Travel – Page 25 – Nicci Carrera

This little fellow was making a lot of noise and doing a lot of damage at the Victorian Village in downtown Saratoga yesterday:

Here is the courtyard in the lovely Victorian Village mall in Saratoga:

Saratoga is known for its trees. (Sorry the horizon is tilted. Picasa has excellent horizon-adjustment software, but I didn’t like other things it was doing on my computer, so I uninstalled it. I don’t know how to easily straighten the horizon in GIMP. Speaking of which, by the way, all of today’s photos have GIMP’s color white balance and color enhance applied. The photos were pretty in their original state, but I thought the enhancements helped them “pop” for web display without changing the hues too much. (Although the second photo has more blue in the patio and railings than it should.)

September 28, 2013September 28, 2013 Nicci Local, Travel

Out and about in San Jose

Across from the very modern and fancy Santana Row is this old coffee shop. The sign is so faded you can barely see “Coffee.” Circa 1950s?

But here’s some important news. There are food trucks at Valley Fair mall! Here’s the mall entrance:

And right down there, in front of a restaurant (!) are a couple trucks:

I’m surprised the mall allows them to compete with their tenants.

I didn’t notice the strings of lights until I loaded these pictures this morning. Interesting how many things we don’t notice.

September 27, 2013 Nicci High Sierra, Travel

Third snow! Alpine Meadows, 9/26/13

September 26, 2013September 27, 2013 Nicci High Sierra, Travel

Dinner at Rosie’s Cafe, Tahoe City

This place, once owned by a woman named Rosie, serves wonderful comfort food, has great drinks and serves breakfast lunch and dinner. Before it was Rosie’s, it was a bar called The Hearthstone.

It’s right on the lake. I took this photo from the steps. I cropped out the road and cars in the foreground but otherwise the photo is not enhanced.

Speaking of steps, check out this plaque on Rosie’s:

I hope some day you get to stand on those steps youself, if you haven’t already.

Rosie decorated the whole restaurant with a lot of antiques that she collected from little farm houses and antique shops around the country.

Check out what they use for pulleys on the door:

And here’s the view from the table at twilight. (Also has no post processing.)

I didn’t photograph the food, but it was great. They offer mostly comfort food (fried chicken, chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, pot roast) but also light fare (edamame, artichoke hearts, veggie stirfry). I had their their Bloody Mary and my hubby had the Ultimate Pain Killer. For details on drinks:

http://www.rosiescafe.com/menuMain.html#fullBar

And on the food:

http://www.rosiescafe.com/menuMain.html

September 25, 2013 Nicci High Sierra, Travel

Second snow! Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley

Just a tad, but the snow is starting to stick!

Back side of Squaw Valley:

Outside the condo in Alpine Meadows this morning:

September 24, 2013September 24, 2013 Nicci High Sierra, Travel

Sunrises

Today is cloudy! So even though yesterday’s sunrise was just a repeat of the day before, the image no longer feels ho-hum to me. Here’s yesterday’s mountain sunrise (slightly enhanced):

I forgot to post this photo, sunrise at the Austin, Texas airport, shot through the window:

But you REALLY have to see this incredible sunrise photo (don’t miss the bird in the sky) and gorgeous poem that was just posted by The Hour of Soft Light:

http://thehourofsoftlight.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/murmuration/

September 23, 2013 Nicci High Sierra, Travel

Lake Tahoe

Please forgive the quality, but I had to shoot this from the open window of a moving car. I wanted you to have a picture of Lake Tahoe, which I happened to drive-by yesterday due to the Ironman which was being run (literally) on the North Shore, causing a detour. Instead of being able to take 89 to 80 to Reno yesterday, we had to take 28 around the North Shore and then backtrack on 267 to pick up 80 at Truckee. (30 min. delay.)

Long story just to tell you why I saw Lake Tahoe yesterday! Permanent residents, as I once was, bop along the shores of the lake, going about their business, never bothering to look at the lake. Now that I don’t live here any more, I always make sure to open my eyes if I’m anywhere near it. And now that I’m a blogger, that also means opening my camera and snapping a photo whenever possible. (I was not driving the car.)

I am going to give you the original and the enhanced one. The sky was not actually as blue as the one in the enhanced version, but I thought it looked pretty so I included it.