Morning in the Hills, photo by Harold Davis. View this photo larger.

Everyone in the house got up early, and I drove the kids to school this morning on the early side. Nicky was the first drop-off at Step One pre-school, with Julian, my second grader, and baby Mathew waiting on the car.

On the way across Grizzly, Mathew fell alseep. Which was good, because he was very cranky. We went up the switchbacks into the fog.

Julian and I had a great time talking. He looked out the window, and said, “Daddy, you should have brought your camera!”

“But I did.”

“Stop the car, Daddy, and take a photo.”

So I did, watching the fog steam over the hills on the Bay side over Oakland.

A little further down the road I caught this view east and inland, of Mount Diablo, with the fog half rolling in over the part-green (from all the recent rain) and part-brown hills. But there was no place to stop the car. I went a little further, turned the car around, found a safe pull-off, and snapped half a dozen images using my vibration reduction lens hand held.

Then I got back in the car. Julian was worried about how I would turn around again, and whether I would get him to school on time. We drove ahead, found a place to u-turn, and easily made it to Archway before the bell.

Julian’s very progressive school celebrates Martin Luther King Day with a four-day weekend. So I’m taking him tomorrow morning to photograph in San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum. Julian gets to photograph with the toy, and I have a permit allowing me to use a tripod and wander off the paths (provided I’m careful and respectful of the plantings, of course).

Check out this photo larger. It’s one of those images, I think, that really repays looking at a bit more closely.