We just got back from ten days in California, where we took in the sights of San Francisco, Big Sur, Sequoia National Park and Yosemite. We took roughly 500 pictures with Linda's digital camera. Here's just a selection of what we saw. The links will take you to yet more California pictures. Some of the links contain the best views, so go get some popcorn and settle in...

	We flew into San Francisco and headed for Fisherman's Wharf at the northern tip of the San Francisco peninsula. After traveling from the airport to our hotel, we realized just how hilly the city is. We were glad to not have to walk!
	So many people are fascinated with the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't quite understand it. In my mind, it gets you from one side of the bay to the other. Linda photographed it on several different occasions in different kinds of light. I think she's turning into Monet. Or was it Renoir who did all those paintings of cathedrals in different lighting? See the bridge without the fog.
	Linda took this picture in Washington Square. In the background is Coit Tower, a San Francisco landmark. Coit Tower looks like the end of a fire hose because it was built as a tribute to firefighters. I guess they didn't want to build a really big fire hydrant (you know, we noticed a lot of dogs in the city...) See more pictures of flowers in San Francisco.
See a bigger version of this picture.	On our second night in San Francisco, we had dinner with my uncle and his family. Here we are (L to R, my cousin Julie, Uncle Robert, Aunt Sandy, me, cousin-in-law Matt and some unrelated kid who was walking by) near the food on Fisherman's Wharf.   See more pictures of the family.
	Linda and I visited this bookstore, which is a complete throwback to the sixties, full of books by beat authors and poets. Apparently it sometimes is full of beat poets, too, but we asked, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti wasn't in the day we were there. The bookstore is on Jack Kerouac Street.
	On a rock in the middle of San Francisco Bay sits Alcatraz, the former federal penitentiary. We took a boat out there to see it on a Saturday morning. Of course, we had watched Escape from Alcatraz a few weeks before. Sure enough, Clint Eastwood was nowhere to be found on the island. See the inside of Alcatraz.
	Linda had reserved a convertible so we could drive down the coast in true California style. Here she is in Santa Cruz sitting in her dream car. This was a short while after we retrieved the keys from inside the trunk (I did it), courtesy of AAA's local locksmith. There aren't a lot of places in a convertible where it's bad to put the keys. I found one.
	Near Monterey is a place called Pebble Beach, and along Pebble Beach is Seventeen Mile Drive, home to one of the best golf courses in the country. But we cared more about what was on the other side of the road -- incredibly beautiful scenery along Monterey Bay.
	As if Pebble Beach hadn't been enough, we kept driving until we came to Big Sur, an undeveloped region on the coast of California that offers spectacular panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. I've never seen anything like it -- big mountains next to a big ocean. It's one of the reasons we went to California, and it certainly wasn't disappointing! We also saw a great many seals there. Really, you gotta see more of Big Sur. See the seals, too. Really.
	From the southern end of Big Sur we drove east to Sequoia National Park to see the big trees there. Here Linda is standing in front of "Sentinel", one of the monstrously huge Sequoias there. These trees are several thousand years old. They are not the tallest trees on the planet (other types of redwoods claim that distinction), but they are the largest living things on earth. See more of Sequoia National Park.
	From Sequoia we drove north to Yosemite National Park, where we saw some of the most stunning sights yet. In Yosemite there are actually large unnamed waterfalls. Apparently there are so many falls that only the most prominent were named. This is Bridalveil Falls. There are places in the Yosemite Valley where you can stand in one place, take a picture of a large waterfall, and then just turn around and see another behind you across the valley. See more of Yosemite National Park.
	After Yosemite, we headed back toward San Francisco and drove just north of the city that afternoon to an area called Point Reyes. The point, seen here shrouded in fog, has a lighthouse and some great views of the Pacific. It's also a favorite place for whale watching. See more of Point Reyes (including a whale!)
	Back in San Francisco the day before we left, we went back to Golden Gate Park and discovered this guy in the Japanese Tea Garden there.