ELEPHANT SEALS

Driving southbound along the Big Sur coast we almost missed them. We knew that they were somewhere there in the beaches of Piedras Blanca. But we were not sure exactly where. But when we saw something really big and gray moving on the beach, we understood that was the place. We stopped the car and like kids we rushed to the beach. And when we got there we found that the Elephant Seals are even bigger of what we have ever imagined ...Tina loves elephants, and in few minutes she had definitely developed a pretty good chemistry also with their aquatic version, the elephant seals. Or maybe were were just reckless ...I read that these guys can weigh up to 2.5 tons. I am not really an elephant seal expert, but I think these guys were really heavy. At a certain point I guess we got a little bit too close and they got nervous. One of them run after us. Tried to charge us. It was hilarious. These guys are big, but also pretty fast ...... so we had to seriously run. Fortunately they can speed up for no more than 10 - 15 meters. After that they have to stop. I guess. Or at least they stopped on Sunday. For speed and size they could perfectly fit in a American football field. Ehehehe. They are definitely amazing animals. Even the noise that they make when they try to charge is so peculiar. Sounds like they have a rolling stone in their mouth.Here it is my favorite yellow shirt hero playing with a pup. Not sure who started singing, but definitely the pup won the competition ...... and here some other random pictures from the beach. It was definitely a great experience to see these incredible animals close by ...These are really fantastic animals and this colony is really something amazing. This is the view of the beach. And consider that now most of them already left.They went north. Fishing and swimming and having some fun. Apparently they can dive up to 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the sea level. That to me is absolutely amazing! They will come back next year. But some of them won't make it back. In order to be able to come back they will need to stay away from their predators, sharks and orcas.

CALIFORNIA MISSIONS

US & History are two words that don't really make much sense together. It is like when you try to put together airplane & good food. Or intelligent conversation & party. Or Italy & honest politicians. Or Middle East & Peace. You can try to put them in the same sentence, but still they sound strange together. In a word, together they are a cacophony. So I am always surprised here, especially in the West Coast, when I see something older than 100 years. But even here in the west coast there is something worthwhile a visit. Are the missions. One of them is the Carmel by the sea mission. It is just few miles south of Monterey and we visited it last weekend.And of course the visit reminds you a little bit of the California history. The mission was built back in 1771 when the Spanish kingdom was using the catholic church (or the catholic church was using the Spanish Kingdom!?) to conquer new land. At that time in California there was not much than few missions. This is one of them. Even now there are historical signs everywhere for what was known as El Camino Real. The path that was (and still is) connecting all these missions. But all the Spanish plans blew up when in 1821 Mexico got its independence. In 1846 during the Mexican-American war, California (that was under the Mexican control) tried to get its independence as well. For a while it had also the name California Republic. But eventually California was conquered by the US. Or maybe not. California is not really part of the US ... it is really like an other country ... :D It was a nice visit. And even if honestly I go to mass only on Xmas, it is always nice to visit a church time to time. It makes me feel at home. It is definitely part of my culture and my person. In the annexed small museum there was also a guest book to sign and Tina left her personal "footprint" ...

BIG SUR, California

A single picture. If I would be forced to choose a single picture for this trip, this would be the picture. It definitely captures all my happiness and the beauty of the Big Sur ...Big Sur. I perfectly remember the first time that I read this name. It was December 2001. And I saw some pictures of it. At that time I was living in Israel but I was really tired of it. It was hard, really hard for me to continue to work there. I dreamed about some openings for my company in US. I was excited about it. And of course I spoke about that with my girlfriend, Rosita. She didn't like the idea to move to the US. But she gave me as a gift this travel magazine. That was a special issue about US. And she told me something like "I know you will go there". That wish meant a lot to me. I kept that magazine and I still have it here, in my bookshelf. One of the trips suggested in the magazine was on the West Coast, in the Big Sur. The picture that since then stick in my mind was the waterfall with the water falling on the beach, just few feet from the Ocean. That is the waterfall in the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. To me that was like a dream. And I went there. And I went there again during this trip. And it touched again my heart.It reminded me how lucky I am to see my dreams become reality. But the Big Sur is not only that waterfall. The Big Sur is a wonderful coastline. Somewhere I read that it is the most dramatic and wonderful marriage between land and Ocean. I don't know if it is the best. Definitely I love it.And there are endless photographers who are trying to capture the beauty of this magical place. this guy even choose as license plate for his car "EYE loves SUR" ...

17 MILES DRIVE

If from Monterey you are headed south, like we did, you need to visit the Monterey Peninsula. It is a wonderful place. Unfortunately it is privately owned. It is a very vey very expensive residential area with a golf course. Apparently a worldwide famous golf course. I dind't care much about the golf course, but I definitely enjoyed to look to some of the houses here ...The good news is that you don't need to break into any fence in order to visit it. You just need to pay the $9 fee at the entrance gate. The name of the drive is 17 miles drive. And it is really worthwhile to do it. Again it looks a lot like the Mediterranean coast line. Lots of beaches for any taste. Sandy and rocky.What is very peculiar in this area is the Monterey Cypress, which is a type of cypress endemic here. Very nice. It fits perfectly in the landscape ...Out of all them, this is the most famous. It is called Monterey lone Cypress. It is in a rock out there facing by itself the Pacific Ocean. Knowing a little bit of this country, I wouldn't be surprised if there is an insurance covering it. Definitely every year they spend a lot of money to be sure it won't die.And of course all along the 17 miles drive there are also a lot of tourists. This is not really high season. So it is still bearable. But definitely too many for my personal taste. I took these two funny pictures while I was there. Yes, the average fat ass tourist is totally part of the 17 miles drive wildlife. So we drove along the coast and we left the 17 miles drive, headed south where we found less tourists and even more open views. And not even fees at any gate.

MONTEREY, California

"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses." These are the first lines of Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. And there in the Cannery row in Monterey in California is where our Big Sur trip really started. It is very close to San Francisco. So from there we headed south. The city is really nice. The shoreline reminds a lot of the Mediterranean coast. Lots of rocks and some small sandy beach. Very different from the endless West Coast beaches. And there is a place in Monterey they you can't miss. It is Cannery Row. It is where the canning industry was located till few decades ago. But it is also the American classic by John Steinbeck. I never read it. After this visit I have to red it, though. It was definitely used to be a very poor, working class town. Today everything has been renewed. Where people was used to sweat working with salt and stinky fishes there are touristic shops. This is the bridge between the two parts of the old cannery factory.

The factory is on three layers. Each of them has its own identity now. In the ground floor there are the shops where all the tourists stop. Ice Cream. Pizza. Burgers. Postcards. T-Shirts. And of course there is also Starbucks. There is a staircase that goes up. And not a big surprise very few people take it. We are really lazy, I guess. Anyways, we took and we went up. It was strange. Very few shops. Most of the spots were closed. No tourist around. It was really peaceful. Finally no noise anymore. And from there, an other staircase. Guess what. We took it. And we got to the next level. And there, really there was no shop at all. The space wasn't as big as downstairs. Not even the noise coming from the ground floor. All the stalls were closed. But the most amazing thing wasn't that. The most amazing thing was the smell. That smell of old wood and salt and fish. Like opening an old can of salty sardines. There I closed my eyes and I really felt that I was in the Cannery Row. It was smelling the life of hundreds of people. I could imagine the men and women working and sweating there under that thin metal corrugated roof. I opened my eyes again and I realized that I was in a magical place and that I have to read Cannery Row, now. We left the building and we went to the beach. Back to touristic things, I guess ...

The sky was blue. The weather perfect. The beach and the ocean breeze were smelling wonderfully. But, believe me, that won't be the memory I will have of Monterey. To me the smell almost stinky of that second floor in the Monterey Canning Co. will be the one that I will remember forever.

CALIFORNIA ROUTE 1

An other weekend of wonderful travelling. Tina and I decided to go driving and camping and exploring the California coast between San Francisco and LA. Actually not all the coast. We wanted to drive the Big Sur, the rugged and wonderful coast between Monterey, CA and San Simeon, CA. The road you need to drive has one of magical names that I heard since I can remember. California Route 1. This highway is known with lots of names. PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), Highway 1, Route 1, California Route 1. It is the same that is passing by my place also in Hermosa. Of course the leg that is crossing LA is interesting, but it is not as magical as the Big Sur part. And even if this wasn't my first time there, I needed a little bit of guidance.S so I pulled out from my bookshelf the Lonely Planet of California ...

... we hoped for a sunny weekend, we bought some fruit and bread, we charged the battery of the camera, we filled the tank with gas and we set the alarm clock for Saturday @ 5AM. Of course the alarm clock didn't work (my fault) and we didn't wake up till 7.30AM. Ehehehe. The sun was already high, bright and warm when we started driving. We drove inland all the way North to Monterey, CA. Even if it wasn't the main scope of the trip, that has been a very nice drive, as well. The freeway 5 is crossing the heart of the California that is producing fruits and vegetables for the hungry American nation. In this period the scenery is wonderful. All the trees are blooming. All the landscape is filled with bright colors, red, white, pink, yellow, different colors depending on the trees. Wonderful. I guess I was lucky to set up wrongly the alarm clock, so I saw this wonderful scenery. I stopped also to take a picture. I guess these are almonds, but I am not 100% sure ...

I have lots of pictures and stories. I will update them in the next days. If you can hold on.

GO JILL GO

Sunday it will be marathon time here in LA. It was supposed to be my first marathon ever. But I guess I won't make it. I won't run it. Before the left foot gave up, I tore my ligament in Chile. And now the right foot told me it was time to stop running. I strained the Achilles tendon. Excuses, I guess. But I can't really kill my body for a run. I will have just to recover and wait for an other chance. But I am still happy because one of my best friends ever, Jill, will run it. And I am sure she will do just great. She will finish the 26.2 miles! Go Jill go! I won't be there to support you, but you know that I will think about you!

SILICON VALLEY

My day today started unusually way too early compared to what I am used lately. Alarm clock at 5.00AM, taxi @ 5.30AM, LAX @ 5.45AM. So this is how it looks the sunrise at the LAX airport ...Today I was headed 1 hour north. San Jose, CA airport. It is a kind of magical place, at least for an engineer like me. People who is working there is used to call it "the valley". I guess the rest of the world calls it Silicon Valley. First time for me there, so lots of pictures ...The meeting went pretty well. Very interesting people. Definitely these guys have a vision. I love people like this. People who have a social vision and at the same time the technical skills and the personal commitment to make the vision become a reality. In the case of I am referring more to company like Google, rather than Apple, just to be clear on my preferencies. Anyways going back to the Silicon Valley day. I was excited. The office where the meeting was is in the same Road where Stanford University is. I drove there. It is huge. Really huge. And in the same street there is also a mall ...I had a couple of hours and I drove around. I saw the headquarters of lots of most of the high tech companies. Yahoo, Sun Microsystem, Apple, Oracle, Intel, IBM and all the rest. This is the 101. Straight you go to Cupertino (Apple) and right you go to Mountain View (Google) ...Of course I went right. To visit the company that is allowing me every single day to use Gmail, the search engine, and the blog. All for free. I love them. And I love their vision, their mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" and their motto "don't be evil". So these are some of the pictures of entrances to the Google headquarter ...And with this mission accomplished I left the Silicon Valley ... a pretty blue sky up here ... and a pretty memorable day for me.

Time to go back to LA, this is LA downtown. Pretty smoggy, isn't it!?