], so I’ve turned the stairwell into my own little brown thumb’s garden for now.

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Taken at the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve.

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I found these crazy rocks by Stump Beach in Salt Point State Park.

This crazy phenomenon is called “tafoni.”

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Your focus is above and around you at Zion, while at Bryce, you’re looking down and across unless you’re hiking into the canyon.

Having driven through on our way to Bryce, we knew what we were getting into and how we were to go about our actual visit. Even though the “FULL” sign was up at the parking lot, we took a chance and swung by anyway. In about five to ten minutes, we found a decent spot. YAY!

We boarded the free shuttle that takes you through the park and took it to the very end. At the end of the line [which is really a loop], we hiked as far as the trail would lead us [which was more like a quick and easy stroll], took some photos, and then hopped back onto a shuttle. They run about 5-6 minutes apart, so we knew no time would be wasted on waiting for shuttles.

You wouldn’t normally find me taking a random photograph of the shuttle driver, but the reason for this photo is that he is the voice behind the recording playing on all of the Zion National Park shuttles!

We originally hopped onto a different bus, and the driver played the recording which gave all the nifty facts about the various sites at each stop. Well, somewhere in our shuttle shuffling, we ended up on Dennis’ bus. When he began speaking [they don't play the recording on the way back], it all just clicked. His voice was SO familiar! He was the voice!

It was great though because he threw in a ton of other random tidbits that I’m certain the other drivers would have just skipped over!

This photo was most definitely not posed. I was trying to sneak a photo of his name tag and the back of his head, but he turned around just at that moment. Lucky shot, I suppose! Thanks, Dennis, for such an informative ride through Zion National Park!

This particular flower is a part of the various hanging gardens that grow along the canyon walls. I hadn’t seen it before this trip, but then of course soon after I take this photo, I notice this flower in other places as well. It’s almost like looking up something or overhearing about a person or place, and then you see it/hear about it EVERYWHERE.

More Zion National Park photos: here!

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Here’s the route we ended up taking:

As you can see on the map, there aren’t very many towns along the 75 mile stretch that we drove. Originally, our final destination would have been Escalante, but we reached it a little earlier than expected, so we continued the drive to Boulder. That stretch was probably the most eye-opening since we ended up over a ridge on a narrow road with major drops on both sides. If you added a little wind to that equation, we would have tumbled to our deaths in my little green machine!

There was a coffee shop right outside of Escalante that we wanted to stop in at, but we reached it about ten minutes after closing time. The views from their parking lot were pretty amazing too.

After reaching Boulder, we turned back around and headed back to Escalante. Of all the towns we passed through, it seemed the best option for dinner since it was a little larger than the blinks of other towns. We decided to wait for the sun to set before heading back westward, so as not to be blinded by the sun before it sank beneath the mountains and were rewarded with this view:

And that was pretty much the only full day in Utah! The next day, we would be going through Zion National Park and making our way to Vegas for the night.

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