California, 2009

Blue Bottle

Linda and I had a fabulous time in California this year.
We had three very nice days with Dave. We did a wine tasting at Testarossa, photographed at Fort Point, toured the California Academy of Science, drank expresso at Blue Bottle Coffee, and even went to a 4th of July picnic at the home of his friends Kostados and Natasha. He took us to a Japanese Yakatori restaurant in Los Altos, and fabulous sandwich shop, back to a familiar Thai place in Mountain View, and to a very interesting Mediterranean place.

We also spend three wonderful days on the Monterey Peninsula. After roaming around Santa Cruz, we drove into Monterey where we watched (and heard - they are really noisy0 sea lions at the Monterey Fish Pier. After lunch, we walked around Cannery Row for a while, then visited the Point Pinos Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse on the west cost, and then concluded the day at the Presidio Chapel. That evening, we had dinner at Phil's Seafood, a famous eatery in Moss Landing that Bobby Flay challenged to a 'throwdown' and then lost when the judges determined that Phil's cioppino was better than Bobby's. I have never tried Bobby's, but I can attest that Phil's is pretty good! We started Tuesday photographing at Point Lobos State Reserve, then moved on to downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea. We visited a number of galleries, then drove out to Carmel Valley for a tasting at Heller Winery, and then finished the day photographing the Carmel Mission. On Wednesday, we started the day at Colton Hall in Monterey, then proceded to the John Steinbeck Museum in Salinas. We detoured through Carmel to see the Ansel Adams portraiture show at the Center for Photographic Art before heading back to San Jose.

The only downer was that I came back with a cold. Linda says it was the chill at Fort Point. I think a better explanation was the crazy air conditioning at the Holiday Inn Express in San Jose. Regardless of the actual cause, it was miserable!

Here's a picture that Linda took of me setting up a photograph at China Cove at Point Lobos.