Excursions and sky stuff

My daughter, Rachel, and the elephant coming through the wall. More later in this post...


Fires in recent years decimated much of the landscape in this area not far from my home. A replanting effort to add growth to the forest area, trees are spaced neatly near and around around the U.S. Forest Service station.



Yes folks, this is February in a mountain region of Southern California! Not far away, at a higher elevation (not in the photo), is snow which is actually quite deep! This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, early in the month.



Yet another of my daughters, Michelle (above, left), has now turned 21!



Dad (me), celebrates Michelle's day with Bass Ale.


The grandboy thinks we celebrate for him! He is only 2. My wife (his Grandma, Cruz), is holding him.



My meal...I could not finish it! It was great!



Scene of the dinner/birthday party, this is a restaurant, not a bar, but named a bar anyway.



And now, this was today, Saturday, the 23rd...

Two Navy F-18 Hornets, two Air Force F-16 Falcons (smaller planes) circled the house for nearly an hour today (in the evening) for an apparent appearance at a local NASCAR racing event. The skies were very storm threatening by this time, and raining.



Just a few hours earlier, the sky was brilliant blue, as these WWII era fighters passed by. There is a P-38 Lockheed Lightning (large plane out in front of the others), a P-40 Warhawk (painted as a "Flying Tiger" plane from the early WWII effort in China campaign), and a P-51 Mustang (the bottom plane). WOW! What a day in my neighborhood!


"Click" on the pictures, they get larger to view! The first photo with the elephant is lower resolution, thus less clear.

A clip of my car at a mountain stream and the surrounding area in January or February, 2008.

--Dan