Back toward the Pacific Coast and San Francisco
Leaving Lake Tahoe and Emerald Bay behind, it was up over the Donner Pass and down past Sacramento: basically straight for the Bay Bridge and, with luck, camping at the Marin Headlands in the National Seashore.
No luck.Full to the brim. Sorry. Reservations a few months in advance is really the main strategy. Oh well. Gorgeous anyway.
Let's go down to Half Moon Bay State Park, right on the ocean.
Now this is the campground to stay at, with advance reservations naturally. While I'm talking to the Ranger, a big long line of Harleys threads its way along the road and up to the gate behind me. They had reservations, and I'll bet they had fun.
Down the coast some more, tracking along the top of the sandy bluffs and the Cypress trees with their flagging. The prevailing wind comes onshore and the trees' shape points the way inland
We take a site at Butano State Park, which is just a mile or two in from the surf, on the windward side of the coastal hills. It's basically a rainforest, expansive and almost empty. It's like having a National Forest all to yourself.
Lots of bunnies in the bushes
The locals give you a good once-over, then head back to camouflage.
The defining moment, a la Bresson in1932.
Tents among the trees. Yes, but is the tent small and how big are the trees?
Visiting Pescadero and San Gregorio beaches...
The older kids like this one. Select and install various kinds of waterwheels and then vary the water flowrate to see how to maximize the electrical generation.
Are you a vision of someone I know?
Framing for an outdoor room
Nature's Rorschach ink blot test
Now it's up along the coast to SF for a different form of landscape
The Presidio sector right near the forests on up to the Golden Gate Bridge.
then along the harbour breakwater
Two boats wasting no time
The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose
Renewable energy displays are prominent. Lots of hands-on experiments such as letting kids position the ground mirrors to best focus light and heat on the receiving tower. The more energy striking the tower, then higher the neon rings light up. Granddad is lending a hand too.
Different kinds of solar panels
- thin film, single crystal, polycrystalline, and concentrating lenses above special PV cells
An Electric mini-pickup city car
Back to the Bay Area and a visit to Berkeley
An old sluice for the creek in Butano State Park
Now back on the coast, we have some time to browse and enjoy the California ambiance. Berkeley is a haven for many things creative, and it's time to visit where craftsmen and even musicians come to get their supplies...a lumberyard. But not just a Run of the Mill lumberyard. This one has a huge stock of large size boards of exotic woods such as Cocobolo, Cancharana, Kingwood, Rosewood and Gabon Ebony, as well as bookmatched veneers for inlays and cabinetry. Regular lumber such as sustainable harvest Teak is in good supply too.
The veneer cabinets on the second floor
Cocobolo in sizes up to 3"x8" 8 feet long
and not very far away, in Albany (~ aka North Berkeley) an enclave of small shops and artisans.
Crossing over the Bay Bridge coming down from Berkeley means you get to avoid some of "the funnel" that takes 20 odd lanes of highway traffic down to 5 lanes for the bridge. When I lived in the Bay Area ten years ago (five minutes from work on small streets) I'd sometimes hear on the morning traffic report that "the delay up Interstate 880 pouring into the funnel is only 30 minutes today", but with a stalled clunker... Happily, I can see the pilings and rising superstructure of the new bridge taking shape just north of the old one we're on.
The referee at the finish line has an easy call
the cavitation dance floor
The "Tech Tag" is your barcoded entrance ticket. Just swipe it under the cylindrical reader and the museum computer stores the information of that station and any results you got there. You can download it from the Internet for a few weeks after your visit!
This display gives you a relative idea how much energy different things require, as you pedal the machine. Notice how popular it is with the kids.
So now it's time to tour around in the North Beach district so up the terrazzo stairs we go .
Can we hire this artist to improve the look of some local architect's buildings here in Ottawa? We could do landscapes of Gatineau Park and the river...and NOT NOT NOT images of local politicians and their ilk.
Apart from great Sourdough bread, the Boudin bakery specializes in animal and seafood shapes, and Garlic!
A typical display in the City Lights Bookstore up on Columbus at Broadway, complete with alternate reading.
And what a find this is. Nondescript, just sitting up from the breakwater, the beach and the Naval Museum at the end of Van Ness Avenue sits is a small concrete bunker. It's purpose in life is to take a picture every hour of the day and let you look at them through the little window. You can scroll and enlarge. Interactive natural scenery, and the whole think is outside by the bike path!
Already it's the end of our trip, and time to pack and head home (again). The next visit cannot come soon enough (again.) Packing done, it's the airport dance awaiting. At least there is some pretty good mosaic artwork in newer terminals. 98 Gates and counting.
All the best till next time, and if you've got any questions or thoughts, please drop me an email line... gmk@diffractions.com
bzzzzzzt...... End of Transmission.........................
Feel like doing an Elvis impersonation?
Try the earthquake simulator floor and tell the man which of this century's major ones you wanna dance to.
Don't expect to stay standing up if you don't hold onto something!
He's a retired Structural Engineer and loves his "job".
Here's another great one. Kids of all ages can control the underwater robots to do stuff on the seafloor. It's enough to make kids want to become Engineers.
The Eco-diver supervises from her perch on the far wall.
