Ben and I have just returned from two weeks in beautiful California. We traveled from San Diego to San Francisco, stopping along the way to see may sites. We toured San Diego in a few hours seeing only the hi-lites. The on our way to Los Angeles, we visited Wayfarer Chapel designed by Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright. It is a beautiful chapel of wood and glass overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was so serene and worshipful--I could have spent the day there. Then onto Los Angeles where we meet Brian and Rebekah. As usual they kept us hopping. We saw the Getty Museum, which is a beautiful architectural site and houses a wonderful art collection. We quickly toured Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Malibu, Pasadena. We stayed in Santa Monica near the beach. Brian, Rebekah and Ben enjoyed a ride on the roller coaster on the beach. We went into downtown LA and toured the Walt Disney Theater, another magnificent architectural masterpiece. We also spent one afternoon at eh Getty Villa with it's collections from antiquity. It was a whirlwind three days but a great city to visit. On Tuesday, we sent Brian and Rebekah to San Francisco to work and Ben and I started up Bay. On Wednesday, we toured the Hearst Castle and Big Calf. Highway 1. We visited Santa Barbara and spent the night in the small fishing village of MorroSur. Big Sur is beautiful and we stopped at Nepenthe, a restaurant overlooking the ocean for a cappuccino. Then onto Carmel for two wonderful nights. We rested, shopped and toured galleries. It is truly a magical small town. On Friday, we drove to Half Moon Bay for lunch and then to Pacifica where Charlie and Nancy had rented a house for everyone to celebrate Christa's graduation from Stanford University. Claire, Judson, Carrie, Addison Brian and Rebekah were also there. We had a great time of family sharing, eating, watching the US Open, and relaxing. On Friday evening, we went into the city to a graduation party in Christa''s honor at her friend's Peter and Patrick's home. On Sunday, we journey to Stanford to see Christa Marianne Compton receive her PhD in Education. It was a wonderful outdoor ceremony under a grove of trees. We enjoyed meeting all of Christa's friends and seeing the Stanford campus. Sunday night, Ben and I moved into San Francisco to the Donatello, one of our Wyndham exchange properties. We had a beautiful room and it was only two blocks from Union Square the main area of downtown. We turned in our rental can and bought a public transportation pass and boy did we use it. We sent everywhere for the next 5 days by with cable car, bus, boat or BART(Bay Area Rapid Transit). We became accustomed to reading schedules and routes of the different modes and it was really fun. I understand why Brian is such a proponent of public transportation. I forgot to mention that we also did alot of walking!!!! That is a part of life when you live in a city. During the week we visited North Beach, Union Street, Sausalito, Berkeley, and went to the DeYoung Museum(another architectural masterpiece) for a Chihuly Exhibit. It was and exhibit of the most incredible glass sculptures you can imagine. We also attended a famous Berkeley Wing Nite at Ben Ward's house in the Berkeley Hills and a wonderful Italian dinner at Brian and Rebekah's house in Berkeley. This was a trip with many wonderful parts that added to a great vacation week in California.
