Back From Cali

It has been a while since my last post. This is due to the fact I have been in California for the past 7 weeks. The Coast guard sent me to Petaluma, CA to a training school. Petalume is locatd about an hour outside of San Francisco in Sanoma County right around the corner fron Santa Rosa and Napa. During my time there I was able to do a bit of sight seeing. I rented a car and took some friends from my training class to go see some red woods. The actual Redwood Forrest was about six hours away so we opted to go to the Armstrong Redwood State Reserve which was only about 45minutes from the training Center. This was the closest place with "old Growth" Redwoods. My friends and I walked 4 miles to the top of this Mountain and when we got to the top it began to pour down raining on us. We had to walk back down the Mountain along a road with nowhere to take shelter for about two miles. I guess that made it more memorable. Here are some pictures from that excursion.



I found this guy crawling through the foilage. I looked him up and identified him as the Red Bellied Newt. I found some interesting facts about this species. They are born in the water similar to a tadpole and don't leave the water until their fifth year. They are able to regenerate body parts such as their limbs, eyes, heart, and even a damaged spinal chord. they carry the most potent form of Neurotoxin known in the wild in their skin. Its a good thing none of us tried to eat him. Lol!






I was also able to take a trip into San Francisco while I was in California. I went to the golden Gate Bridge and the Famous Pier 39, more commonly known as Fisherman's Warf. It turned out to be another rainy day. Here are a few shots from that trip.