The pool at Hearst Castle

JUST the sort of pool I'd build if I had a couple of billion dollars lying around.

Seals in San Simeon

Footage of the elephant seals at San Simeon. They spend a considerable amount of time on the beach, mostly sleeping.

Mono Lake

Footage from the vantage point above Mono Lake.

CA1 farther south

As the headline says...

CA 1

Video from the place where California Route 1 hits the pacific.

Goat

Footage of yours truly scratching a baby goat who then wanders off, meeehing pathetically to find her mother. Too cute.

Bear bottle

Footage of Mazarati the black bear cub stuffing face with a warm milk bottle. At around 0:30 you can hear a mother telling her child that it's not her bottle, and at around 0:50 the child is screaming blue murder over the bear's having a bottle which she clearly thinks is hers. Hilarious!

At around 1:50 Mazerati takes a dump again...

Poop & Purr

At long last, the video footage of Mazerati the black bear cub purring. Also, crapping like only a bear can. The purr begins around 4:50, the poo at around 0:20... She scratches herself and eats pretty much all the time.

The loud meowing sounds you hear sometimes are made by the peacocks who were wandering around the grounds. And lawdy, how I envy that young lady her job. Sigh.

Upper Shoshone

This is from the area just above the Falls. Great real estate here.

Video from Shoshone Falls

Here you are, as promised... Shoshone Falls, Idaho.

Scott's Bluff

This little snippet is from the top of wonderful Scott's Bluff, Nebraska. You can see some of the views and the visitor center whence we walked on our own two feet.

Video from Mount Coolidge

Here's a brief clip from Mt Coolidge, the second highest mountain top in the Black Hills. The view is towards the east, possibly north east. Y'all can see the hillsides kinda tumbling down to endless prairie, interspersed with Badlands. Ah lubs this landscape so much it hurts.

Rodeo in Buffalo

Here's a clip from Buffalo, where we watched the qualification round to the rodeo... for ten minutes. There were more participants than onlookers.

Chipmunks galore!

As promised, at long last... CHIPMUNKS! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I apologize for the sometimes dizzying camera angles and the Norwegian speech in this clip. I can only believe that Siri was drunk out of her mind when she was filming this... (teee heee).

Video of the Elk buck

A video of the Elk buck I photographed in Yellowstone. This one is better, but still far from good... but I's gettin' betta. I pwomise!

Video of Old Faithful

So I finally started uploading some of my videos from the trip through America... This one is rubbish, with some blurriness and the camera at a 90 degrees angle. The next ones will be better, I swear.

Safari Park - the rest

Ok, here is a selection of the rest of the pics I took Tuesday; everything from rhinos to gazelles to birds of every color.

All pics.

"Find your own waterhole, fatso!"


"Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!"


Baby rhino with mom.


The only half decent shot I got of a gorilla; they were all sweating it out in their caves.


Some type of flamingo, methinks.


Zebras.


Zebradonkeys? Anyway, these animals have chosen the most dangerous place on the planet to live for any digestible animal: Somalia.


A vulture.

Safari Park - Giraffes

Giraffes really are among the funniest animals to look at, right up there with penguins, shaggy coos, prairie dogs and chipmunks. I got in a few good ones on my ride around the big "African" part of the park on Tuesday. Here goes.

All pics here.

"Skeeeeeeptical."


"Uhhh... how many are there of us now? One, two, three..."


"Noooo, don't move! Damn, I'll have to start over!"


"These tourists are a dreadful drag, I must say."
"Yeeeees, quite horrible little people."


"No manners, filming us while we eat."
"None at all!"


I don't know if this giraffe is trying to eat or romance the tree.


"Oh, my silent, mystic stranger! Oh, forbidden love!"


*Smoooooch*

San Diego Safari Park - the big cats

San Diego Wildlife Park has changed names to "Safari Park", not that this has made it any better or worse in and of itself. It is still a vast, sprawling complex of expensive foodstands and corrals where you can never tell if there ARE or AREN'T animals present, to places with the most majestic or cutest of animals.

I went out there several hours later than I would have, but cashing a check took time, so I don't think I was there till after 12. I didn't last more than 2 hours in the blistering mid-day heat, but I think I got in some ok pics; you be the judge. I need to spread these pics out, so I'll focus on the big cats in this post.

All Safari Park images here.

Awwwwwww.


"Gaaaaah, I'm dying from the heat..."


"I'm even too tired to chase down and kill that fat Norwegian guy over there..."


His Royal Highness dozing off.


"Hey, pssst... can I eat that fat Norwegian tourist over there? He looks kinda slow."


"But... he looks so juicy..."


"Whaaaaat? I can't eat the customers? SINCE WHEN???"

La Jolla

After the monstrous meal on Pacific Beach, we went out to La Jolla (pronounced 'la hoya') to see some seals and take pics of the sunset. I think I succeeded on both counts, but see for yourself.

All pics here.

Nice.


This pic is not out of focus, the clouds were that soft.


It was weird to look at.


The seals seemed to be having a good time of it.


There's no doubt that these animals show a certain lack of je ne sais quoi on land.


Here, a seagull flew right into the picture as I took it. I didn't know until I looked at it afterwards. Kind of a cool effect I think.


Pelicans in flight.


The moon was up.


And the sun was going down.

Pacific Beach

After Cabrillo we eventually wound up at Pacific Beach, one of the many, many neighborhoods of San Diego. Here, we stuffed face solely on starters, including three plates of their juicy, yummy calamare. No food pics this time, but my it was gooood.

Afterwards we tried to walk off some of the sinfully good stuff on the beach. We walked out to a pier where you can rent the cozy little cabins (apparently very expensive) but where the public have access. I took some pics of the asshole surfers sitting quitely on their boards on one side of the pier, while people on the other side were enjoying actual waves. Hehehehe.

All pics here.

GET OFF MY LAWN!


Surfers. Assholes every one.


T'was a very nice day.


Lifesaver's station.


All the cabins have different carvings on the shutters. As stated previously, you can't go wrong with penguins.


Yet another asshole, this one probably slightly deranged. Yes, that is his headwear.

Submarine!!!

Today I saw possibly the coolest thing since I was used for target practice by two F-18s just outside Death Valley in November last year. Albie, Court and I went up to the pleasant El Cabrillo monument to sniff the wildflowers and draw some fresh air, and it was a sunny, beautiful day. But what do you think came sailing around the bend as if it owned the ocean? A fuckin' US Submarine, that's what!

I took lots of pictures, but some were duplicates and some very blurry, so I only uploaded a small selection. I felt a surge of pride and affection as I saw this beautiful ship sail out, ready to scare the fuck outta commies and islamists the world over. Feast yer eyes on this lovely piece of American war machinery, me lovelies!

All pics here.

First sight.


A smaller boat, possibly the Coast Guard, was driving around the Sub in circles to keep other traffic away.


I saw people on the bridge for some time.


They leave a helluva wake.


Last pic. Goodspeed, guys!

Reagan Library

Just as I began my trip to the US three years ago with a visit to the Reagan Library, so I'm ending this latest trip in the same place. Well, except for some personal stuff in San Diego but more about that later.

They'd added to the exhibit with a part about Walt Disney and the Disney company which I found completely out of place and almost completely uninteresting. Who the fuck wants to watch props from Tron 2??? Also, they had some fancy schmancy new gadgets which not only functioned as audioguides, but could also take pics and videos and email them to you. I listened to exactly one piece, then turned it off. Gaaah.

All pics here.

Ronald Reagan. We shall not ever see his likes again, I fear.


Nor the likes of Maggie. *sniffles*


This question is as relevant today as it was in 1980.


I agree. Oh, how I agree!


A replica of the Oval Office.


Zombie chainsaw conservatives from hell cutting the taxes. Now there's an idea for a movie! You can take it, it's free!


The old Air Force One.


The flag Reagan's casket was wrapped in.


The burial site.


Some old Disney stuff.


Walt Disney's office.