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Proud single mom of one beautiful daughter who shares my love of sports and music. She doesn't share my love of the outdoors which I find weird. I love photography and wish I had a better camera!! Maybe someday...

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Rounding Out Yolo County - Davis Arboretum & Dixon Sunflowers 7/2/16

Continuing on my quest to see as much of Yolo County as I could in one weekend, my daughter and I headed West on I-80 for a walk in the University of California - Davis Arboretum and then a quick shopping jaunt at the Vacaville Outlets.

On the previous day, I put many miles on my car and body to check out beautiful Sunflowers, busy bees, and cool-looking farms.  I also stopped for to talk to a turkey vulture and see some graffiti before visiting safflower fields and hiking along Cache Creek.

So it was nice (for me...not so much for her) to have my daughter drive me and spare my poor, old car.  Plus, she has air-conditioning.  And it was hot. But we knew that there would be at least some shade and hopefully some cool critters to see.  

First spotted was a gorgeous Green Heron who was hoping to catch some lunch in the algae-covered water. 

  
There were some interesting spectators who didn't want to be that lunch...

But Mr. Heron kept trying anyway.

There are lovely plants and flowers at the Arboretum of course.  Such as these gorgeous white an purple blooms. 


I made a cute, scaly friend who was just hanging out on a tree trunk. 

There were a profusion of these lovely pink and yellow spotted flowers.  I tried a couple different edits...


I was fascinated by these gorgeous yellow balls growing on this tree!  They were amazing!



We crossed the Love Lock Bridge to head back to the car.  It was almost like being in Paris!  Except Paris took all their locks down.  



We made a brief stop to visit the matched-pair of black beauties in the horse paddock.  These sweet boys didn't want to move from under the shade on this hot day. 


We headed for the Outlets, but had to stop for gas.  When we did, we saw another incredible sunflower field behind the gas station on Pedrick Road.  It was perfect with the foothills in the background!




Like the other sunflower fields, there were hundreds of busy bees buzzing around.  I took advantage of this to try to take a "trendy" photo with some good success!



There were almost as many photographers and selfie-artists in the field as there were bees.  And I got photobombed by one.  haha


A lot of the flowers in this field were deformed, which was interesting.  I wonder why?


One last shot with the furrows filled with precious water.  

And then we were on our way.  

There were some spots I missed on my weekend which will have to be visited at another time, such as the lavender farm.  Which will just give me reason for another roadie!

xoxo

Nikon D3300 18-55 lens