1 EAGLETON NOTES: California

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Wednesday 25 February 2015

California

A friend mentioned yesterday that on each of the recent posts when I had mentioned a place (Shrewsbury and Christchurch) she had received a postcard (via Postcrossing) which had come from each of those places. So today I thought I'd post some photos of a trip I made to California in 2004.

So far as I can recall it's the only holiday on which I have kept a journal each day of what we did. That's been very useful 11 years later in identifying these photos and also in seeing what I thought of the various places we went.

We rode the footplate of the cable car (tram) from Fisherman's Wharfe (that's not me!).
One of the famous Pacific Coast sunsets (around Cambria or Saint Simeon) 
Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park - 4000' above the valley floor
View from Moro Rock
View from Moro Rock 

Chandelier Tree Drive Thru Park
The Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco - it really is one of the sights everyone should experience
Steve hugging a Giant Redwood Tree
The scale of the waterfalls in the Yosemite National Park cannot be appreciated without actually being there
Yosemite again
How small and insignificant is man!

26 comments:

  1. Isn't it big.......A grand look round.

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  2. Lovely California photos GB and Yosemite National Park. Those GIANT sequoia trees are incredible.
    I'd wanted to visit the US west coast last year but that did not happen....maybe next time.

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    1. Thanks Virginia. We were exceptionally fortunate with the weather (for the most part) and the National Parks were amazing.

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  3. I have some very happy memories of California. Last time I went, it was cold and unseasonably rainy, but still amazing.

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    1. As I mentioned above Jenny we were very fortunate with the weather and it was unseasonably warm although the last day or so in the Napa Valley was prey wet and miserable.

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  4. Those photos are simply amazing. And beautiful.

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  5. Looks like you had a beautiful trip to Cali! I'm happy that you got to experience it.

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  6. Sometimes only one adjective will do. Wow!

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  7. We visited the Chandler Tree and the Redwood Highway again this fall. We had not been there since 1975.

    I think the best way to see San Francisco is from the water in a sailboat or your view way above the city.

    Lovely pictures.

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    1. I can well imagine Peace that seeing San Francisco from the sea would be equally amazing.

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  8. Yes, keeping a journal is well worth while. Nice trip by the way.

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    1. Yes I'm glad I did Red and it was fascinating to read some of the things that I'd forgotten.

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  9. Spectacular pictures, Graham, wonderful! I must have been around 5 years old when I first saw a drawing of one of those trees (are there more than one?) that are large enough to let a car pass through them. It was a drawing in a colouring book I had, and I remember that I was puzzled by it and asked my Mum whether this was real, and she told me this was indeed real in America. Ever since then, I suppose, I had this idea of America as an enormous place of huge dimensions in my mind, where everything is gigantic. Many years later (in 1999), on my first and (so far) only holiday in the US, I found that things were indeed huge there - just to look at the kingsize chocolate bars and other stuff at the supermarkets was enough to convince me my childhood conception of the US was true.

    For my holidays, I always scribble the day's activities in a notebook. Otherwise I would not remember what I did and saw when it comes to putting together blog posts afterwards. Once the blog posts are up, they serve as a good reminder of trips.

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    1. Meike it's true: so much of and so many things in the US are just larger than life as we (I anyway) know it. I wish that I'd kept better records of some of my other holidays although I have records of photos for quite a few of my more obscure holidays.

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  10. Wow, those are some breathtaking photos you dug up from your archives, Graham! ... :)

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    1. PS. It was the other way round with the postcrossing (not that it matters!) i.e. I got to send cards TO both of those towns just after reading about them on your blog. Should I happen to be given an address in San Fransisco this week it get really spooky... After all, it's a big world. (Or is it?)

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    2. Sorry Monica. I'm not quite sure how Postcrossing works. Anyway I hope you now get to send one to California.

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  11. It does look like you had a marvelous trip, GB. I wonder if Monica will now get to send a postcard to California.

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    1. It was a super trip Pauline. You'd have enjoyed it.

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  12. California! What a delight! We were there a year after you and also visited The Sequoia National Park soon after the road to King's Canyon was reopened after the last winter snows. California is like another country - separate from the rest of America and San Francisco is a place I could have lived in so easily. It felt so right.

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    1. Separated in more than one way YP. One of the odd things we discovered was complaints from East-Coasters who objected to many town having their own non-national local cellphone networks.

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  13. Really amazing landscapes. I'm planing a visit to California later this year, so these are quite the appetizer.

    Mersad
    Mersad Donko Photography

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