The Little Brown Church - Sunol

Last week I happened upon the sweet Little Brown Church of Sunol. It's a few blocks up from the downtown area of Sunol along Kilkare Road. Charming little church and definitely worth stopping for to shoot a few pics...

Click HERE to see more shots from a previous visit to Sunol.

Click HERE to read about the history of this church.

Sonoma, CA

There's nothing like taking an outing to the wine country on a warm, sunny summer day. A week ago I was able to tag along with some wonderful companions and visit some wineries, stroll around the historic plaza in Sonoma, and enjoy a yummy burger and frothy latte - all on a Monday - which meant not having to share space with the usual hoards of tourists that converge on this gorgeous area every weekend.

Here are a few shots of our wonderful day in the Sonoma Valley, a short hour and 15 minute drive from San Ramon.

Our first stop was Kunde Vineyards...

Then we stopped off at Chateau St. Jean...

Our last stop was the charming town of Sonoma, where we strolled around the plaza, ate lunch, and sipped coffee...

We wanted to tour the mission but it is closed on Mondays...

So we had to make do with just looking at it from the outside...

Ooops, one thing we forgot to do was try some of the wines! Darn! I think it was too early to start drinking. Oh well. So, when was the last time you visited the wine country?

Drive by Shootings: Los Angeles

A couple of weeks ago I had one more opportunity to hone my drive-by shooting skills. My Nikon and I found ourselves again in the back seat of our car. When I wasn't clicking away, I played navigator as F effortlessly executed my directions and Z merrily collected film footage for his project about life on the streets of LA. We also had other "real" business to attend to, like visits to the Finnish Consulate, Griffith Observatory, and UCLA. We ended our stay with an overnighter at an overpriced and somewhat rundown motel in Santa Monica. Oh well...I still love the greater LA basin, especially if I'm just there for a brief visit and the temperatures aren't too overbearing.

So here are just a few shots I captured from the rear, side window of our Volvo (still going strong with 260,000 + miles, but the darn windows are "childproof" and only open half way down. Ugh - I couldn't even stick my head all the way out!)...

Hollywood...

Echo Park...

Lots of police action on the streets...

the Big Blue hotel...

Downtown LA...

Beverly Hills...

UCLA...

Along Wilshire Blvd...

Flying up Interstate 5 back to the Bay Area...

Do you recognize any of these places?