This post is the continuation of yesterday’s post about our Bommer Canyon hike.

The hike we took was about 3-mile long loop on East Fork and Ridge Route paths. The panoramas will give you an idea of what the scenery looked like from different spots of the hike. (Click on images to open them larger in a new window.)

This next image was taken from Ridgeline Trail. In the background it covers (from left to right) West Irvine, Tustin and East Irvine (where we live).

Read More

Mark had the day off on Good Friday, and we decided to use our day together for a whale watching trip. We did one not too long ago, but it was cold and very windy that day. Friday was different; it was a very enjoyable day on the boat, and we got to see many sea animals. In addition to the brown pelicans and sea gulls, we also spotted a female Baleen Whale with her calf, we watched hundreds of Common Dolphins, and saw some resting sea lions. Basically, from the beginning of the trip till the end there was something to see.

Here is a collection of the pictures I took during the trip. Since I don’t own a long zoom lens that’s best for this kind of photography, I just used my 85mm lens – and later cropped the images.

 

Read More

I didn’t want to miss a day from posting (I’m posting every day in April, in case you didn’t know it). But I haven’t had time to process my images from today. I won’t tell what we saw today at Newport Beach and in its vicinity, but we had a great day out at the ocean. So as a teaser, I just have a few images from the harbor.

I’ll make my “official” post tomorrow.

Tuesday night I attended a 3-mile hike at Orchard Hills, which is less than a 10 minute drive from my home. This hike is not open to the public unless you sign up for a volunteer docent led hike organized for certain times of the week. Orchard Hills is part of the over 50,000 acres Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks.

What makes this hike special is that you actually walk around a working avocado orchard.

Read More