After a more than 24 hour journey I arrived safely in the San Francisco area. It has been a quiet week of just mucking about with my sister and doing a couple of day trips. We enjoyed a day out at the Samuel P Taylor State Park. I wanted to see some redwood trees and as always am never disappointed by them.
I was not familiar with old Samuel P Taylor so I decided to see why he had a state park named after him. According to trusty Wikipedia I learned that-
“The park is named for Samuel Penfield Taylor, who found gold during the California Gold Rush and used some of his money to buy a parcel of land along Lagunitas Creek. In 1856, Taylor built the Pioneer Paper Mill, the first paper mill on the Pacific Coast. In the 1870s, the North Pacific Coast Railroad was built between Cazadero and a pier in Sausalito where passengers could transfer to a ferry to San Francisco. The railroad passed near Taylor’s mill, and, ever the entrepreneur, he built the “Camp Taylor Resort” alongside the tracks. A destination for city-weary San Franciscans, the resort offered both a hotel and tent camping, as well as swimming, boating, fishing, and a dance pavilion.”
My sister and I have also taken a few smaller walks around her neighbourhood so I could take some photos. I share them wih you below.
We thought we might do a bit of a road trip through northern California to Oregon but have decided against it due to the big fires around Redding and farther north. With evacuations most likely causing accommodation filling up quickly and heavy smoke in the air we have decided against it and will entertain ourselves staying closer to San Franciso. Enjoy the photos.
On the bookish front we enjoyed watching The Great American Read program on the PBS TV app on her Roku box. It was fun to hear authors talking about the classic books they have enjoyed and made me wonder which of the mentioned books are currently sitting on my shelf. I would like to read more of the works of the classic authors mentioned and even better to take those from my shelf to look at. I have some of the lesser works from several authors mixed in with some of the Penguin boxed sets that set on the shelves looking at me. In any case, there is never going to be a time when we run out of things to read. What a comforting thought.
Enjoy life with the Penguin and me..books, travels, photography from Tasmania 
Love reading people’s travel posts, so tanks for this Pam. I haven’t been to that park, but then I haven’t spent a huge amount of time in San Francisco. I have been to John Muir Woods though, and other redwood forests. Love them. I too loved the pics of the dragonfly and the hummingbird of course.
As for books I won’t read, I do feel sad about them, but overall I agree that it’s great to think I will never run out of something to read.
A shame about the trip up north, but a sensible decision methinks.
Nice spending time with siblings isn’t it? My Hobart-based brother has just been here for a couple of days. Lovely. He retired at the end of last year so is coming up here more often (to help out with my parents, but I benefit too.)
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So glad you get to spend time with your brother. Sibs should be fun. We aren’t doing much bc we both have had colds but feeling better now. Just hanging out and taking walks.
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Haha Pam, my brother came to visit early because he had a cold and now Mr Gums has a cold and is not happy because we are now in Port Macquarie staring a werk’s holiday.
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Thanks for sharing your lovely photos. I especially like the one of the dragonfly. I can’t imagine a 24-hour journey either, so I’m glad there are intrepid travellers like you out there, willing to share their adventures. I have been thinking of all the books I want to read but will never get to. You’ve caused me to turn that ‘glass half empty’ into a ‘glass half full’ with your comment that you’ll never run out of books to read. I really have to work on being more positive! Enjoy your trip!
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Thank you Joan. We are having fun just hanging out together.
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What lovely pictures and what a wonderful trip to take – thanks for sharing these!
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i couldn’t tell if there were any really large redwoods in Taylor park; i know there are some further up the coast, on hiway 101, or in Jedidiah Smith state park up near the border…. great pictures; many tx for sharing…
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Can’t imagine a 24 hour trip, but I’m sure you must be getting used to it now. I’ve never seen the redwood trees and would love to… hopefully on a future trip. The Great American Read is on tomorrow night here. We’ll definitely be watching! Thanks for posting all the photos.
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The redwood trees are glorious aren’t they? Your photos are very high quality 🙂
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Yes, the trees are pretty stunning. Thank you.
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