MorseBlog

The last week of September 2004 I had the chance to visit Sadinia on vacation with some European friends of mine. They planned the trip and I got invited along. I had a great time and met some nice people. The first question people ask is where is Sardinia? The map below explains. Where is Sardinia? It is an Italian island in the Mediterranean below Corsica. Sardinia has a long history of being swept by the tides of empire starting with the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Italian merchants. Herodotus in his book History refers to it as the largest island in the world. Ionian Greek refugees from Darius' king of Persia rampage in Anatolia sought new colonies here. Much later traders from the city-state of Genoa conquered the areas around Cagliari (pronounced like Calgary) for their solar salt ponds. This was the source of most of the city states trade wealth. When one lands in Cagliari today the mounds of salt can be seen and bags of the local salt may be purchased in local

On Sunday Kay had planned a trip to Alcatraz. Redington and I had never been there. Redington was psyched to go because his Tony Hawk video game uses Alcatraz as a skating park. Turns out he recognized many of the buildings as skating areas. This trip included Mark but we left Holly at home with her grandmother. We started out at the pier. A foggy day again but the sun was able to make itself felt as the day progressed. Alcatraz from the Ferry The ferry ride was short and the distance did not look too great to swim. Then one noticed the tides made it appear we were in a river, it was so strong. As we got closer the view got clearer. Closer View of the Island The dock is on the north side of the island which is further to the right of this picture. The following photo shows that side of the island with the water tower. The water tower and dock building still have the 'Indians Welcome' graffiti when some Native Americans occupied the island for 16 months in the mid-1960's. Vi

Redington and I visited Kay, Mark, Melanie and Holly for the weekend. We flew down on a late flight on Friday night and after a drive in the fog got to their house in San Anselmo after midnight. In the morning we got up rather late, had breakfast and Redington and I were treated to the Voorsanger family tradition of the Elk Hike. Despite it being a warm and clear fall day, as we neared the Point Reyes National Seashore the marine influence of cold moist air overcame the optimistic warmth of the autum sun and we were plunged into a chilly fog as we drove out past cattle ranches and dairy farms in the coastal hills. Eventually we reached the coast and were immediately treated to a view of some nice Bull Elk. Elk on Ridge Next we hiked out to the coast and were rewarded with this scene... Coastal Fog By now it was not only quite cold but also windy. Near here we sat down and ate lunch while watching Redington hack the innocent vegatation in his usual fashion. The waves