Wordless Wednesday: Hiking Hill 88
Sunday, 10 January 2010:
A week late for our traditional New Years Day hike, Sarah, Elica & I hiked Hill 88 on this blustery, chilly (by west coast standards), foggy winter’s day.
Fort Cronkhite
Birding Chain of Lakes
April 24, 2010:
For the first time in way too long, Sarah & I went for a short birding walk, my first since breaking my foot mid-March. Since my foot is still tender and rather weak from being off of it for 5 weeks, we decided to check out the Chain of Lakes in Golden Gate Park.
Dragonfly
Prague, Part 15: Petrin Hill
Rising above Malá Strana is verdant Petrin Hill, capped by a Eiffel-esque tower. Since it looked to be a nice area to explore, and the tower was recommended for its views in our guidebook, we headed south from Malá Strana to the station for the funny funicular that takes one to the top. Alternately you can walk up, but we were not lacking for walking opportunities and wanted to take the funicular.
Petrin Tower & Hill
Prague, Part 12: Wallenstein Palace (Valdštejnský palác)
Behind a fairly nondescript gate near the Mala Strana metro station is the entrance to Wallenstein Palace gardens
Fountain
Prague, Part 10: Vltava River
The Vltava River (AKA the Moldau if you’re in Germany) flows through the middle of Prague, bisecting the historic district. On the east side are Old Town, the Jewish Quarter, and New Town, and on the west are Lesser Town and Prague Castle.
The Vltava River, from Vyšehrad
Prague, Part 2: Vyšehradský hřbitov (Vyšehrad cemetery)
Next to the imposing Basilica of St. Peter and Paul in Vyšehrad lies the compact, pretty Vyšehrad hřbitov (Vyšehrad Cemetery). Open from roughly 9-5, it´s a must-visit for anyone in the area due to both its lovely tombstones, and the fact that a number of notable Czechs are buried there.
Vyšehrad cemetery
Prague, Part 1: Vyšehrad
Since I was in Prague for half business, half pleasure, and we wound up visiting many of its popular sites more than once, instead of doing a timeline-based travelogue, I will instead dedicate each post in this series to an area or monument in Prague.
Please forgive in advance any funny typos involving y or z – I have my keyboard set to Czech so I can type the accents, and which also swaps y and z 
Basilica of St. Peter and Paul, Vyšehrad
We’ll start with the lovely outlying neighborhood of Vyšehrad, where I spent much of the trip, since that’s where the company-paid hotel was.
Radio Road Birding
Tuesday, 16 June 2009:
I swung by the Radio Road ponds after work, ummm, 2.5 months ago (what? me behind on photos? nahh!), hopeful to see a reported Caspian Tern fledgling.
Northern Pintail / Anas acuta
Joshua Tree/SoCal Trip – Part XI – Living Desert, LA, and home
Thursday, 30 April 2009 (continued from here):
After our fun little hike at Tahquitz Canyon, we had a delicious breakfast at Chubby’s, where I ordered a bacon flight consisting of 5 different types of bacon (yeah!), and then checked out and headed a half-dozen miles south to Palm Desert/Indian Wells, where we visited the Living Desert, a combination zoo (containing only un-releasable animals), wildlife oasis, and state-of-the-art animal hospital. A docent at Big Morongo Canyon the day before had recommended the Living Desert both as an interesting zoo and garden, as well as a good place for wild bird-watching, so we were interested to see what all was here.
Black-crowned Night Heron in the aviary