California dreamin' on such a winter's day

On my second road trip to California, the destination was Santa Barbara: the city of palm tree-lined boulevards, steep cliffs and 72 degree days in the dead of winter. Since I did every mile of driving I took almost no pictures before arriving in California, but really, things don't get interesting until you get to New Mexico, anyway.



A girl looks out on the Pacific Ocean, skim board in hand, on New Year's Day 2008.


The bridge. If you look closely, you can see the Tanner family driving across in a white convertible.


Rays of sunlight break through the clouds at Hoover Dam. A massive bridge is being built across the highest area of the valley the dam is in so that traffic will eventually be able to bypass the national landmark.


Visitors rush around Pier 31 in the rain on the San Francisco bay.


Lingering clouds from a series of major storms dissipate over the only beach in San Francisco, California.


In a garden devoted to the Virgin Mary at a Franciscan monastery near Solvang, California, a cactus is decorated with Christmas lights in celebration of the holiday season.

A man stands at the mouth of a small cave on the San Francisco bay near The Cliff House.

A Natural Church

An afternoon at Tintern Abbey outside of Chepstow, Wales, in turns sunny and forboding but consistently glorious.

Into the West!

We went to Asheville and Cullowhee - lovely mountains and lovely people, with a serving of weirdness.
Tin butterflies in the gallery of Pack Place
A griffin's wing
Make-believe folk dancing?Grove Arcade
At Hannah Flanagan's
Downtown

Poolside fun/embarrassment

A memorial for the Virginia Tech shooting victims on campus at WCU

grease + steam

some shots of events around a train, this time in Holland...

The Heart of Bryson

Bryson City is a lovely misnomer. It has a courthouse, a newspaper, beautiful mountains and a train station, but little more to declare it a city. It is that train station that has put and kept Bryson on the map, and though it no longer functions as a commerical center, every fifteen minutes the railroad crossing lights flash and the gates are lowered in the heart of downtown. The depot is flanked by railroad-related stores and restaurants, such as Heaven's Railway bookstore and one of the top ten model railroad museums in the world. The main source of income for the station is tourism, both from families with children eager to ride The Little Engine that Could and from elderly couples from across the country touring the Appalachians. Engineers and conductors still carry pocket watches in their overalls, and songs of the bygone era of travel by train in America still carry through the station.