China Camp 2010

I'm not sure I like the way this page is done.  I did it while we were hosting at China Camp State Park and as things happened I added them to the top of the page, like a blog.  So, we have a link to take you to the bottom of the page and then you can work up if you like to see things in the order that they happened.

Click here to jump to the oldest pictures

12/8 A rainy Wednesday, the park is closed to campers (except on the weekends) and Gail is up being Emergency Nana (sick Gracie and working parents, who do you call?  Emergency Nana!).  Anyway, a boring day so I decided to drive down to Palo Alto and take a few pictures of places that were important to me many years ago.

	737 Bryant Street.  My parents were living in a cottage on the right side of this house (since torn down) when I was born.  We lived here in 1958-59 when my Dad was out of work in the recession of same.  The building has been remodeled inside and is currently owned by Radar Partners, a private investment Co.		Driveway side view.  The second story bay window was the upstairs bath shared by 3 bed rooms.  The tower in the far rear comes up through my parents bedroom (which had its own bath). The tower, is, I think, for the elevator.  The third floor window is in the attic where I deployed a fleet of model ships (I was living here when I decided to join the Navy).  We also had a bb gun range up there and a Lionel Train layout.		These windows were here on the front porch when I lived here in the 50's.
	Across the street was Polly and Jake's house, which looks to still be private home.  Polly and Jake ran an antique store.  Jake and I used to get under the table to drink Apple Cider.  Their son was a friend of my father.		My best friend in those years, Dave Loo, lived in this house.		1487 Kings Lane, I lived here with my Grandmother in 1961-62 while my family was still in Mexico.  I came out to go to 9th grade as my parents didn't know of a good high school level correspondence school (if there was one).
	Same		This is Mrs. Nolberg, she bought this house from my Grandmother in 1971.  Paid $43,000 for it (my Grandmother was asking for $45,000).  The house across the street just sold for 1.5 million.  Prices used to be higher according to Mrs. N		This house is next door and the Maxwells used to live here.  Mr Maxwell was bald and supposedly had a metal plate in his head as a result of a WWII injury.  Their daughter helped me understand new math, went to the same dancing school I went to and loved to play cribbage.  According to Mrs. N, a greedy real estate lady raised this house to insert a second floor under the existing one (the only way you can convert one floor to two in Palo alto she says).  And, she did it without getting a permit!
	This patch of land used to house a trailer court where I lived in the early 50's.  We were here when my sister Jennifer was born and when Dad graduated from San Jose State and I from kindergarten.  As late as 1997 you could still see some of the pads the trailers were parked on but it is completely overgrown now.		I do wonder about the folks that live in California now.
					Jordan Jr High, where I went to 9th grade, which was very easy after Calvert Correspondence School, except for "new" math.  I couldn't figure out why were were worrying about sets and Benn diagrams.  Just ask me when the train from Chicago will meet the train from Omaha.
	McCoy and Figaro passing a rainy Sunday afternoon (this was taken a week or so ago)

11/19  a few pictures from mid-November

One of our campers		A family of campers		Morning sunlight on a cool, damp, day.
Another morning light picture		These two are of a large Bay Laurel

11/9  On a nice day off in November we went to visit one of the smallest National Parks, Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park.  The Park is located in a county park and is roughly 455 feet long by a few feet wide.  It is a memorial to the women who worked in industries like ship building in WWII.  The location is in Richmond, CA where a Kaiser shipyard turned out either 53 or 89 Victory ships (I'm not sure which number is correct because I don't know whether this was yard #1 or yard #2).  Anyway, they laid out a strip of concrete as long as a Victory ship, 455 feet, and at one end there are some pieces of metal that should sort of look like part of the frame of the ship as it is being built.  The astute observer will notice that the hull appears to be upside down.  Based on the photos at the display this is because that is the way they built the hull, upside down, then they flipped it when they were ready to fill it and add the upper decks.  For more on Victory ships see Wikipedia.  For more on the park see the NPS page.For some great World War II museums see Tripplo.

Something about the Memorial		The frame and main display area in the Park as seen from the side		Looking down the length of the hull.  Gail is at the structure that I assume represents the center island of the ship.
Looking from the "stern" towards the "bow".

11/5 Fall colors at China Camp

Since the park is mostly forested with evergreen trees we don't have much in the way of fall colors.  These 3 pictures show what we have.  This is poison oak climbing up a tree.		This is green grass.  Two weeks ago this was brown.		The orange berries on this Manzanita tree provide color on the hillsides here.
Our front yard		Sunset glow over the bay		The view from campsites 26 and 27

10/26 In late October we rode our tandem bike across the Golden Gate Bridge and back.  Here are a few photos.

In the middle of the bridge		At the SF end
		Looking down		Looking north
SF from the bridge

10/21 On one of our off days we visited two nearby parks.

This is Samuel Taylor SP		Camp host spot at Taylor		View from the road to Mt Tamalpais SP
A house with a view on that road

10/17 on a cool Sunday, when we had very few campers in the Park, we took a tour of the village with one of the Rangers and Park Aides.

The pier
The village at China Camp (where the Chinese fishermen lived).		On the tour of the village
a rescued fishing boat		the pier from the building where the shrimp were peeled.

10/1  At China Camp State Park.  Here are a few pictures from our first days in the park.

Our place as seen from the parking lot.		Our place as seen from the Shoreline trail.		The center of the lower loop of campsites
Campsite 7		after a hard day's work