Travels around San Ramon

I've been "stuck" in San Ramon for the past week....but that hasn't stopped me from getting out and photographing some of the delights in and around my neighborhood - until the heat set in, that is. Come take a look at what my Nikon and I found on our travels around San Ramon...

This is San Ramon's "official" farmers market poster...

A windmill at Forest Home Farms...

A spider making itself at home in my backyard...

One of my Agapantha flowers...

Looking toward the sky - clouds for a change!

Hydrangea that I pass on my routine walk in the neighborhood...

The gate to heaven...

The golden eastern foothills...

Lavender flowers enjoying the setting sun...

More of our golden eastern foothills watching the setting sun...

One awesome sunset...clouds are unusual around here in the summertime...

The sun hiding behind the clouds...

And the rare rain falls...

So where are you right now?

Eastern Sierras - Day Two

The weather the next day in Lee Vining was once again gorgeous - sunshine and bright blue skies. Our plan for the day was to head over to Bodie, a former gold mining town and now a historic ghost town in a state of "arrested decay".

Here's what we saw as we made our way there...

Before we left Lee Vining, we had to check out

the Mono Lake Committee headquarters...

Here's the lake in the early morning calm...

We came upon a sheep herder and his flock...

Another scenic vista of the Sierras...

Then we arrived in Bodie, named after William S. Bodey who discovered gold here in 1859. In its heyday, it had a population of 10,000 and was a true wild west town. Now only about 200 structures of the original town remain...

The Metzger House...

A typical front door...

The Methodist Church...

Views of some of the remaining structures...

Come on in and take a look...

The front parlor...

Old street signs...

One of the stables...

Window displays...

The gas station...

One of the hotels and meeting halls...

The boardwalk...

Some displays in the museum...

Some of the homes of former residents...

One of the many outhouses...

And the inside of one...

The Bodie Firehouse...

One of the hotels...

The Donnelly house...

Pretty lace curtains still in tact...

One of the larger homes...

Some of the original door handles are still in place...

The Standard Mill, which processed ore from the mines...

After we toured Bodie, we headed back to Bridgeport for a late lunch...

And then it was time to head back to the Bay Area...

Where is all the traffic?

Most of the time, I was the only car on the road...

The eastern Sierras have much to explore and are full of so much natural beauty; I hope to return soon and spend more time in this remote spot of California.

For more information on Bodie, click HERE.

For more infomation on Mono Lake, click HERE.