In honor of Mother Nature’s Birthday here are a few “nature” photos from the past when we were free. I hope you enjoy them and they bring you some virtual fresh air during our worldwide break. Happy Earth Day!
I cut my teeth photographing Joshua Tree National Park with my first medium format Hasselblad somewhere around 2000. Looking back the photos I was so proud of at the time have a lot of flaws. But, my memories are some of the best I have ever had photographing a National park or the outdoors in general. I fell in love with this park and its unusual and amazingly distinct Joshua Trees. It breaks my heart to see that the park has been shut down due to politics. And it is even worse to read reports of damage to the park’s treasured and protected Joshua Trees. I am disappointed in the people who would do such damage to a park and it’s innocent trees. And I am disappointed in our government for not doing what it has been charged to do. It is up to us individually to make good decisions and protect our treasures. Do no harm, Leave no trace behind and take care of our parks, P.L.E.A.S.E.
Wide Open Walls hosted multiple events spanning multiple weeks this August in downtown Sacramento painting the city walls with street art! Several areas of downtown have been transformed by local and international artists. Locals watched the art being made, attended a number of hosted street parties, and even download an app for a guided walking tour of the various locations of public art pieces.
I took note of a few of the locations to visit while downtown last weekend and it did not disappoint! I’m proud of my city for allowing something as exciting and forward as this public art exhibit. I am proud Sacramento is finally becoming a world class city by promoting the arts in a modern way. I look forward to next year where they will hopefully do it again in other parts of the city.
Is their interesting street art in your city? What’s your favorite public art piece captured below?
Do you have a post or a blog on street art you want to share? Please feel free to share your link here so we can all enjoy! And feel free to share this post so others can enjoy. Comments are always encouraged and welcomed!
Seeing a photo of the Princess on Instagram is what led me to Wide Open Walls. I went downtown looking for her and found all of the rest of this interesting and awesome art.
It’s hard to make garbage cans look good but they managed it!
How cool is this? 3D!
This one seemed to get a lot of attention by people walking around.
This is a representation of the famed Sacramento Tower Bridge.
Not sure what this is but I like it. And it was HUGE.
Rainbow version of our beautiful State Flag.
Take note of the ladies posing for selfies. I saw this in front of almost all of the art. People were posing and talking about posting it on social media like it was very serious business.
Like what you see? Love street art? Check out some Parisian Street Art by clicking here! I would love to know what you think.
Welcome to the best book store in Northern California. Yes, we may have bigger, newer, more consistent, or even those with same day shipping. But, no book store is as quaint, personal, and surprising. I can always find something here. It is never what you expect to find and it is always a treasure. Please come here and find happiness if only for a moment.
This post is also in response to Cee’s B & W Storefront challenge!
If you have spent any time in downtown Sacramento you can’t miss these iconic landmarks located in East Sacramento off Alhambra. In recent years the ugly ol’ water tower has been gussied up with a cool light feature which somehow makes it new and interesting. And it juxtaposed with the fire training tower has always somehow garnered my interest. In an area where property is expensive and at a premium I still can’t believe these random icons are still standing. 
I recently posted a postcard from Sacramento so I though I would shine some light on the city to the north, Roseville, California.
Roseville has roots in the railroad and the telephone. I mostly drove right past as a kid on the way to Lake Tahoe and ignored it altogether. But, a revitalized old town is a fun draw. Food trucks, Irish bars, tattoo parlors, craft beer, theatre and a few very solid restaurants are bringing life back to downtown Rosy. 
Miserable cup of Joe but A+ ambiance.
Wasn’t expecting too see this flag here…
Love the image on the side of these locomotives
Who wouldn’t want to work remotely from here?!
I’ll be the first to admit that pizza on the west coast can barely be classified as pizza but this place makes a solid effort!
I really enjoy coming here partially because of the ambiance and partially because the crowds tend to gravitate towards the mall and newer areas. It was the perfect place to relax for a quick afternoon stroll with Mr.Baby.
Greetings from my home town Sacramento, California! I’m still alive. I’m just over here sequestered in my house raising a tiny human and working in between with the occasional break to eat and sleep. Thank you for your patience with my lack of posts and lack of travels.
I headed downtown this morning for an appointment and snapped some random Sacramento photos of things not everyone would pick to highlight my town. I’ve never really posted much about Sacramento so I finally took a moment to focus on a few locations and things that have always been the background of my runnings around. These are some places I enjoy for one reason or another. The art, the old signs, the institution of it, or the plane weirdness emitted.
Yup. That’s a cow on the roof.
Are we in Greece or Mexico with these color?
Flipper!
The Tower theatre across the street from what was the original Tower Records and Books
A clock on a cemetery sign?
Always loved this sign
Water tower that has just always silently been in the background
Bon Lair. As close to Scotland as I can get right now.
The food is marginal but I go for the name.
Charming
Manchester has me thinking about the U2 concert I attended last week. As I have previously mentioned on this blog I love the band U2. They always have been my favorite and always will be. They are touring currently to celebrate 30 years of their Joshua Tree album. I have been excited about this concert for months.
It’s easy to look at the concert a little differently this week. Some of the most perfect music ever uttered from Bono’s lips and Edge’s fingers happened on that album and that night. Some of the most creative and impressive lighting and video displays ever seen. An aura of nice Bay Area people smiling and happy enjoying the moment on a breezy and perfect weeknight. We were able to safely go home.
Levi Stadium in Santa Clara holds 70,000 people. 70,000 souls I say! That is more than the population in the city in which I live! I can’t help but recall during the concert that this event would be the perfect place for a terrorist attack. There were armed police inside and outside of the venue with semi-automatic weapons keeping us safe. But, I don’t recall ever attending an event with this amount of law enforcement staff and artilery before. Security was so tight I was not even allowed to bring a small purse in to the stadium. But worst of all when the concert was over all 60 some odd thousand people went for the exits at the same time. Everyone filtered towards one of very few exits to an overfilled parking lot which is exactly where the attack happened in Manchester. Manchester. Young women. Eight year old child.
My heart goes out to the victims and to Ms. Grande who must feel terrible. I recently chatted with a friend about this. We should keep going to concerts, right? We should keep going to public events and malls, and vacations, right? We can’t let them win. No matter how young the victims. No matter how much I shake my head at politicians and how useless they all can be at times. We have to live our lives. Sad this is the new reality for us. How long will we be making generic statements like “We can’t let them win?”
Is any of this business preventing you from living your life as you would like? Or are you sticking it to them and going about your activities and travel as normal? Whatever the “new normal” may be these days…
Happy Saint Patrick’s day friends.
My heart is always in Ireland and I cannot wait to take my wee one there some day…
If you haven’t noticed I have been quieter lately and not posting terribly often. I apologize to my faithful readers but am happy to announce exciting changes are happening over here at Bulldog Travels Headquarters…
We are expecting our first human baby, not a bulldog puppy, in six weeks or so which may slow down my travels for a short while. I can’t wait to immerse our baby boy in travel both locally, in my precious and beautiful Northern California, and all over the world when the time calls.
I hope you will be patient with me while I figure out this new adventure and get my travel schedule back on track. The idea of sharing all of the places I have been and have yet to experience with a little one is more exciting than any trip I have ever planned to date.
*Does anyone have any advice for traveling with small children? I have always read posts on this topic from blogs I follow but now it will be taking on new meaning. 🙂
~Happy Travels from Jenny & Eric and Amelia (the Bulldog behind Bulldog Travels!)
Bulldog Travels / Photos By Jenny 