winding down

Back in LA after our west-coast tour, we are pretty much taking things easy with my friends.
Of course, have collected quite a few wines from some interesting California regions, so must dedicate some time to their demise.

The tour was a road trip to Oregon to stay with K's aunt and uncle and their kids.
The first half was a lightning trip through the national parks of CA, the second half took in all the coast from the level of Eugene down to LA.

It's hard to do justice to those parks with a camera.
K's favourite was probably Death Valley with its austere rock and desert, beautiful ochre colours, and space.
Sunrise and sunsets can be very magical in such places, one morning we waited for about 2 cold hours for the former to photograph the rocks and mountains in the early light.
I am, of course, very partial to pine forests -- probably some childhood affinity.
The huge trees in Sequoia, the vistas of Yosemite, and the pure air of the high grounds in these and various state parks are all very intoxicating for me.

In southern Oregon (around Grant's Pass) Rhonda and Steve took us on two great trips: a beyond-steep four-wheel track up to a fire lookout on a local mountain; and the beautiful and well-known Crater Lake.
The latter was in about 3 inches of snow, Kylie's first experience with such.
[This brings to mind an "animal planet" show about elephants' mating -- very impressive of course (watched in Romania hotel with the kids etc on the trip north) -- which Sarah later inadvertently described as her "first experience with elephants" to the amusement of all.]
That gave a still beauty to all the photos, that made up for the lack of blue sky (like the Blue Lake in Mt Gambier, it needs a little help).
S&R also made us very welcome, whilst the kids Katie and Zeke kept us well entertained.

Leaving there we went on a "Jimgrimage" to Eugene -- 2170 Elk Ave where he used to live.
Still borders the National Forest, but the house is much altered -- the basement was vaguely recognisable, but not even the back slope up the hill was visible anymore.
Still, one does these things.
The road to the coast took us to the sea lion cave -- great cave, but the bastards were out fishing. Saw a couple of flippers about 100m out to sea.

The good coastal scenery becomes more accessible further south, and then all down the CA coast to well below San Francisco is spectacular cliffs, craggs, big rocks and blue swell.
SF was a break in three ways: one day in Napa finding there are indeed some reasonable CA wines that are even "affordable" at least at the current exchange (90c, wow!); one day in SF, cable cars and food, surprisingly enjoyable and not at all oppressively peopled; and two nights at Toni and Paul's place in Palo Alto.
Toni is a friend from when she visited with her Dad (Stanley Deser) when I was at Adelaide Uni.
We had a geat stay in their beautiful house -- the guest room was really a luxury penthouse suite!
Paul is working at google, so -- prepare to be jealous! -- we had an hour or two tour of google to see what goes on there.
[Prepare for a rant if I can work up the energy, but -- at least on the surface -- google is a meritocracy that takes the angle that if its employees are happy then they will stay there and work well, and they very actively implement structures to
Pretty trivial, but I can name certain workplaces where this would seem to be considered heresy.
Anyway, a discussion and comparison of the two approaches could prove quite enlightening at some point.]
Toni also took us to a good winery called Ridge in the hills, and they then took us to a wonderful "eclectic modern Indian" restaurant where the food really was exceptionally good.

So, totally spoiled for camping!
We thought to take two nights to get back to LA but just took the one, and here we are.
This has run on enough... I did the "newsy" bit this time, so left out all the silly stuff like: K falling on her bumb on the iced road at Crater Lake; getting lost on bad roads in Death Valley; bears in Yosemite; pulling down the tent in the morning with temperature of 24F.
I'll spare you all the winery descriptions too...