The Poppy Geezers

Anita and I decided on Friday to drive up the coast Saturday and rendezvous with Stephan to go look at the poppies. It was a beautiful day and a lovely drive. But let's get to THE POPPIES!

See them? Here we are in the Santa Ynez Valley, approaching our target: Mt. Figueroa.

First stop.

Selfies! Geezers can take selfies too!

"Stephan, go stand in the back."

Yah!

 On to the next photo op.

Mt. Figueroa and oak grove.

Anita brought many accessories. She's a professional poser.

 Next.

"Girls, climb up that hill and I'll take pictures."

"Wait, I'm coming up."

"Go stand by that rock."

Random car photobombing. You can see how narrow the road is.
It got gnarly when large SUVs and trucks drove by.

The view from the hill.

 After a VERY SLOW descent, we posed in a bare spot next to the road.
A lady admonished us to not crush the flowers. We didn't. This was an existing bare spot.

Add caption

Final stop at the end of the road.

Our last spot had a handy posing log. Easier than posing at the Fowler with Silvana.

"That's a wrap."

This is the path that we ascended in part 3.
It was the most crowded area, but nothing compared to the 100,00 people that went to Lake Elsinore.

The return to sea level.

Ahhhh! I had SUCH a poppy hangover yesterday!

Linking up with
Patti's Visible Monday
Catherine's #iwillwearwhatilike
Shelbee's Spread the Kindness

Austin Advent -- The Grackles

Crawck! What is that horrible racket? What are those big scary iridescent black birds?
They are Great-tailed Grackles and they are the Punks of the bird kingdom. Pray that you haven't booked a room that is near a "grackle tree" -- you will get NO sleep.

What do they look like?

photo ©2011 Brian Ralphs

Now imagine a bunch of these... worse than those crows on the playground in The Birds! OK, maybe not.

I thought I had a picture of them [I seem to be missing photos from a few Austin trips] but all I have is this:

see them? no?
me either!
look below:

still can't see them?
click on images to see bigger 

I wish I had a recording of their raucous calls, but no. Now that I have a smart phone, maybe I can capture them in all their Bad Bird glory. Meanwhile, if you want to learn more, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a very informative article about them that includes sound and video.

Austin Advent -- Bats at the Congress Street Bridge

Another time-sensitive activity: watching the bats emerge at dusk at the Congress Street bridge. Alas, no bats in March. Why not? In early March, they are still hibernating. Lazy bats.

the blur in the middle is bats 

yes. stand on the bridge, like these people. 

if you stand below the bridge...
BRING AN UMBRELLA!
do I need to explain why?

Here is some verbiage from the Video City Guide

About Congress Bridge Bats Austin

The Congress Avenue Bridge spans Town Lake in downtown Austin and is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America.  The colony is estimated at 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats.   Each night from mid-March to November, the bats emerge from under the bridge at dusk to blanket the sky as they head out to forage for food.  This event has become one of the most spectacular and unusual tourist attractions in Texas.  The most spectacular bat flights are during hot, dry August nights, when multiple columns of bats emerge.  There are several points from which to view the event, and an information kiosk is located on the north bank of the river, just east of the bridge.
More - caution! link has audio!!!